ROBERT HUGH BENSON
IN 1912. AGED 41
He did not lose control of himself, nor was he carried helplessly down the stream. He was rather engaged in a conflict which was not a losing one. He had often thought of death, and even thought that he feared it; but now that it was upon him he would taste it fully, he would see what it was like. The day before, when he thought that he might live, there was a pre-occupation over him, as though he were revolving the things he desired to do; but when death came upon him unmistakably there was no touch of self-pity or impressiveness. He had just to die, and he devoted his swift energies to it, as he had done to living. I never saw him so splendid and noble as he was at that last awful moment. Life did not ebb away, but he seemed to fling it from him, so that it was not as the death of a weary man sinking to rest, but like the eager transit of a soldier to another part of the field.
"Could it have been avoided?" I said to the kind and gentle doctor who saw Hugh through the last days of his life, and loved him very tenderly and faithfully. "Well, in one sense, 'yes,'" he replied. "If he had worked less, rested more, taken things more easily, he might have lived longer. He had a great vitality; but most people die of being themselves; and we must all live as we are made to live. It was Monsignor's way to put the work of a month into a week; he could not do otherwise—I cannot think of Monsignor as sitting with folded hands."
INDEX
Barnes, Monsignor, [154]
Bashkirtseff, Marie, quoted, [249]
Bec, Bishop Anthony, [18]
Belloc, Mr., [183]
Benson, Archbishop (father), [15-17], [20], [46-47], [56], [63], [82], [86], [91], [116];
characteristics, [34-39];
letters quoted, [53-55], [71-74];
ordains his son, [87];
death, [97]
—— Mrs. (mother), [19], [28], [74-80], [108], [120], [128], [146], [149-150], [182], [209];
quoted, [31-32], [118-119], [227];
visit to Egypt, [98]
—— Fred (brother), [16], [26-27], [34], [68], [80], [184], [209]
—— Maggie (sister), [16], [28], [40], [98], [120], [126], [184], [196], [217]
—— Martin (brother), [16], [57];
death, [35]
—— Nelly (sister), [16], [27], [40];
death, [79-80]
Beth (nurse), [20-24], [39], [106];
letter quoted, [23]
Bradley, Dr., [200], [201];
quoted, [260-261]
By What Authority, [114]
Carlyle, Thomas, quoted, [147]
Carter, Archbishop William, [91]
Confessions of a Convert, The, [47], [114], [130], [140]
Conventionalists, The, [186]
Cornish, Mr., [42]
Coward, The, [181]
Decemviri Club, [156]
Donaldson, Archbishop St. Clair, [91], [95]
Edward VII; King, [114]
Elizabeth, Queen, [179]
Eton, influence of, [48-51]
—— Mission, 89 seq., [99], [134-136], [236], [238]
George V, H. M. King, [98]
Gladstone, W. E., [98]
—— Mrs., [98]
Gore, Bishop, [103], [108-109], [130]
Gorman, Father, [194]
Halifax, Lord, [128]
Hare Street, 168 seq., [189], [193], [210], [227];
village, [12]
Hill of Trouble, The, [177]
Hogg, Sir James McGarel (afterwards Lord Magheramorne), [32]
Hormead Mission, [168]
Hornby, Provost, [149]
House of the Resurrection. See under Mirfield Community
Job, quoted, [49]
John Inglesant, [75], [85]
Johnson, Dr., quoted, [150], [175]
Jowett, B., [150]
Kenmare, Lord, [172]
Leith, Dr., [67]
Light Invisible, The, [106], [177], [187], [240]
Lindsay, Ken, [168-169]
Lyttelton, Edward, [44]
Maclagan, Archbishop, [103]
Marshall (family), [190]
Martin, Sir George, [58]
Mason, Canon Arthur, [34], [80], [88]
Maturin, Father, [96], [100]
Meynell, Mr., [245]
Mirfield Community, [103-104], [130], [137], [227], [239]
Morris, William, [250]
Murray, Prof., [199]
Norway, King of, [98]
Parsons, Rev. Mr., [16]
Peel, Sidney, [50]
Penny, Mr., [19]
Persia, Shah of, [55]
Pippet, Gabriel, [13], [168]
Pitt Club, [156]
Potter, Norman, [171]
Reeman, Joseph, [14], [193]
Reeve, Rev. John, [34], [128]
Richard Raynal, Solitary, [178], [181], [185], [187]
Ritual, [60-63]
Roddy, collie, [126-128], [217]
St. Hugh, [17]
—— Monastery of, [129]
Salford Cathedral, [209]
Scott, Canon, [161]
Selborne, Lord, quoted, [54]
Sessions, Dr., [168]
Sharrock, Canon, [173], [196], [199], [205], [207]
Sidgwick, Arthur, [20]
—— Henry (uncle), [20], [71], [73], [223]
—— Mrs. (grandmother), [20]
—— Nora (Mrs. Henry Sidgwick) (aunt), [73], [121]
—— William (uncle), [20]
Skarratt, Rev. Mr., [101]
Spiers, Mr., [54-55]
Stanmore, Lord, [95]
Stevenson, R. L., [121]
Streets and Lanes of the City, [79]
Tait, Miss Lucy, [120]
Temple, Archbishop, [103]
Tennyson's "Mort d'Arthur," [179]
Todd, Dr., Ross, [193]
Tyrell, Father, [144]
Vaughn, Dean, [81-84]
Vaughn, Mrs., [83-85]
Victoria, Queen, [114], [153]
Wales, Prince and Princess of, [54]
Walpole, Bishop G. H. S., [34]
Warre, Dr., [46]
Watson, Bishop, [154]
Watt, Father, [168]
Wellington College, [15], [19], [20]
Westcott, Bishop, [86]
Westminster, Cardinal Archbishop of, [209]
Whitaker, Canon G. H., [34]
Wilkinson, Bishop, [48], [128], [150]
Woodchester Dominican Convent, [146]
Wordsworth, Bishop John, [128]
Wren, Mr., [52]