The Henson Journals

[88]

Tuesday, August 2nd, 1921.

There were some considerable showers in the course of the forenoon. I called at the Bank & had some talk with Lomax, the Manager. After an early lunch we journeyed to Minehead, changing trains at Taunton, where we had to wait an hour. We left Hereford at 12.50 p.m. and reached Minehead a few minutes before 7 p.m. The 1st class fare was 37/7 1/2. Arthur met us on the platform, and Arthur Rawle also was in the train. The weather had cleared during the afternoon, so that our first impressions of Minehead were pleasant. It has the too familiar look of a seaside resort! It is ten years since my brother and I have met, and what years! For fear & worry, wear & tear to mind & body, surely unparalleled in history. He has the too familiar aspect of the returned Anglo–Indian: & the melancholy manner of the active man who has "gone on the shelf". His health is evidently not very good, & his temper probably acts as a very trustworthy index of health. We had some talk together, or, to say truth, I listened to him while he denounced the Government in general, and the Prime Minister in particular for their outrageous mistakes in India, Egypt, Ireland etc. This, of course, is in the true manner of your nabob, whose sensitiveness about his Oriental investments becomes even greater as his personal oversight is necessarily withdrawn from them. He became more interesting when he showed, & discussed the numerous objects of Indian Art which he has brought home with him – carved elephants, Buddhas, divers gods, picture &c &c. Some of his own sketches struck me as rather exceptionally good for one who had never been taught painting in the regular fashion.