The Henson Journals
Sat 3 November 1923
Volume 36, Pages 41 to 42
[41]
Saturday, November 3rd, 1923.
[symbol]
This place is the Devil or at least his principal residence. They call it the University, but any other appellation would have suited it much better, for Study is the last pursuit of the Society: the Master eats, drinks, & sleeps, the Fellows Drink, dispute and pun: the employment of the Undergraduates you will probably conjecture without my description. I sit down to write with a Head confused with Dissipation which, tho' I hate, I cannot avoid.
Ld Byron to John Hanson, No: 28th 1805 from Trinity College, Cambridge.
This description of Cambridge may serve as a companion to the picture of Oxford which Gibbon gives in his Autobiography. Both these brilliant youths would sacrifice truth to a phrase without scruple, and both received their impression of their university when they were hardly more than boys. Yet there is no reason for doubting the substantial justice of the description in both cases.
I travelled to King's Cross by the afternoon express, which left Darlington at 1.32 p.m., and arrived punctually at 6.15 p.m. On the way I read through an excellent English version of Anatole France's "The Garden of Epicurus", which I bought for half a crown at the Darlington Station book stall. After leaving my bags in Park Lane, I went on to the Athenaeum.
[42] [symbol]
In the Club I fell in with Humphrey Ward, & Sir Sydney Lee. The latter is now busily engaged on his "Life" of King Edward VII, which he hopes to publish next year. While in the Club I received a telephone message from Percival saying that the service at the Palace tomorrow was to be at 9.50 a.m., to enable His Majesty to look after the King of Sweden!
John Murray sate at the next table at dinner, & we had much conversation. He offered to let me see the Byron MSS., and I gladly assented. He said that he could not consent to publish on the competitive system, which had now become common in the case of books by eminent statesmen or about them. Publishers were invited to offer large sums for the publishing rights, & the largest offer was accepted. He regarded this method as inconsistent with honourable business. I asked him what course he desired to take with respect to Prayer Book Revision. He expressed himself as opposed to any change, & very hostile to the Anglo–Catholics.
The Duke of Northumberland is reported to have made a violent attack on the league of Nations at a meeting presided over by Leo Maxse, a professional fire–eater, & addressed by his brother, Sir Ivor Maxse, a crazy militarist!