The Henson Journals

[115]

Wednesday, July 1st, 1925.

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An urgent letter from my wife bidding me come back for the Railway Function as we were summoned to travel by the Royal Train!! The sweet lady has lost her fair head at the mention of Royalty. I wrote to Lord Durham saying that I should be absent, & giving him the reason. Chelmsford is in the College, so I asked him what he thought was my duty, and he was quite clear that I ought to stay up, and vote. Then I sent a telegram to Ella.

Chelmsford and I walked round Magdalen Walk, & had much talk. He spoke highly of Hickson, who impressed him as sincere & spiritual; & said that the young men of his entourage were greatly taken with him. What is to be made of this?

I lunched with Frank and Katherine. The latter has got her hair "shingled", and professes to be vastly pleased with it. But I still hold with S. Paul that "if a woman have long hair it is a glory to her"! We talked of affairs in the Church, but I take the impression that nobody cares two pins about ecclesiastical affairs, nobody outside the organized functions which, though irresistible in the [ Church, are but a petty force in the State. I called at Blackwell's, & asked them to try & get Van Mildert's publications for me. Then I returned to College, and had tea by myself.

[116]

To my amazement (Arthur Hardinge) A. H. appeared at dinner with a guest. Two days ago his son, a Cambridge undergraduate of 21, was found dead beside his motor–cycle! Was it a proud Stoical fortitude, or an unfeeling indifference that led him thus to present himself in public at such a time? (I wrote to him when I read of the calamity in the Times, but I do not think he could have received my letter). It is a strangely unfeeling world, & he (Hardinge) has not seen the best side of it. But I could not avoid a certain sense of repugnance at seeing him able to come abroad with such a grief on him. Perhaps, indeed, we childless men idealize fatherhood, & credit fathers with a depth of affection for their sons, which they do not feel, & which we, if we had sons, could not feel. I had some talk with Sumner, who is the great–grandson of the Bishop of Winchester. He is a distinguished–looking man, & of an agreeable address. Peers, one of the junior fellows, is engaged on a thesis "On Roman agrarian policy", a slim youth with a mane of light–brown hair falling over his face. After dinner we played bowls in the quadrangle. Everything was most restful, and delusive!

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