The Diaries of Sir Ernest Satow, 1912-1920 - Volume One (1912-1916)

By Ian Ruxton

The distinguished diplomat Sir Ernest Satow's retirement began in 1906 and continued until his death in 1929. From 1907 he settled in the small town of Ottery St. Mary in rural Devon. He was very active, serving as a British delegate at the Second Hague Peace Conference in 1907 and on various committees related to church, missionary and other more local affairs: he was a magistrate and chairman of the Urban District Council. He had a very wide social circle of family, friends and former colleagues, with frequent distinguished visitors.
He produced two seminal books: 'A Guide to Diplomatic Practice' (1917, now in its seventh revised edition and referred to as 'Satow') and 'A Diplomat in Japan' (1921). The latter is highly evaluated as a rare foreigner's view of the years leading to the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
These two volumes are part of a series of Satow's diaries and letters edited by Ian Ruxton. Maps and photographs are in both volumes. The index is in Volume Two. This is the first-ever publication.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9781387969746

Book preview

The Diaries of Sir Ernest Satow, 1912-1920 - Volume One (1912-1916)

The Diaries of Sir Ernest Satow, 1912-1920, Volume One (1912-1916)

Edited by Ian Ruxton

The Diaries of Sir Ernest Satow,

1912-1920

Volume One (1912-1916)

Edited by Ian Ruxton

All rights reserved. Copyright Ian Ruxton, 2018.

Crown copyright material in the Satow Papers (PRO 30/33) deposited in the National Archives of the U.K. is reproduced by permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (H.M.S.O.). Copyright material from the letters and diaries of Sir Ernest Satow is reproduced by permission of the National Archives (U.K.) on behalf of the Controller of H.M.S.O. 

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Sir Ernest Satow’s home in retirement, 1907-1929

Satow in his library at Beaumont House (October 4, 1924)

Three important residents of Ottery St. Mary and their houses: Sir Ernest Satow, Lord Coleridge and Sir John Kennaway. Post card c. 1908

Map of Devon showing the main towns, with Ottery St. Mary marked with an X between the county town of the City of Exeter and Honiton

Ottery St. Mary Ordnance Survey map 70/13 (25 inches: 1 mile, Second Edition 1905) Reproduced with Permission of the Devon Archives. Beaumont House is marked in the top right corner.

Table of Contents

The Diaries of Sir Ernest Satow, 1912-1920 Volume One (1912-1916)

Preface

Foreword (by T.G. Otte)

Bibliography

Family Tree

1912

January 1912

February 1912

March 1912

April 1912

May 1912

June 1912

July 1912

August 1912

September 1912

October 1912

November 1912

December 1912

1913

January 1913

February 1913

March 1913

April 1913

May 1913

June 1913

July 1913

August 1913

September 1913

October 1913

November 1913

December 1913

1914

January 1914

February 1914

March 1914

April 1914

May 1914

June 1914

July 1914

August 1914

September 1914

October 1914

November 1914

December 1914

1915

January 1915

February 1915

March 1915

April 1915

May 1915

June 1915

July 1915

August 1915

September 1915

October 1915

November 1915

December 1915

1916

January 1916

February 1916

March 1916

April 1916

May 1916

June 1916

July 1916

August 1916

September 1916

October 1916

November 1916

December 1916

Preface

The project of making the important and valuable diaries and letters of Sir Ernest Satow, P.C., G.C.M.G. deposited by the terms of his will after his death in the then Public Record Office (now the National Archives of the U.K.) more easily available in book and digital book form to scholars, students and the general reading public began with my The Diaries and Letters of Sir Ernest Mason Satow (1843-1929): A Scholar-Diplomat in East Asia (Edwin Mellen Press, 1998). It has since become a time-consuming, but most absorbing and rewarding life work.

This book (1912-1920) is the penultimate section. Throughout this period Satow was resident in the small town of Ottery St. Mary in Devon. He began to reside at Beaumont House in 1907, and died there in 1929. The diaries continue until 31 December 1926, which is the last known entry, at least it is the last one deposited in the National Archives. In due course I intend to publish the final part, 1921-1926.

By publishing these diaries I am attempting to deepen and enhance our knowledge of what it was like to live in rural England about 100 years ago, and during World War One specifically. This is a major missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle of Satow's interesting and important life, which is mainly associated with his diplomatic career in Japan and China. This book should interest Asian and British readers, including local historians of Devon, and I hope it will increase awareness of Satow in Britain.

I am very grateful once again to the distinguished diplomatic historian Professor Thomas Otte of the University of East Anglia for his foreword. All and any errors in this book, including any misreading of Satow’s handwriting, are mine.

Ian Ruxton                                                                      Kyushu Institute of Technology

April 2018

Foreword (by T.G. Otte)

Trained to observe and to report accurately, diplomats often turn to literary work on leaving their profession. Sir Ernest Satow followed this well-beaten path. His writings, however, were of a more scholarly nature. Already while still a serving diplomat, he had published a series of learned papers on mostly Oriental philology, early Japanese history and the history of Christian missionaries in East Asia. His French colleague in Tokyo, indeed, thought him ‘un peu livresque’. And, as his diary for the years 1912 to 1920 shows, Satow lost little of his bookish habits during his retirement years in the Devonshire town of Ottery St. Mary.

As during his professional life, so in retirement Satow remained somewhat reserved. His diary entries rarely offer a glimpse of his inner self. His two sons, Takeda Eitaro (later Alfred Satow) and Takeda Hisayoshi, make fleeting appearances, but only the cognoscenti will recognise them as his offspring for Satow does not tell. The diaries are sparse in detail and impersonal in tone. Yet they evoke the image of the balmy Edwardian afternoon so brilliantly captured in the novels of Henry James. The pace of life is delectably sedate. There seem to be few troubles ahead. We find the retired diplomat, when not rambling across the hills and along the lanes of the Devon countryside or paying social calls on the gentry of the neighbourhood, indulging his passion for plant collecting and gardening. Occasional reviews of books on China and East Asian affairs for the literary magazine The Athenaeum, that mirror of Victorian and Edwardian culture, provided for intellectual diversion. Visits to London or to Oxford kept him in touch with events in politics and academia, trips to the Frys outside Bristol and the Reays in the Highlands with old friends. Given his previous experience with consular courts, it was perhaps not surprising that he sat on the magistrate’s bench. We catch glimpses of the provincial music scene, and we see Satow involved in local government and Church affairs (-he was also prominent in the Conservative-affiliated Primrose League and the National Service League, a somewhat fringe pressure group advocating compulsory military service). On his 69th birthday he reflected that he was ‘contented’ with his life – a rare personal observation – and that he had ‘[j]ust enough public work of different sorts to give me occupation.’

