But though I am of the public not the stockholders, some of the fares seem to me almost preposterously low—for example, all the way from Earl's Court to Waterloo for 4d, or from Blackfriars to Oxford Circus for 2d, Taxi fares respectively would be at least 3s. 6d and half-a-crown. Considering its splendid service the LP.T.B. might justly charge a little more. Without more revenue it complains that it cannot carry its lines further afield, Here, however, is the reason for pause. The Board's suburban service tends to grow beyond actual demand, creating one among pleasant woods and fields for their destruction, and bringing in that abomination the speculative builder, If that is all the reason th L.P.T.B. can show for raising its fares, let them stay as they are.
There must be treasures cottered about England almost as great as those of the Record Office. In that charming -book "Memoirs in Miniature," Dr. G. C. Williamson, the late famous antiquary, believes that if all the documents stored in our old country houses could be properly reviewed, the history of England might have to be re-written. Dr. Williamson once saw Queen Victoria drinking her tea out of her saucer when she was in a hurry. "A man" who had such an awesome experience as that deserves to be heard with respect.
The retirement in the New Year of Dr. Henstey Benson, Bishop of Dur-hàm, will remove into the twilight perhaps the most vivid personality in the episcopate. He began by being'a Fellow of All Souls in 1884 and by the end of the century was a Canon of Westminster and rector of St. Margaret's. It was there that I first. remember him, when the original caustic flavour of his sermons made him talked about even in the London of those days which knew such great orators as Archdeacon Wilberforce, Canon Scott Holland, Bishop Boyd Carpenter, Father Vaughan and Dr. Parker. It is curious, by the way, how almost completely oratory has gone out of fashion.
Through the Deanery of Durham and Bishopric of Hereford Dr. Hens-ley Benson eventually came back to Durham as Bishop in 1920. Alway:
r, his keen mind and incisive made him formidable antagon; In polities he has alw: taken an independent line, at one time in sharp controversy with the Socialists, at another siding with them to attack the Government's foreign policy and the Anglo-Italian agreement.
His views always showed a strong vein of common sense as when, of some measure before the House of Lords, he said that he would be no party to creating new sins by Act of Parliament, He is, perhaps, the best writer of pure vigorous English among all public men alive.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.