Introduction
We continue surveying Arthur Machen’s late column “Gossip About Books and Authors” for the Evening News. Brief and entertaining, these dispatches are worthwhile reading, even today. Below, Machen’s treatment of Sadler’s novel makes one desire to know more about that author and his work. However, we may spot weaknesses. Machen’s full acceptance and endorsement of what clearly is propaganda hasn’t aged well.
Gossips About Books and Authors
by
Arthur Machen
July 13, 1918
I am glad to see that Mr. B. W. Matz, that well-known student of Dickens, has written a book about “The George Inn, Southwark” (Chapman and Hall, 2s. 6d. net). The George is the very last of the old galleried inns of London, and even the George is but a fragment. One side of it only survives, the other two have been utterly destroyed. Twenty years ago the Bell in Holborn was a perfect specimen of the old English inn, which I, for one, love so much better than the new cosmopolitan hotel.
“The Anchor,” by M. T. H. Sadler (Constable), is not perhaps a very good novel. But it is a very interesting experiment. There is a newness in the author’s vision of things which seems to me to promise that he will experiment and experiment again, and that he will find gold in his crucible at last.
One of the best things in the book is the description of a taxi-drive from Paddington to St. Pancras. Here the note is pleasantly acid:
Then the spacious wickedness of Euston-road. Magnificently London – those sour, secretive terraces with their “Bed and Breakfast” – as good as an alliteration as”Roses and Rapture,” anyway, and, under the circumstances, more accurate.
The Abbé of Wetterlé was for sixteen years one of the Deputies representing Alsace-Lorraine in the German Reichstag. He has told the story of his Parliamentary life in “Behind the Scenes in the Reichstag” (Hodder and Stoughton, 6s. net).
The Abbé made no secret of his fervent French sympathies, and he made acquaintance with the inside of a German prison in consequence. But it would appear that the authorities were afraid of him and his agitation. The prison doctor insisted, in spite of the Abbé’s denials, that he was a sufferer from dyspepsia, and insisted on the prisoner’s meals being sent in from a restaurant, though the Abbé wished to be treated as a common prisoner.
I do not know whether we have all cleared our mind of that particular piece of cant which pretends that the German nation is good and kindly, as opposed to its Government, and more especially its Kaiser, who is wicked and cruel. Abbé Wetterlé makes short work of that view:–
The principal reason why William II. became popular in Germany was his well-known hesitancy and pusillanimity, whereas the whole population was in favour of a more aggressive international policy. In 1913, and in the spring of 1914, the Berlin crowds were sulky with the Emperor, whilst the Crown Prince was the object of noisy orations every time he appeared in public.
Exactly: the war, with all its treacheries and cruelties, lies, and abominations, was undoubtedly broad-based upon the people’s will. So it was and so it is now. A neutral who has just returned from Germany reports that the joy over the sinking of the Llandovery Castle was universal.
“Raising and Training the New Armies,” by Captain Basil Williams (Constable. 5s. Net) is a very useful and intelligent survey of the immense process of the last few years. It was thought out of the question that England should ever raise an army on the immense continental scale. To the amazement of the world and to her own amazement, England did raise an Army.
Of course there were mistakes, even grievous mistakes. Captain Williams tells how at the beginning of the war, the War Office made its appeal for recruits, and was swamped by the tens of thousands of recruits who started up on the summons. The War Office in bewilderment raised the standard and damped down the recruiting ardour, and with it, as the author thinks, “something of the fine spirit of those days.
The Weekly Machen
Previous: Gossip About Books and Authors (10/20/1917)
Next: Gossip About Books and Authors (5/19/1919)
darklybrightpress.com 
Thanks for this!
Michael Sadler does seem to have had quite a like, judging by his Wikipedia article, “Michael Sadleir” – which says that at some point
“He adopted the older variant of his surname to differentiate himself from his father, a historian, educationist, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds.” In his father’s article we read that he, Sir Michael was Vice-Chancellor of Leeds (during Tolkien’s time there) and returned to Oxford as Master of University College (Lewis’s undergraduate college) from 1923-34 (coinciding with those two Inklings teaching at Oxford). The Internet Archive has a scan of the American edition of The Anchor – which did not appear until 1920.
Wikipedia’s article, “The George Inn, Southwark”, gives happy evidence that today “It is the only surviving galleried coaching inn in London.” And it has lots of illustrations from different periods – and links a transcription of Matz’s book as a Wikisource.
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I never thought to look up the history of the “bed and breakfast”, but was surprised to see it as a familiar name of the Nineteen-teens! I think I assumed it was post Word War II if not more recent still (having enjoyably stayed in any number as a student-traveller).
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Oops! “World” – I wonder how many and ancient are the ‘Word-Wars’?
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