There were few signs of impending danger. Industrial unrest, the great coal strike of 1912, zigzagged like lightning across the horizon, and so did the two Balkan wars in that same year and the following. During this time, Satow, in a sense, reinvented himself from an Oriental scholar into one of the foremost authorities on the practice of diplomacy and certain aspects of international law. European diplomatic history afforded him the keenest pleasure now. Already in 1908, he had given the Rede Lecture at Cambridge on that subject. Now, he produced papers on the law of the sea and he was engaged in researching a historical case study, The Silesian Loan and Frederick the Great, which combined diplomatic history and the history of international law. During this time he also began writing the work that was to become a lasting monument to his scholarly pursuit, A Guide to Diplomatic Practice, referred to since its publication in 1917 and now in its seventh edition simply as ‘Satow’.

Into this happy scene the First World War struck like the proverbial bolt from the blue. Curiously, Satow and his brother had visited Germany in early June 1914, to see their cousin Lisinka (Elisabeth) Satow in the Harz mountains. All seemed well then. The effects of the war were felt with, perhaps, less immediacy in Ottery than elsewhere in the country. As one of the local notables and as chairman of the Ottery St. Mary Urban District Council, Satow had to implement war-related government measures and emergency regulations. He played a prominent role in efforts to encourage men to enlist and those who remained at home to subscribe to government war bonds. He also sat on the Board of Selection after the introduction of military conscription in 1916. As for his scholarly pursuits, the appearance of the Silesian Loan was much delayed by the outbreak of the war, and work on the Guide to Diplomatic Practice acquired greater urgency. The end of the war, the 1919 peace treaties and the subsequent emergence of the League of Nations brought fresh material for further scholarly treatises, albeit on a smaller scale. Such work provided intellectual stimulation but brought little material reward – an experience common to many academic writers. Research expenses had outweighed the net receipts for the Silesian Loan and the Guide, as Satow observed ruefully at the end of 1918, ‘so that I am still out of pocket on the whole.’ It was not, indeed, until the spring of 1920 that he had achieved a profit on his literary work. By that time, he had turned his mind to the history of his own family, whose chronicle he was to publish privately in 1925. And so we leave Satow on New Year’s Eve 1920, counting his expenses over the year, reflecting on the number of friends lost during the past twelve months, but still in a hopeful frame of mind.

T.G. Otte

January 2018

Bibliography

Allen, Bernard M., The Rt. Hon. Sir Ernest Satow, GCMG: A Memoir London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Trubner, 1933.

Brailey, Nigel, entry on Sir Ernest Satow in the Dictionary of National Biography.

Brailey, Nigel (ed.), A Diplomat in Siam, Bangkok: Orchid Press 1994, revised 2000.

Brailey, Nigel, ‘Protection or Partition: Ernest Satow and the 1880s Crisis in Britain’s Siam Policy’ in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 29, 1 (March 1998), pp. 63-85.

Brailey, Nigel, 'Ernest Satow and the Implementation of the Revised Treaties in Japan' in Sir Hugh Cortazzi, James Hoare, Nigel Brailey and Ayako Hotta-Lister: The Revision of Japan’s Early Commercial Treaties (LSE / STICERD International Studies Discussion Paper IS/99/377, November 1999) pp.25­-38.

Brailey, Nigel, ‘Sir Ernest Satow and the 1907 Second Hague Peace Conference’ in Diplomacy & Statecraft, Vol. 13, No. 2 (June 2002) pp. 201-228 (pub. Frank Cass, London).

Brailey, Nigel, ‘Sir Ernest Satow, Japan and Asia: The Trials of a Diplomat in the Age of High Imperialism’ in The Historical Journal, 35, 1, (1992), pp. 115-150.

Brailey, Nigel (ed.), The Satow Siam Papers: The Private Diaries and Correspondence of Ernest Satow (Volume 1, 1884-1885), Bangkok: The Historical Society, 1997.

Channon, Lucy, ‘Sir Ernest Satow: Renowned Diplomat who retired to Ottery’, in Journal of the Ottery Heritage Society, No. 17, Summer 2004 (Part One); No. 18, Spring 2005, (Part Two).

Coates, P.D., The China Consuls, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Cortazzi, Hugh & Daniels, Gordon (ed.), Britain and Japan 1859-1991: Themes and Personalities, London: Routledge, 1991 (includes a chapter on Satow by Dr. Peter F. Kornicki).

Cortazzi, Hugh, Collected Writings of Sir Hugh Cortazzi, London/Tokyo: Japan Library/Edition Synapse, 2000.

Cortazzi, Hugh, (ed.), Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Vol. IV , Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 2002 and subsequent volumes.

Cortazzi, Hugh (ed.), British Envoys in Japan, 1859-1972, Folkestone: Global Oriental, 2004.

Daniels, Gordon, introduction to reprint of A Diplomat in Japan, Oxford University Press, 1968.

Hagihara (in Japan: Hagiwara) Nobutoshi, Tooi Gake: A-nesto Sato-Nikkishou (Distant Cliffs: Selections from Ernest Satow’s diaries), Tokyo: Asahi Shimbunsha (2001; 14 volumes covering Satow’s first period in Japan, 1861-1883).

Hoare, James E., Japan’s Treaty Ports and Foreign Settlements: The Uninvited Guests 1858-1899, Folkestone, Kent: Japan Library, 1994. Hoare, James E. (ed.), Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Vol. III , Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 1999.

Hoare, James E., Embassies in the East: The Story of the British and their Embassies in China, Japan and Korea from 1859 to the Present, Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1999.

Lensen, George Alexander (ed.), Korea and Manchuria between Russia and Japan 1895­1904: The Observations of Sir Ernest Satow, Sophia University, Tokyo in cooperation with The Diplomatic Press, Tallahassee, Florida (1966, reprinted 1968).

Morton, Robert and Ruxton, Ian (eds.), The Diaries of Sir Ernest Mason Satow, 1861­1869, Kyoto: Eureka Press, 2013.

Nagaoka, Shouzou (trans. and annotated), A-nesuto Sato- Koushi Nikki (The Diaries of Minister Ernest Satow), Tokyo: Shinjinbutsu Ouraisha. Vol. 1, 1989; Vol. 2 with Fukunaga Ikuo, 1991.

Nish, Ian (ed.), Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Vol. I, Folkestone, Kent: Japan Library, an imprint of Curzon Press Ltd. 1994; Vol. II , Richmond, Surrey: Japan Library, 1997.

Nish, Ian H., The Anglo-Japanese Alliance: The Diplomacy of Two Island Empires, 1894-1907, London: The Athlone Press, 1966.

Otte, T.G., Foreword to I. Ruxton (ed.), The Diaries of Ernest Mason Satow, 1889-1895: Uruguay and Morocco, lulu.com, 2017 Otte, T.G., The China Question: Great Power Rivalry and British Isolation, 1894-1905, Oxford University Press, 2007.

Otte, T.G., ‘Not Proficient in Table-Thumping’: Sir Ernest Satow in Peking, 1900-06, in Diplomacy & Statecraft, Vol. 13, No. 2 (June 2002) pp.161-200 (pub. Frank Cass, London).

Otte, T.G., The Foreign Office Mind: The Making of British Foreign Policy, 1865-1914, Cambridge University Press, 2011. Otte, T.G., An Historian in Peace and War; The Diaries of Harold Temperley, Farnham, Surrey and Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate, 2014. Otte, T.G., 'Satow', Chapter 7 in G.R. Berridge, Maurice Keens-Soper and T.G. Otte, Diplomatic Theory from Machiavelli to Kissinger, Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.

