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29 March 1900 — 3 Savile Row | |
Thursday. 29th [March 1900]. I had coughed so much & my cold was so much worse that I sent for Dr Burton. He prescribed linseed poultice & told me to beware of bronchitis, so I remained in one room & had my meals in the drawing room– Mrs Ball lunched with me & remained some time chatting. I had a visit from a Mrs Orridge who had been very kind & written sympathetic letters to me in my sad hours. I had never seen her before. It turns out she had a fruit shop in Oxford Street & had served us when we lived in Q. Anne Street & so had taken an interest in us. She was very pleased to come & see me & we had a little talk. It was pleasant to find mutual good will. She told me some of her past troubles & gave me photographs of her dead daughter. These are things that make the whole world kin. At 4.30 I had a deputation from the British & Foreign Mission to Seaman– The Chairman, Mr Mason, Treasurer Mr Joseph Dinsdale, the Sec, Mr Matthews, a Mr Scrutton & Mr Gritton. It was rather solemn; they insisted on sitting round me in a circle & then Mr Gritton formally addressed me on the state of things which existed at the Sailor’s Institute at Venice. The old gentleman was evidently of the lowest depth of evangelism & would have the institute made solely a preaching & praying concern. Happily the others were longer minded & after much discussion & solemn talk it was decided that Hansen, the man the local Committee had dismissed & who had been since subsidized by the B&F should be removed from Venice. As the B&F objected to Newman, the man we had named to succeed him I said I would suggest to our Committee to try & find someone who would please the B&F better. Sir Joseph Dinsdale, who is evidently a man of the world & more liberal in his views helped & supported me & said if the B&F continued to support Hansen in opposition to us at Venice he would retire entirely from the Society. When we had well thrashed out the matter, I gave the deputation tea & they relaxed their official manners & were pleasant & friendly. Sir Joseph made me a formal little speech thanking me for the interest I was taking & for giving the B&F the opportunity of discussing the matter in a friendly way & when the others had left he remained & told me the whole affair had been monstrous & apologized for Mr Matthews vulgar & impossible manner of treating it. I on the other hand thanked him for his kind help. I then sat down & wrote to the Bishop of Gibraltar & told him what had happened. I sent for Miss Oswell to dine with me in the drawing room & afterwards she typed out my letter to the Bishop & those to Madeira. Monty came up to see how I was before I went to bed. | |
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