The Henson Journals

[57]

Wednesday, June 4th, 1930.

A glorious morning. Our guests went away after breakfast: & I wrote decisively to Mrs Hodgson. It is a hateful performance, but I cannot doubt a duty. Alas, I wrote to Mr Sargeant, the father of the amazing aspirant to Ordination, who wrote to me so insolently that I straightway cancelled my conditional acceptance of him as a candidate. I shortly refused to alter my decision.

I walked round the Park, & as I returned, picked up two respectable shop–assistants in a chemist and a blacksmith to whom I showed the garden, and, at their request, the Chapel. They said that I had myself confirmed them both.

I am reading again Merejkowski's book "The Forerunner, the Romance of Leonardo da Vinci". Rawlinson tells me that some of the Oxford tutors recommend it to their pupils as an introduction to the study of the Renaissance. It is not a new book, having been first published in 1902, but it has been several times reprinted. The trouble with these historical romances is to disentangle the truth from fiction. Can one trust even the alleged quotations?

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