Roberts, Ivor (ed.), Satow’s Diplomatic Practice, Seventh and centenary edition, Oxford University Press, 2016

Ruxton, Ian C. (ed.), The Diaries and Letters of Sir Ernest Mason Satow (1843-1929): A Scholar-Diplomat in East Asia, Lewiston, New York and Lampeter, Wales: Edwin Mellen Press, 1998.

Ruxton, Ian (ed.), The Diaries of Sir Ernest Mason Satow, 1870-1883, Lulu.com, 2010; Kyoto: Eureka Press, 2015. Ruxton, Ian (ed.), The Diaries of Sir Ernest Mason Satow, 1883-1888, Lulu.com, 2016.

Ruxton, Ian (ed.), The Diaries of Sir Ernest Satow, British Minister in Tokyo 1895-1900, Tokyo: Edition Synapse, 2003. Lulu.com, 2010.

Ruxton, Ian (ed.), The Diaries of Sir Ernest Satow, British Envoy in Peking, 1900-1906, Lulu.com, Volumes One and Two, 2006. Eureka Press revised edition, 2 vols., 2016.

Ruxton, Ian (ed.), The Diaries of Sir Ernest Mason Satow, 1906-1911, Kyoto: Eureka Press, 2015.

Ruxton, Ian (ed.), The Correspondence of Sir Ernest Satow, British Minister in Japan, 1895-1900, Lulu.com, Volume One (2005), Volume Two (2011) Volume Three, Volume Four (2014).

Ruxton, Ian (ed.), The Semi-Official Letters of British Envoy Sir Ernest Satow from Japan and China 1895-1906, Lulu.com, 2006.

Ruxton, Ian (ed.), Sir Ernest Satow’s Private Letters to W.G. Aston and F.V. Dickins: The Correspondence of a Pioneer Japanologist, Lulu.com, 2008.

Ruxton, Ian, List of Sir Ernest Satow’s General Correspondence from 1906 to 1927, Lulu.com, 2018.

Satow, Sir Ernest, A Diplomat in Japan: The Inner History of the Critical Years in the Evolution of Japan when the Ports were opened and the Monarchy restored (Originally published by Seeley, Service & Co. Ltd. in London, 1921; recently in paperback, New York & Tokyo: ICG Muse, 2000. Based on Satow’s personal diaries, 1861-69.)

Satow, Sir Ernest, Collected Works of Ernest Mason Satow, Part 2 Collected Papers (5 volumes), London: Ganesha Publishing and Tokyo: Edition Synapse, 2001. (Reproductions of Satow’s papers. See especially Volume 4, 1895-1909, and Volume 5, 1910-27.)

Satow, Sir Ernest, The Family Chronicle of the English Satows, privately printed, Oxford, 1925.

Scott, James Brown, The Proceedings of the Hague Peace Conferences: Translation of the Official Texts, 2 vols., New York: Oxford University Press, 1920.

Steiner, Zara, The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy, 1898-1914, Cambridge University Press, 1969.

Todd, Hamish A. ‘The Satow Collection of Japanese Books in the British Library: Its History and Significance’ in Daiei Toshokan shozō Chōsenbon oyobi Nihon kosho no bunkengakuteki gogakuteki kenkyū, Fujimoto Yukio and Kosukegawa Teiji (eds.). Toyama University, 2007

Yokohama Kaikou Shiryoukan (Yokohama Archives of History), (ed.): Zusetsu: A-nesuto Sato- : Bakumatsu Ishin Igirisu Gaikōkan, (The Ernest Satow Album: Portraits of a British Diplomat in Young Japan), Yokohama: Yurindo, 2001.

Family Tree

1912

January 1912

Jany. 1.    Brilliant warm day. Richard Marker came to see me, & we discussed Major Morrison-Bell’s[1] vagaries (as I think them) in respect of ‘one vote one value’ and the concession of the Parliamentary franchise to women. On the latter point both he and his wife agree with me.

We went on to Sidmouth in the afternoon, and walked on the Esplanade. The sea was perfectly calm and blue, the cliffs towards Beer in fine colour. We stood for some time watching the gulls disporting themselves on the beach.

"  2.    Dull, mild day. The Rho[do]dendron nobleanum is in full bloom. Some more winter aconites have come up. Hisayoshi went off by the 12.59 train back to town. Sam to Exeter for the day. Henry Tozer & Norah Satow[2] arrived by the 5.22 from Oxford and London respectively.

"  3.   Iris alata in flower under the little drawingroom side window. A dull morning. Some Allinson’s pippins from Mrs. Godfrey rather hard texture. Sam[3] & Norah & I to Sidmouth to a concert of 18th century music, violinist Miss Llewellyn Toms, piano accompanist Miss May Walker, singer Mrs. Bird; a sonata of Handel in A. Chefarò. Drink to me only with thine eyes. Bishop’s should we upbraid.[4] The Bailiff’s daughter of Islington, Barbara Allan.

Made the acquaintance of Lady Lockyer, who was a Miss Brown of Cotmaton House, & granddaughter of a Carslake, who died in 1868 or ’69, after which the young people used to stay with their grandmother; also Mrs. Blakiston, widow of a vicar of Silbury, who died 10 yrs. ago, after being there 6 years. Afterwards we went to tea at the Tindalls & caught the 6.5.

[Jan.] 4   Boarding-out Committee. Mrs. Tindall came over to explain to us the new order. Mrs. Pryke, Albinia & Peggy Adams to lunch. Dull day. Sam & I walked up Chineway, along the lower lane, & back by Coldharbour Lane. He, Norah & I went over to dine at the Kennet-Weres; her cousins the Ernest Sawyers, his sister Olga Sawyer, daughter Nesta a tall slender very pretty bright girl of 18, the Hine Haycocks, a Bentinck & his wife from Holland, and a youth. We played a new sort of aeroplane game afterwards.

[Jan.] 5      To Exeter to a sort of committee meeting called by Sir John [Kennaway] at the C[hurch].M[issionary].S[ociety]. office, to form a larger committee, which is to issue invitations for a meeting of 100 laymen at the Palace in March, in order to interest them in Missions & Higher Education in the East. Col. Stirling. Heberden, Mackey. H.W. Michelmore, Townsend, Bromley Sanders, Nightingale, young John were there. The proposed speakers are T[heodore].R.W. Lunt[5] the Education Secretary of C.M.S. and Rev. W.E.S. Holland from Allahabad.[6] I had understood that there would be some one to speak about higher education in China, but it was ruled that there would be no time for this. I also urged that S.P.G. men should be invited to join the committee, but that did not seem to find favour. The larger committee is to be an afternoon meeting, the big meeting in the evening, so that it would have been a wise policy to ask men from a distance such as Plymouth, to come to the former. However, Sir John & Nightingale had it all cut and dried. Lunched with Pryke.

