The Henson Journals

[73]

Monday, August 2nd, 1926

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At breakfast I induced the Dean to repeat his story in order that I might get it more accurately. The negro had had so remarkable a career of crime that it was thought probable that his skill would be scientifically interesting. The governour of the prison at Warwick, being a friend of Sir Richard Owen & well acquainted with his scientific eminence, offered to procure the head for him, pledging him to maintain secrecy as the project was certainly not regular. When the head, which was wrapped in paper, slipped out & rolled down the incline into a labourer's cottage where a woman was engaged in washing clothes, Sir Richard wrapped his cloak over his head, & in this apparently headless state rushed into the cottage clamouring for his head, & had recovered it & vanished before the astounded woman could collect herself. The poor woman's story would naturally be dismissed as a hallucination, & yet it was based on an actual occurrence. Scepticks may usefully draw the inference that credulity is sometimes a safer guide to the truth than criticism.

We left Hereford about noon, parting from our kind hosts with affirmations of gratitude which were both ardent & sincere. We motored to Ledbury & lunched with Canon & Mrs Bannister in a delectable panelled room in the Hospital. It was panelled in the year of the Armada, & has not been touched since. We stayed to tea, & then motored to Hartlebury Castle, & were received by Ernest & his sister. We arrived about 6 p.m.

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