The Remains of the Day pdfdrive com

DAY THREE · EVENING
Moscombe, near Tavistock, Devon
I feel I should perhaps return a moment to the question of his lordship’s
attitude to Jewish persons, since this whole issue of anti-Semitism, I
realize, has become a rather sensitive one these days. In particular, let
me clear up this matter of a supposed bar against Jewish persons on the
staff at Darlington Hall. Since this allegation falls very directly into my
own realm, I am able to refute it with absolute authority. There were
many Jewish persons on my staff throughout all my years with his
lordship, and let me say furthermore that they were never treated in any
way differently on account of their race. One really cannot guess the
reason for these absurd allegations – unless, quite ludicrously, they
originate from that brief, entirely insignificant few weeks in the early
thirties when Mrs Carolyn Barnet came to wield an unusual influence
over his lordship.
Mrs Barnet, the widow of Mr Charles Barnet, was at that point in her
forties – a very handsome, some might say glamorous lady. She had a
reputation for being formidably intelligent, and in those days one often
tended to hear of how she had humiliated this or that learned gentleman
at dinner over some important contemporary issue. For much of the
summer of 1932, she was a regular presence at Darlington Hall, she and
his lordship often spending hour after hour deep in conversation,
typically of a social or political nature. And it was Mrs Barnet, as I recall,
who took his lordship on those ‘guided inspections’ of the poorest areas
of London’s East End, during which his lordship visited the actual homes
of many of the families suffering the desperate plight of those years.
That is to say, Mrs Barnet, in all likelihood, made some sort of
contribution to Lord Darlington’s developing concern for the poor of our
country and as such, her influence cannot be said to have been entirely
negative. But she was too, of course, a member of Sir Oswald Mosley’s
‘blackshirts’ organization, and the very little contact his lordship ever
had with Sir Oswald occurred during those few weeks of that summer.

---

And it was during those same weeks that those entirely untypical
incidents took place at Darlington Hall which must, one supposes, have
provided what flimsy basis exists for these absurd allegations.
I call them ‘incidents’ but some of these were extremely minor. For
instance, I recall overhearing at dinner one evening, when a particular
newspaper had been mentioned, his lordship remarking: ‘Oh, you mean
that Jewish propaganda sheet.’ And then on another occasion around
that time, I remember his instructing me to cease giving donations to a