The Scholes’, Dorothy Scholes, Capt. Wedgewood of the York & Lancaster regiment, & Capt. & Mrs. Lowe from West Hill came to dinner.

[Jan.] 6     Sam returned to town by 10.17 [train]. It rained heavily all day & last night. Norah & I went for a walk in the afternoon with the Scholes party, with whom we fell in below Butts. The river is flooded more than ever, and the road below Escot school hardly passable.

"  7.    Dull forenoon, but after lunch it cleared up beautifully. Walked with Norah by Holcombe Manor, Holcombe Barton and the brickfields home.

Jan. 8.     Cold S.E. wind and heavy rain, more or less all day long. Hardly possible to get out for a walk.

"  9.     Cleared up today. Norah went off by 10.17. After lunch walked up Coldharbour Lane on to East Hill and home by Chineway head.

"  10.    To Exeter to sub-committee of Diocesan Board of Foreign Missions, consisting of Rev. E.C. Nightingale, Rev. Herbert Squire and myself, and settled the lines on which we should proceed. I undertook to make a list of Rural Deaneries and parishes, showing rateable value, private and trading residents, and Easter communicants, as a basis for estimating the resources of each. Came back by the 1.10.

NEWSPAPER CUTTINGS (Devon & Exeter Gazette, and Times)

OLD BLUNDELLIAN CLUB

DINNER IN LONDON

Satow attended and chaired the dinner as a Governor of Blundell’s School, and proposed the toast.

Jan. 11.    To Town by the 10.17, and put up at Garlant’s Hotel, Suffolk street.[7] Went by the tube to call at 37 Fellows Road, Chalk Farm on Mary & Charlie [Satow]. She looked very old and puffy about the face; he unchanged, but rather sunburnt. Ethel also came in. Talking of Harry’s affairs, they told me he had £400 in the Vacuum Company, for which he got £1500, invested it in the North Eastern Vacuum Co., which smashed up and he lost all. He left absolutely nothing. Mary’s sisters continue to provide the rent of the house at Preston Park, Brighton. I got out of Mary her account of her dispute with Sam[‘s audit?] of some of her trust-money, and told her I thought she was wrong, and should try to be reconciled to Sam.  They have a story that when Charlie became bankrupt over 30 years ago he assigned his life-interest in the income of Mary’s marriage settlement to the creditors, & wrongly say Sam, who arranged the matter, was the chief creditor. I told them that was wrong, the HongKong & Shanghai Banking Corporation were the largest creditors. Charlie said he did not remember having signed such a document. Mary is a foolish scatterbrain. Walked with Charlie to Swiss Cottage station. His son Norton in S. Africa is doing well, also Arnold in British Columbia, who is in partnership with another man on a fruit farm. From there to Emma Sturges with whom I had tea and a long talk. Dined at the Hotel Cecil[8] with the Old Blundellians; reports from the Devon & Exeter Gazette and Times on previous page. I also celebrated Bishop Bull, Eveleigh Provost of Oriel in whose time Keble was elected fellow, Dr. Hayter master of Balliol, Dr. John Davey also master of Balliol. We broke up at about eleven.

12 Jany.    Went to see Redesdale at 1 Kensington Court. He has let Batsford [estate, Glos.], having according to his own account been greatly robbed. Looks well and not a bit old, tho’ nearly 75. From there to lunch with the Reays, who had also the Duchess of Somerset. She takes great interest in social questions, especially Dr. Barnardo’s Boys. Came home by the 3.30, in company with [John] Pawley Bate as far as Axminster. He was full of curious calculations of a writer in the Quest, showing that Simon = Ichthus, and Jesous = ckeiton. Dull day. Yesterday, though foggy & damp in town, was bright down here.

13 Jany.   A dull day without rain. Mild.

14  "     A dull morning, rain in the afternoon, cleared at night. Found an early narcissus in bud. The fuchsias are putting forth their tiny leaves.

15  "     Hoar frost this morning, which soon disappeared. Dug up a quantity of daisies & other weeds on the upper lawn. Walked round by Gosford Bridge & Coombe Lake. After dinner C.E.M.S. paper by John Street on the Housing problem, very informing, followed by a lively discussion. Rain towards 7.

16  "     High wind from S.E. and heavy rain. As I passed Cadhay Bridge on my way to Escot to lunch, saw the river more swollen than at any time this very rainy winter. There were Bishop Ryle[9] & Mrs. Ryle, he is now Dean of Westminster. We had plenty of talk, and they both heartily desired that I would go to see them when I next go to town. Mrs. Ponsonby, wife of the Rector of Stoke Damerel, Devonport, a pleasant woman, daughter of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton[10] & her son were there also. Afterwards to a tea party at St. Budeaux, where we played a game called Buried Cities. The first prizes were carried off by John Martin & his wife; she guessed all of them. Rain all day.

17 Jany.   Dull day, wind went to N.E. presaging snow. Mrs. Welsman wife of man who works for old farmer Williams, came to have a school exemption paper signed for the eldest of her 5 younger boys. Her husband in full work gets 15/- [shillings] a week, in bad weather, as now, only 10/-; pay 2/- a week for their cottage in Yonder street, which has only 2 bed rooms, but she says it is quite clean & comfortable. Has had 14 children, lost only 1: eldest daughter 31, youngest child 7. Two are married, 8 out in the world; they help the parents from time to time. Asked how she had managed on such a small income, she smiled & said she did not know how; a cheery woman.

18  "     Snow fell during the night about half an inch, and lay on trees & grass, but not on gravel. Dull day. To Exeter in the afternoon to Juvenile Advisory Committee. Urged afterwards on Stocker & Miss Montgomery to proceed to form after-care committees with the aid of district visitors and without waiting for the school managers, who have had three months to make up their minds and have not yet given any indication of willingness to act.

19 [Jan.]  Intervals of sunshine. Went down to the station in the morning with the Prykes. After lunch up to Chineway Head and back by Coldharbour Lane. 1 hr. 20 min.

Jany. 20.  S.E. wind and cloudy sky. Was to have gone to the wedding of Raymond Morshead with Angela Hughes, but gave it up, and walked over to Escot Vicarage to have a talk with [Rev.] Nightingale about our system for apportioning among the parishes their quotas for mission work. Escot in 1909 for all church & missionary purposes raised over £170; for the latter over £70, of which part (between £15 & £25 from a drawingroom meeting at Escot). From a thanksgiving week once a year he has collected as much as £26 in sums from ½d to £5. It rained all the way back.

"  21.   Very foggy, mild day. Found at least half a dozen narcissus in bud, also several Iris alata in bloom. The Prunus pissardi is swelling its flower buds. The climbing roses full of new foliage. A little walk up Seaton road as far as Ware’s farm, when the sky began to clear. Starlight evening.

