The Henson Journals

[65]

Monday, November 19th, 1923.

I left Carlisle by the 10.2 a.m. train, and was met at Newcastle by William with the car. I got home in time for lunch. In the afternoon I wrote many letters, including one to Harry W. Walgrave and one to Albert Saxton. These two young men have re–appeared on the scene of my life. The first dropped out when I married, and the presence of a lady in my house made him shy of calling there. The last fell out of touch with me after he had taken his degree at Oxford. I wrote him a sharp letter on his comparative failure in the schools, which I thought was attributable to his lack of effort. Both now recall themselves to my memory, and that in terms of unlessened affection. "The thoughts of a boy are long, long thoughts", and there are no loyalties so tenacious, or resentments so implacable as those of the young. This fact adds solemnity to the intimacies which grow up between men and youths. My Godson Gilbert Simpson writes me an affectionate letter, in which he tells me that he and his wife are expecting "an addition to their family". He expresses himself with good sense and good feeling on a subject which is too commonly discussed with neither. Alfred Spelling, another Godson, writes to me with unslackened devotion, though he is now on the verge of middle age, and has not been without his troubles. On the whole, the love of these "old boys" is the most comforting bequest of the past to the present.