The Henson Journals

[335]

Monday, June 7th, 1926.

I paid a number of accounts that had accumulated during my absence: dictated some letters to Lionel: had an interview with Dr McCullagh: and read von Ranke's History of the Popes. The aspect of the mining dispute is more than ever unpromising. It may be that the miners' leaders are "whistling to keep up their courage, but it has an ill look. The stoppage has already lasted more than five weeks, & every day more industries are put out of action by it.

After lunch I was dressed, & carried into the garden, where I had tea. Moulsdale & Ellershaw joined us. The weather is hot, almost sultry. After returning to bed I wrote to William. He will begin to suspect that I have given him up, for two fortnightly letters have been omitted through my illness.

The Provost & Fellows of Oriel send me an invitation to the six hundredth anniversary of the founding of that famous College by Edward ii "of famous memory". There are many kinds of fame, & the second Edward's was not the most desirable. Apart from his failures, follies, & desperate fate he holds no place in English History. But collegiate piety confers on the luckless monarch a kind of canonization.

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