"  22.    Dull morning. More crocuses showing their yellow, snowdrops showing white buds, more narcissus in bud. Dined at Escot to meet Ld. Fortescue, who has come over to preside at the opening of the new King’s school tomorrow. Lady Hughes & her daughter Mrs. Cameron also there. Sir John [Kennaway] has been having a correspondence with Professor Harnack,[11] who tho’ formerly an advocate of friendly relations between Germany and us is now on the war-path. He showed me translation of a letter from Harnack in which he accuses England of having twice in the past year hung the menace of war over Germany; and he had prepared a reply, which he was thinking of translating into German; but Lady K. told me they were in doubt whether the governess who had done it was quite competent. I advised, as Fortescue had done, that he should send his reply in English, quoting the practice of all nations in this respect; I also suggested modification of the final para. in which he said that if the present state of feeling increased it would lead to irreparable disaster, which I thought savoured of menace. The fact is that when good people like Harnack and Sir John write on international matters, they try to make use of a class of composition to which they are not accustomed. I said that we could never hope to be really regarded by Germany in a friendly light, because our geographical position is a constant fetter upon her free access to the Ocean.

[Jan.] 23.  Henry [Tozer] went off today to catch the 1.4 from the junction & 2.13 from St. Davids. It was a dull but mild day. In the afternoon walked up Chineway, and overtook Frank Shorland, with whom I pursued the walk along the top of the hill & back by Cold Harbour Lane to the Shutes. He was in New Zealand from 1883 to 1899. Thinks the language used at meetings of the Urban Council is often disgraceful, and has said he will not put up again. He and another wanted to elect Reade & myself governors of the King’s School,[12] but the majority decided to elect themselves. What did he & his fellow councillors know about educational matters. I told him Willock would have been a good man to put on, as he took a high degree in mathematics, and certainly they ought to have elected Sir John. He talked about the Insurance Act[13] of which he cannot understand the provisions. Tho’ a Liberal he is convinced that if there were a general election the Conservatives would come in by a great majority. The Act does away with English liberties.

24  "     This morning at 7.30 when I got up there was a white glimmering eastward, which half an hour later proved to be the upper slopes of East Hill entirely wrapped in sheets of snow, tho’ down here it was raining. About eight it turned for a short time to sleat. Prunus triloba is covered with flower-buds, the result of last year’s sun. A good deal of sunshine in the forenoon, but clouded over later, and I did not get much of a walk.

Jany. 25.   Dull day. Slight frost during the night. Walked as far as Cadhay with the Vicar, and returned because it rained. Wrote to E.W. Hellier clerk to the Assessment committee that I wish to appeal against the poor law assessment of this house.

[Jan.] 26.  Lay in bed till 3.30 with a cold & read Mary Barton.[14] Dull cold day.

"  27.    Bright frosty day. Got up after breakfast. In the afternoon walked as far as where Cold Harbour Lane goes off l[eft].

"  28.    Hard frost last night. Got up after breakfast. In the afternoon by Holcombe Manor up Chineway, where I met Mary Dickinson & the young under mistress of the King’s school, Miss Goudy. Had a chat with them about social questions, & then went on over the hill to Cold Harbour Lane. Morrison-Bell came in about 5.30. We discussed all sorts of political subjects, including even the reform of the franchise, but neither he nor I attended to the round robin which I despatched to him the day before yesterday.   

"  29.    Cold, bright morning. Cold in the head still hanging about me. Sent cheque to Mitsu Bishi Goshi-Kwaisha, Banking dept. Tokio, and two to O.K.[15] Went to E.H. Carnell & had it out with him about the poor-law assessment on this house, which last year was raised by £10 without my being aware of it, on the ground of the enlargement and improvements. Afternoon walked round by Knightstone & back by the narrow lane that comes out where Long dog lane falls into Sidbury Rd. A very beautiful afternoon.

[Jan.] 30.    Bright, frosty morning, clear sky all day. Afternoon presided at Annual meeting of the hospital Committee, in the absence of Sir John & R[ichar]d. Marker. Got it over in 35 minutes. No one but members of the committee there, and Rev. C. Sherwin of Clyst Hydon, whom I brought home to tea, and we talked for 2¼ hours, about the origin of tithes, people going over to Rome [becoming Roman Catholics] and the motives which induced them.[16]

[Jan.] 31.    White frost this morning. One Chionodoxa showing its deep blue buds. Cloudless sky. Some clouds came over in the afternoon, but dispersed at sunset. Walked round by the school and Pitt’s Farm.

---

[1] Sir Arthur Clive Morrison-Bell, Conservative M.P. for Honiton, 1910-1931. See detailed footnote for 7 February 1909.

[2] Norah Kathrin Satow (1885-1943). Daughter of Sam Satow, niece of Ernest. See Family Tree.

[3] Samuel Augustus Mason Satow (1847-1925). Younger brother of Ernest.

[4] Should he upbraid by Henry Rowley Bishop (1785-1855).

[5] Author of The Story of Islam, Church Missionary Society, 1909.

[6] Holland was chaplain at the Holy Trinity Church, Allahabad. As a fund-raising event for the Oxford & Cambridge Boys’ Hostel he had suggested the world’s first aerial mail service, organised on 18 February 1911 between Allahabad and Naini Junction during the United Provinces Exhibition. 

[7] Satow had stayed at Garlant’s Hotel on 13 November 1907, 8 February 1908, 27 October 1909 and 20 June 1910. See entries above.

[8] The Hotel Cecil was a grand hotel built 1890-96 between the Thames Embankment and the Strand in London. Designed in the Edwardian Baroque style, it was the largest in Europe when it opened, with more than 800 rooms. Mostly demolished in 1930, but the Strand façade remains. The block is now known as 80 Strand, and is occupied by a number of companies. 

[9] Herbert Edward Ryle (1856-1925) was an author, Old Testament scholar and the Dean of Westminster, 1911-25. He composed the inscription on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior buried on 11 November 1920 at Westminster Abbey.

[10] Satow had met him on 12 January 1908 - see diary entry.

[11] Carl Gustav Adolf von Harnack (1851-1930) was a German Lutheran theologian and prominent church historian. In 1911 he helped found the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft, and became its first president. Like many liberal professors in Germany he welcomed World War One in 1914, and signed a public statement endorsing Germany’s war-aims.

[12] The King’s School (founded in 1545 by Henry VIII) opened on a new site on this day. The old school site of The Priory was let for £40 and eventually became the Police Station.

[13] The National Insurance Act 1911 is often regarded as one of the foundations of modern social welfare in the U.K. It formed part of the wider social welfare reforms of the Liberal Government, 1906-14. Part I provided for a National Insurance scheme with provision of medical benefits. Part II provided for time-limited unemployment benefit. Both parts required weekly contributions from employees, employers and general taxation.

[14] Mary Barton is the first novel by English author Elizabeth Gaskell, published in 1848. The story is set in Manchester between 1839 and 1842, and deals with the problems of the Victorian lower classes.

[15] ‘O.K.’ is Okane, the mother of Eitaro and Hisayoshi. The Takeda family correspondence, including letters from Satow, can be found at the Yokohama Archives of History. 

