The Henson Journals

[1]

Thursday, August 16th, 1928.

The Vicarage, Wooler, Northumberland.

A clouded sky and much cooler temperature. On the whole I suspect we have had our summer.

We motored to Eslington Park and lunched with the Ravensworths who have definitely deserted the County of Durham, & settled on their Northumberland property, which came to them by purchase from the Crown, after the former owner Collingwood, had been beheaded for treason in 1715.

Liddell built the house in 1717. It appears to be a comfortable, though certainly not a magnificent or even an impressive specimen of early 18th century domestic architecture.

How strong is the hold of a public school on its 'old boys'! and of all public schools, how strong is the hold of 'Winchester'! Ravensworth is a Wykehamist, & his study is copiously adorned with water–colour paintings of Winchester. He spoke of Lord Grey of Fallodon with greatest respect, for though as a Liberal he was odious, yet as a Wykehamist he was above criticism! Only the man who does not possess it can realize the practical advantage of having the tie with a public school. Next to good family and ample means I incline to place a public school education as a personal asset in English public life.

[2]

"The postal service & the conveyance of passengers and goods are matters connected with the making of roads, but these important service the state was never able to performed for the mass of subjects. A service was organized for officials and official correspondence, & for the conveyance of government stores, but this was maintained with difficulty & by means of requisitions burdensome to the people. The private individual had to arrange these matters for himself."

Rostovtzeff. 'History of the Ancient World'. vol. ii. Rome. P263.

This implies a considerable deduction from the exaggerated eulogy of the Roman Empire under the Antonines which Gibbon makes. But on p. 286. the Prussian scholar states that 'ships consigned passengers & goods' from end to end of the Mediterranean as also on the Black Sea, the great rivers of Western Europe & the Nile', and that 'it was easy to travel along the high roads'. And p. 291 he compares the situation of the citizen of the Roman Empire very favourable with that of Europeans, 'except during the XIXth and XXth centuries in Europe & America'. It is hard to appraise such comparisons.

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