The Henson Journals

[174]

Thursday, February 21st, 1924.

We may, upon the evidence before us, take it for certain that Byron only admired two of his contemporaries – Sir Walter Scott and Shelley. He liked Hobhouse, & they had travelled together without a serious quarrel, which is a proof of friendship; but he felt that Hobhouse undervalued him, and, as Byron had a good deal of the spoiled child about him, he resented the friendly admonitions which, it seems, Hobhouse unsparingly administered whenever they were together. Tom Moore was a "croney" – a man to laugh & sit through the night with – but there was nothing, either in his genius or his conduct, which Byron could fall down & worship, as he seemed capable of doing in the case of Shelley and Scott.

Edgcumbe "Byron, the last Phase" p. 35

I motored to South Shields via Sunderland, as the direct road was reported bad. After having tea with Pryke at St Aidan's Vicarage, I attended a meeting in aid of the League of Nations Union held in a Wesleyan chapel & presided over by the Mayor. The audience was mostly old or middle–aged, and evidently gathered from the congregations of the churches & chapels. I spoke for 45 minutes.

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