[16] On 1 November 1899 in Tokyo, Bishop William Awdry had asked Satow if rumours that he was likely to convert to Catholicism were true. Satow replied that he was not willing to discuss the subject, but that he had seriously considered it some years before coming to Japan. He asked Awdry not to press him for details of all that had gone through his mind, as it would re-open painful sores and do no good. He also said that a similar rumour had been spread about ten years previously. (Diary) See also Satow’s letter to Mrs. F.V. Dickins from Montevideo dated 3 May 1890 in which he wrote: As to becoming a Roman Catholic: I am not afraid. I do not know enough, and feel no call in that direction. (PRO 30/33 11/5)

February 1912

1 Feb.    Dull raw day, no sun. Afternoon walk round by bottom of Chineway and Coldharbour Lane. Went to hear the Urban Council at their meeting. Not particularly amusing; two more cases of scarlet fever, but the medi[cal] officer of the council sees no signs of an epidemic at present.

Feb. 2.    Bright, but very cold, hard frost all day. To Exeter by 10.17. Called on J.H. Morgan and had a talk with him about after-care committee. The number of children leaving school annually is about 1000, so there would be 4000 to look after. Impossible to find sufficient suitable persons to undertake this work. There is a prejudice against using district visitors because of the dislike to become connected with any religious denomination. The managers are mostly far too busy.

Then to meeting of Finance and Organization committee of the Conservative and Unionist Assn. for East Devon, R. Marker in the chair. Funds are increasing. Wilfred Peek is to be High Sheriff, so cannot carry on the treasurership during his year of office. Lunched at the Prykes. Robson, Rev. F.R. Hillary of Kangwha in Corea, and afterwards to meeting in the chapter-house for the Corea Mission, about thirty old ladies present. Pryke in the chair. I gave an account of my acquaintance with Coreans in former days, beginning in 1878 with visits to Quelpart [Cheju island] & Fusan in the Egeria[17] with Archie Douglas.[18] Then Hillary spoke. To tea at the Prykes, the W. Gibbs’, Seymour of Otterton, his sister and mother in law Mrs. Arthur of Atherington 7 miles from Barnstaple, husband is nephew of the late Admiral Sir George Arthur.  Came home by 4.40. At 7 meeting of the local unionist committee, and at 8 public meeting addressed by Major Morrison-Bell, and Hemsley, a big man who says his father was a farm-labourer. He spoke well about the insurance Act. I declined to move the vote of confidence in M-B, as I disapprove of his attitude on woman suffrage, and his advocacy of one vote one value, so it was left to Wyatt of the King’s School to move and Wm. Salter the farrier my neighbour to second; and I did not put my hand up when the vote was put to the meeting. Got home to supper at 10 minutes to ten. Brilliant full moon, very frosty.

3 Feb.     A harder frost last night than in any year since I came to Ottery. Saburô’s thermometer outside his bedroom window marked 26º. Bright, cold day, hovered there a massive cloud at times. Jerred killed his 4th bullfinch, they have been picking the buds off the Prunus pissardi and throwing them on ground. Afternoon walked past Holcombe on to Westgate Common & saw Cullompton in the distance, then along Muddy Lane where there was a good deal of solid ice on puddles & pools, then home down Rill Lane 1 hr. 50 min. finished reading and making notes on the debates on the Education Bill of 1902, with special regard to the nonconformist grievance.

Feb. 4.    Hard frost, bright forenoon, which turned to snow as we came out of church & so continued till past 4. Went to tea with Mary Dickinson, who wanted to talk about going to Morocco; but I said it was too early in the year. I read to her a rough draft of a letter I propose to send to the Spectator about the heavy burden of rates on cottage property.

Feb. 5.    Frost continued, and a little snow now & then all day. Afternoon walked to Cadhay pond, where there were some young people skating.

Feb. 6.    When I went to bed last night it was still frosty and seemed to be snowing slightly. When I got up this morning all the snow had disappeared, wind had gone round to S.W. with rain, and there was a rapid thaw.  Went to the Petty Sessions, and helped to refuse an application from Hinton Lake the druggist of Sidmouth for a wine licence to enable him to sell a newfangled thing called panopepton, and also to try a milkman for selling milk with less than a proper percentage of solids. After that I came away. In the afternoon walked round by Gosford & Coombe Lake. A man named Caswell came to get a ‘recommend’ to the Exeter Hospital for his child Wilfred, a boy of six, who has adenoids.

Feb. 7.    To Exeter to meeting of the Special Advisory Committee on the Archbishops’ Committee report. I proposed Archdeacon Sanders for Chairman, and with some opposition on his part, got him elected. We had a great deal of desultory talk, but carried a resolution to the effect that the legal members of the Committee should consider & report on the advisability of incorporating the Diocesan Trust as a Finance Board such as is recommended by the Archbishops. It is easy to foresee however that we shall have great difficulty in getting the suggestion as to the formation of parochial councils adopted, also the fixing of the quota for each parish. Hay had prepared & distributed a scheme for making the Diocesan Conference independent of the Bishop, and for widening its membership, but the Archdeacon quietly ignored it. J. Shelly had written a letter to Hay very much disapproving. Went to tea with the Archdeacon and made the acquaintance of his wife, who seems a nice woman, and his daughter a girl of about 19; he has a son who has just joined the R.G.A.[19] just 20. There was a Mrs. Sidgewick, tall grey-haired woman, wife of the Vicar of Salcombe and a niece of the Archdeacon.

8. [Feb.]  Heavy rain all the forenoon, wind from S.W. After lunch motored with Mary Dickinson to the cottage of the Pikes, where our only boarded out child lives, & walked back by Alfington.

9  "     Cloudy day, warm, with some rain. To Exeter by the 12.59, to the meeting of the Social Subjects committee, presided over by the Bishop, who returned from the visit of Parliamentary and other leading men to Russia. H.W. Michelmore & Dr. Domville were appointed a sub-committee to ascertain what village friendly societies there are, not affiliated to the great societies, which might be grouped together under the regulations to be made by the Insurance Commissioners so as to avoid extinction. Mention was also made of the Prevention & Rescue work and the great need of funds; I pointed out what a very jejune mention of this subject was made in our report to the last Diocesan Conference. *  Went home with Pryke & had tea with him; on my way to the station called on the Revd. C.B. Llewellyn, priest vicar, to tell him that I had no answer from the vicar of Lamerton to the letter I wrote him a few (two or three) weeks ago. * Prebendary Jackson also suggested that we ought not to lose sight of the Care of the Feebleminded, & referred to a long letter in last week’s Spectator which gives an account of the home at Sandlebridge near Manchester.

10  "    Fine warm day. Completed my list of parishes, with rateable value, private residents & commercial people in each. Took only a short walk.

11 [Feb.]  As the collections today were to be for the National Society, which I do not desire to support, on account of its attitude towards Sir Thomas Acland’s scheme for getting rid of the religious difficulty in one school area, I walked to matins at Alfington. A congregation of 27 persons, men, women & children. Reade preached a good sermon on the 3rd chapter of Genesis, it being Sekagesima. Fine day, wind from S.W. clouded over in the afternoon, and there was a little rain.

