The Henson Journals

[140]

Monday, February 6th, 1922.

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A hard frost & most bitterly cold. The Principal arrived in a car at 9 a.m., and carried me of to see the College. The Rector went with us. We first visited the Grammar School, a well–housed & well–endowed institution in which some 300 boys are educated. It possesses very extensive grounds & gardens. Then we proceeded to the Athletic ground, which includes 30 acres, and is equipped by the labour of the students themselves. We went through the college buildings which, though hastily improvised to accommodate so vast a body of students, and to teach so many kinds of industry, are astonishingly well organized and provided. I was particularly interested in the method of X–raying metal with radium so as to discover any flaws. When the Principal and I had finished our round of inspection, & were preparing to take our leave, I became conscious that some joke was being prepared. Two students met me, and addressed me gravely: "My Lord, I regret to inform you that you are under arrest." I could but surrender myself to my fate. They gave me one of the student's tickets on which my name had been written, & made me get it duly punched at a slot–machine in the usual manner. Then we went to the entrance, where the car had awaited me with my bags. But the car had vanished, and my bags had been hoisted on to a lorry, whereon I was placed with the Principal and the Rector. The students dragged the lorry to the station. At one point on the way there was a halt, and a student read & presented a comic address, half in Latin & half in English. I made a brief reply, & then we went on to the station, where I was carried to the platform on the shoulders of the students. A horde of students, numbering more than a thousand as I judge, invaded the platforms, & in the end I got away amid much enthusiasm with no more serious loss than that of my rug. At Leicester I changed, & got into a carriage where was a lady, who introduced herself to me as the Duchess of Devonshire. We had a pleasant conversation on the way to S. Pancras. There I made my way to the Athenaeum, where I wrote my letters, including one to William, from whom I had received a request for £9. to purchase a lathe.

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