ENGLAND REVISITED -1885 401 



November 20. 



To Bearwood, the seat of John Walter, M.P., proprie 

 tor of the &quot; Times,&quot; and for the first time in my life saw 

 a fox hunt, with the meet, the huntsmen in red coats, 

 and all the rest of it. 



November 21. 



Visited the old Abbey Church at Beading with Sir 

 Paul, and in the evening met various interesting people at 

 dinner, among them Sir John Mowbray, M.P. for Oxford, 

 and Mr. Walter. 



Sunday, November 22. 



After morning service in the beautiful parish church, 

 which, with its schools, was the gift of Mr. Benyon, sev 

 eral of us took a walk to Silchester, with its ruins of an 

 old Roman bath, on the Duke of Wellington s estate. 

 In the evening Mr. Walter, who usually appears so reti 

 cent and quiet, opened himself to me quite freely, speak 

 ing very earnestly regarding the unfortunate turn which; 

 the question between Catholics and Protestants has taken 

 in England under pressure from the Vatican, especially 

 as regards marriages, and illustrating his view by some 

 most suggestive newspaper cuttings. He also gave me 

 what he claimed was the true story of Earl Russell s con 

 duct in letting out the Confederate cruisers against us 

 during the Civil War, attributing it to the fact that an 

 underling charged with preventing it went suddenly mad, 

 so that the matter did not receive early attention. But 

 this did not modify my opinion of Earl Russell. Thank 

 Heaven, he lived until he saw Great Britain made to pay 

 heavily for his obstinacy. Pity that he did not live to 

 see the present restoration of good feeling between the two 

 countries; esto perpetua (1905). 



Monday, November 23. 

 In the afternoon drove to &quot;Bramshill,&quot; the magnificent; 



seat of Sir William Cope ; after all, there has never been 



n. 26 