12 [Feb.]  Rainy day. Walked round by Gosford & Combe Lake. After dinner to C.E.M.S. & read paper on Foreign Missions of the Church, adapted from what I had prepared for the meeting at Newbury to which I went last summer with Bishop Francis Paget of Oxford.  Reginald Hake, a journeyman carpenter of North Street No. 43 came for a recommend to the Exeter Hospital for his girl aged 6, who has adenoids: pays 3/6 [three shillings and sixpence] a week for his house to Channon, two rooms below, 3 upstairs.

13  "    Had a talk with Mrs. Metcalfe about the housing question, of which she knows a great deal. She im- [impressed?][20] me greatly with the very intelligent way she has of looking at things. The financial question is the great difficulty. She lent me some pamphlets, & I have written to town for copies.

Walked over to Escot Vicarage to see Nightingale about our sub-committee of the Board of Foreign Missions, but he was out, so I came back and weeded diligently on the lower lawn. A drier day, with wind fr. the north, and a little sun.

14 Feb.   Fine warm day. To Sidmouth to tea with the Francis Johnstons.

15      Rain or mist all day. Drove to the Junction, and caught the 3.27 to Exeter. At the Club met John Martin’s friend Foster, who is living in Exeter now, and interesting himself in the deaf and dumb school on the Topsham Road. To Juvenile advisory committee, a small attendance, only Stocker in the chair, Miss Montgomery, Miss Farrant, Bromley Sanders, Smith of the St. John’s Hospital school, the two people from the labour exchange, and one other man. Bought J.J. Findlay’s The School" in the Home University Library, & read the greater part on the way home & before going to bed.

16  "    To Exeter to preliminary meeting about openings for education in India & China, at which T.R.W. Lunt the Education Secretary of C.M.S. gave a very good address. I undertook to try to bring three men to the meeting on March 4. Tea at the Prykes.

17 [Feb.]  Samuel Marchant an old fellow of 75 who used to belong to Coleberd’s factory,[21] came to ask me to take the chair at a lantern lecture to be given at the congregational chapel in aid of funds for its restoration. After much doubt and hesitation, and saying to him that I disliked the attitude of people like the Liberation Society[22] and Abby Spicer towards the Church, I consented. 

Then John Martin came, and we had a long talk about the best way to quicken the action of the Clergy Fund, especially with regard to annual grants. Pensions to widows and orphans, and help to necessitous clergy ought to be regarded as a part of maintenance, since if there is no fund for widows & orphans the poorer clergy must impoverish themselves still more to ensure their lives.

Mary Dickinson motored me through Weston and Awliscombe to Hembury Fort, the view from which is truly magnificent, tho’ the haze partly obscured it. We came back by way of Payhembury & Colestocks.

Wrote a long letter to Cyril Jackson apropos of his letter in yesterday’s Times urging necessity of collecting information about van & messenger boys. Have ordered a copy of my report to last years Diocesan Conference to be sent to him.

Prunus pissardi beginning to flower.

Feb. 18.   Warm morning. Some ‘butter & eggs’ beginning to show yellow and the buds turning over at right angles to their stems. Walked with Col. Scholes as far as Fairmile.

Feb. 19.   Walked up to Chineway foot, along bottom of the hill, back by Coldharbour Lane. Dull day, a little.

"  20.     Dull morning, wind from N.W. Nightingale came to talk about assessment of the diocese to Missionary work. We find that on different basis it works out to about 1/40th of the total. He wishes to assess the rural deaneries, leaving it to them to assess the parishes. Probably that would be best. Afternoon motored over to Ashfield to take the chair at a drawingroom meeting on behalf of the Army Scripture readers and Soldiers’ Friend Society. Colonel Cleeve late R.E.[23] secretary of the society, was the principal speaker and spoke excellently. The Society is doing a great work among soldiers. Rev. C.E.R. Romilly, vicar of Awliscombe, who gave the prayers, in the [18]70’s as a child lived at no. 9 Clapton Terrace. Said I would take Sam over to call at Easter. As I came back the sky cleared.

[Feb.] 21.  Very little sunshine, and some rain.

Herbert [James] Allen, who was my chum at Peking when we were both there as student interpreters in 1862, died yesterday suddenly at the Tenby Station as he was starting on a short journey. I saw him last in 1907,[24] when he was High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire. His age must have been about 70. Walked with the two dogs (no. 2 being Mary Dickinson’s Dan, who spends the day with me while she is abroad) up Chineway and down Swain’s Hill. Margaret & Cyril Dunell & Hugo Allen arrived by the 5.22.

22        Day opened with heavy rain from the S.E. In spite of it walked to Escot Vicarage with Hugo, and discussed with Nightingale the assessment of Devonshire to the Missionary Fund, which we agreed should be 1/40, that being the proportion of amount raised by the Diocese to that raised by the whole church for general church purposes, and also the proportion of Easter communicants to the whole number of Easter communicants in England & Wales. He promised to extract from the general register, which he had borrowed, the names of parishes in which there are parochial church councils.

Afternoon we walked round by Alfington to Mrs. Pikes, to whom I paid her fortnightly allowance [for boarding a child], and back by Spence Cross and Gosford Bridge.

Feb. 23.  Dull, close day and a good deal of rain. Afternoon Margaret & Hugo went to Sidmouth to see the Tyrells, while Cyril & I walked up Rill Lane, along to Chineway Head & so home in spite of the rain. I was much pleased to find how much knowledge Cyril has of educational and other questions in which I have been interesting myself for some time past.

Feb. 24.  Misty morning. They went off by the 10.17. In the afternoon walked round by Four Elms, Holcombe Manor, Holcombe Barton, Chineway with the dogs. Pownall,[25] who used to be constructing engineer for the Japanese govt. railways, called. He & his wife are staying at Sidmouth for a week. His eldest son is going to stand for Tottenham at the next election; the other boy is in the horse artillery and is at present stationed at Lucknow. He himself has been overworking at Tariff Reform and National Service, and has damaged one of his eyes.

Feb. 25.  Rather chilly, and cloudy forenoon. Plenty of purple crocus now out, and a ‘butter & eggs’ fully expanded. Quantities of Chionodoxa adding themselves daily; a polyanthus on the w. border. After lunch it cleared up, the wind having gone round to N.W.

I took the dogs up Chineway, had a chat with old Swain who was coming down the hill with two of his grandchildren, and then turned away left into a field with four children belonging to Thomas, who works at Holcombe farm. Picked the first primroses of the year in a pit close under the lane that goes N. Coming back lost Dan at the bottom of the long slope: he did not turn up till 6, when Domatt found him near the church. No doubt he had been digging for rabbits, a bad action in which Joe imitated him, rejoining me near the brickfield with his nose and forehead discoloured by red mud. Saw Hey Tor, Saddle Tor and Rippon Tor very clearly from half way up Chineway hill.

Feb. 26.  Dull day. Finished my notes on the Report of the Archbishops’ Committee on Church Finance, and its applicability to this Diocese, and took it to J. Martin, who was out. Afternoon, walked round by Gosford and Combe Lake, and afterwards dug up daisies for an hour.

