The Henson Journals

[208]

Wednesday, July 12th, 1922.

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Lord Hugh Cecil and George Trevelyan had a 'set to' last night at the Club, which was not uninteresting since it disclosed their respective characters rather vividly. The former is the more brilliant; the latter the more reasonable. Cecil has the temper of a medieval schoolman; Trevelyan that of a modern historian. The ruthless temper of the fanatick gleams through the subtleties of the one; the balancing habit of the student clashes the dogmatics of the other. Both have the ardour & vehemence of undergraduates.

I attended the Church Property Committee or, as we now call it, Commission. We spent much time in discussing the relation of the Commission to the National Assembly. After lunching at the Athenaeum, I returned to Auckland by the 5.30 p.m. express. It only stopped at Doncaster, and arrived at Darlington at 10.5 p.m., doing the whole distance in 4 hours 35 minutes. The weather in London was brilliant, but as we travelled northwards, the sky was overcast with clouds, and when I reached Durham, the rain was falling.

The morning papers announce the death of George Prothero. He was a good friend of mine, though my knowledge of him was comparatively slight. I judge him to have been a man of firmer character & more solid achievements than his brother, Lord Ernle. He did much useful work during the War, and probably put a strain on himself, the full extent of which he hardly realized at the time.

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