Other Fiction Benson, Arthur Christopher: Father Payne, LIT v1, 29 March 2010.

[Patricia]

Arthur Christopher Benson [1862–1925]
Father Payne [1915]

The story of how group of young Oxford men have an edifying association with “Father Payne.” He is not actually in holy orders but is an older Anglican layman. I can’t resist the supposition that the author – who was a Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge – had an urge to pass on his thoughts about the philosophy of education, growing up, writing, and general musings about life and religion.

A.C. Benson is best known as the author of “Land of Hope and Glory.” He was the son of an Archbishop of Canterbury, and a brother to the novelists, E. F. Benson and Robert Hugh Benson.

An extract:
“and then he quoted the supposed remark of the bishop who declined to wear gaiters, and said, ‘I shall wear no clothes to distinguish myself from my fellow-Christians.’ This was printed in his biography, ‘I shall wear no clothes, to distinguish myself from my fellow-Christians.’ ‘That sentence may be fairly called ambiguous,’ Collins said, ‘when its sense so much depends upon punctuation.’”

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