"  27.   Fine morning. Purple and white crocuses fully out, also dogstooth violet buds in plenty, grape hyacinths showing their buds, and iris reticulata (deep purple with yellow spot) abundantly flowering in the azalea bed. Prunus pissardi grows more beautiful every day. In the afternoon went down to Sidmouth to call on the Pownalls at the Bedford hotel. Lawrie & Josephine [Satow, nephew and niece of Ernest, married cousins] came by the 6.51 to stop for their moving to Malden Villa. After dinner John Martin came in with my notes on the Archbishops’ Report, which we discussed for an hour, & he pointed out some errors I had committed.

Feb. 28.  Fine forenoon. Sent my notes off to the Archdeacon. Walked along Sidmouth road and back by Knightstone. Wild periwinkle blossoms abundant in the bank on the l. hand of the lane. A few celandines out.

Feb. 29.   Cleared up soon after breakfast, and a fine day. After lunch up Sidbury Road, along to Wiggaton lane, then by Knightstone & Sidmouth road, Long Dog Lane home. The young people yesterday and today at Sidmouth getting in their furniture. 

---

[17] This was recorded in Satow’s diary at the time, and was the only occasion when he visited Korea.

[18] Admiral Sir Archibald Lucius Douglas (1842-1913) was a Royal Navy officer. He headed the second British naval mission to Japan in 1873, and advised the fledgling Imperial Japanese Navy until 1875. He commanded H.M.S. Egeria in 1877-8.

[19] Royal Garrison Artillery.

[20] The im- comes at the bottom of a page, and after turning over Satow has not completed the word on the next page. impressed fits best here.

[21] Edward Coleberd (1862-?) was proprietor of the Honiton and Ottery St. Mary Advertiser. He took a lease for the Factory in 1889 which became the registered office of his company. The Factory is next to the Town Mill and was built in 1789 to manufacture serge.

[22] The Liberation Society was founded by Edward Miall (1809-81) as the Anti-State Church Association in 1844. Miall was an English Nonconformist and Congregational minister who advocated disestablishment, i.e. the severing of links between the church (Church of England) and the state.

[23] Royal Engineers.

[24] See diary entry for 16 June 1907. Allen retired as H.M. Consul, Newchwang.

[25] Charles Asheton Whately Pownall was the Principal Engineer for Japanese Government railways in 1891. (Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits, Vol. IV, p.176).

March 1912

Mar. 1.   To Exeter by 10.17. Attended dedication of the extension of the Training College chapel. Lunched at the Prykes. Then to the annual meeting of the Diocesan Assistant Curates’ Society, which is not a branch of the A.C.S. in London. In the evening took the chair at a lantern lecture in the Congregational Chapel given by Wm. Jordan of Sidmouth, who looks rather like a small shopkeeper, on Japan. I gave them a short address on missions in Japan, emphasizing the fact of different sects among Buddhists & the comparative harmony among missionaries, where there were no politics to interfere, and touched on the changes that have taken place since I first landed there in 1862. Did not get home till 10 o’clock, rather cold & tired.  Rainy day.

Mar. 2.   Cold dull day. Went to Honiton to appeal against poor law assessment of this house, which has been increased from £100 to £110, in consequence of the enlargement of study and bedroom. Kennet-Were in the chair, Farrant a retired farmer of Sidbury & Pyle (? of Talaton) very hostile. The Committee refused to diminish it. Afternoon walked round by Gosford & Coombe Lake, and spent an hour with the daisies. A little rain.

Mar. 3.   Rainy forenoon, but in the afternoon it held up, so that I walked over to Escot for tea, where I found the Rev. W.E.S. Holland warden of the Oxford & Cambridge Hostel at Allahabad, a very interesting man, T.R.W. Lunt the Educational Secretary of C.M.S. his mother & wife. Col. Hon. Francis Bridgeman & his wife, a Mr. Gibb & his wife. Walked back with Lunt.

"  4.     Josephine & Lawrie left.

To Hospital Committee. I have joined the House Committee. Heavy rain with thunder & lightning. Then it cleared, and I walked round by the King’s School and Pitt’s Farm. After dinner motored with Scholes, Gabbett & Wyatt to the meeting at the Bishop’s Palace to hear Lunt & Holland speak to a meeting of laymen, on Christian Education in India & China. There were over 100 present. The speakers were admirable. Sir John moved & I seconded a vote of thanks. It was a stormy night. We got back about 11.30.

Mar. 5.    A Freesia fully out under the dining room window: it has been under a glass globe during the nights only. Prunus pissardi beaten by the heavy rain, so that the blossom is nearly finished. Buds of scarlet Ribes unfolded from the leaves. Petty Sessions. Went straight from them to the train for Exeter. Advisory Committee on Church Finance under the chairmanship of the Archdeacon. Agreed to make the Bishop’s Fund the Diocesan Board of Finance, & the Diocesan Conference the ultimate authority in financial matters, also to add a large lay element to the Executive Sub-committee, which will be the true Board. Tea with Archdeacon. After dinner here to Anti-suffrage meeting presided over by Sir John [Kennaway]. Speakers Mrs. Lane & GreatBatch; about 200 people. Resolution carried by a large majority. Rainy day.

[Mar.] 6.  To Exmouth by 9.12 to try on clothes, back by 10.51 & walked from Tipton. Fine sunny warm day. In the afternoon walked up to the opening of Cold Harbour Lane. Henry [Tozer] arrived by the 5.22 from Oxford. English irises several inches above the ground. White wild hyacinths given me by Walter King making great progress. The double pink peaches on the lower lawn ready to burst into flower.

"  7.    N.W. wind.  Morning sat with Willock to hear charge of burglary agst. one Geo[rge]. Pepperell at Miller & Letley’s office at Sidmouth. Remanded till 9th.

Afternoon walked up East Hill by Swain’s hill & back by Chineway.

By 5.22 to Sidmouth to stop at Marnies for a meeting against Suffragist movement, at which I took the chair. Address by [space] Pott & Mrs. Greatbatch both very good. Telegram from Morrison-Bell announcing his intention of voting agst. the conciliation bill. Good meeting at manor Hall, crowded, from 8.15 to 10.

[Mar.] 8.     Returned home by 10 o’clock train. Rain from S.W. Went on to Exeter by the 1 o’clock, called on the Prykes & then went to meeting of the Divisional Council of the Primrose League, Sir John [Kennaway] in the chair. Came home by the 3.25. Wrote to the Sec[retarie]s. of the Diocesan Conference suggesting that they should put my report on Child Labour in Eland’s hands for sale, and advertise it in the local papers.

"  9.     Rain early, wind S.W. on the whole fine day. Sat again with Willock to hear the charge agst. Geo[rge]. Pepperell and committed him for trial at Quarter Sessions. Met some children carrying purple & white scented violets picked in a side lane near here.

Mar. 10  Double peaches beginning to flower. A second Freesia out. Afternoon walked round by Gosford & Combe Lake. At Cadhay bridge over the Tale blackthorn in blossom, Dull day, very dry.

Mar. 11.  Fair day. Walked round by Pitt’s Farm, the School, Winters Lane &