THE LATE. MRS. W. T. ARNOLD.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sra,—The many friends of the late William Thomas Arnold, for many years one of the leading members of the staff of the Manchester Guardian and a frequent contributor to the Spectator, in whose columns, in 1902-3, over the signature " Vigilans Sed 2Equus," appeared the brilliant series of letters predicting with astonishing accuracy the great catastrophe of 1914, will be grieved to hear of the sudden death of his widow on Tuesday. Granddaughter, on the paternal side, of Sir Charles Brent Wale, K.C.B., of Little Shelford, Cambridge, and on the maternal side of Archbishop Whateley, the famous Archbishop of Dublin and intimate friend of "Arnold of Rugby," Henrietta Wale had inherited the same deep Jove of humanity, and not only of humanity, but of all living creatures, which inspired the life and work of her brilliant husband. Though in her seventy-second year, her activities, always the astonishment of her friends, remained unchanged to the end, and only the night before her death she had attended a meeting of the Chelsea Branch of the "League of Nations Union," a cause she had embraced with the fine enthusiasm which was the keynote of her character. Darting with her quick, alert step along the crowded
pavements, or running after a 'bus with the energy of a girl of twenty, the indomitable little figure in its black dress, with its .forward, eager carriage of the head, as if always looking out for someone to help, or some stray dog or cat to rescue, and its unmistakable look of breeding, will long be missed from that part of Chelsea in which her home—at 4 Carlyle Square—was situated. Her house-to-house visiting for one of the Fulham After-Care Committees brought her into close contact with many of her poorer neighbours, who came to love and bless her. Her little Monday afternoon working party, which for many years had never failed to meet and from which a constant stream of useful garments went out to the poor and needy in all parts of the world ; her work during the War in helping to trace the wounded and missing, and, above all, her never-failing activity on behalf of her beloved "dumb friends "—by all these things was her life filled, yet not so much so as not to leave her plenty of time for her personal friends, of whom she had a large and attached circle, who will mourn and miss her long and truly.
By such lives as hers the world is permanently enriched, for the soul of Henrietta Arnold was filled with a passionate love of God and of all the works of His hands.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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