June 26 Wednesday – The big day in Oxford, England: The Encoeonia (conferring of degrees) took place at the Sheldonian Theater in the morning.
Exactly one month later, Sam wrote of the affair:
June 26-29 – Countess of Jersey sent her “AT Home” notice for June 29 and July 7 [MTP].
June 26–July 13 – E.B. Forbes Watson for The Student, Edinburgh University to ask for “some contribution for publication” [MTP].
June 27 Thursday – Sam attended the Oxford Pageant. The Oxford Chronicle, June 28, p.16, “Yesterday at the Pageant” reported Sam’s appearance at 3:45 p.m. The London Daily Express, reported on the gala event, (June 28, p. 1, “Pageant in the Mist”) and on Mark Twain’s attendance:
The first performance of the Oxford Pageant began yesterday [June 27] in a blaze of glory, and closed—amid cheers—in a Scotch mist.
June 28 Friday – Though all 27 days Sam spent in England were busy, Sam labeled this day as especially so. From Sam’s A.D. for July 30:
June 29 Saturday – The London Times on July 1, ran “Mark Twain and the Savage Club” about the Lord Mayor of London giving a dinner with Mark Twain as guest, Saturday night (June 29) at the Savage Club. But first, Sam had to travel to Stratford for a luncheon and be trapped by Marie Corelli. Sam’s own words are the best account of the event, which he tried unsuccessfully to wriggle out of:
June 30 Sunday – At Brown’s Hotel In London Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Katonah, N.Y.
July to August – Sam wrote a sketch unpublished until 2009: “The Force of ‘Suggestion’” [Who Is Mark Twain? xxvi, 51-54].
July – Sometime after his return to Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick [MTP].
In London Sam inscribed a photograph of himself in front of the House of Parliament, to I. Benjamin Stone [MTP].
After June An unidentified person “G” wrote a spoof to Sam about the stolen Ascot Cup.
July 1 Monday – Clara Clemens and Isabel Lyon were on board the Red Cross liner Rosalind from New York off the coast of Halifax, Nova Scotia when it collided with the coast steamer Senlac. The Rosalind was not damaged, but the other vessel was, all passengers escaping to the Rosalind. “Miss Clemens says that, instead of going to St. John’s, as she intended, she will return to New York” [NY Times, July 2, p.2, “Steamer Run Down by Liner Rosalind”]. See IVL’s journal entry below.
July 2 Tuesday – Ashcroft’s note: “Lunched with Henniker-Heaton, M.P., at the House of Commons; dined with Mr. and Mrs. Harry Brittain at the Savoy” [MTFWE 85].
The London Evening News, July 2, p.1, reported on Sam’s doings for the day.
MARK TWAIN AT WESTMINSTER.
Smoking the cigar which would seem never to go out, Dr. Mark Twain drove in a taximo to his photographer-in-ordinary, Mr. H. Walter Barnett, of Knightsbridge.
July 3 Wednesday – Ashcroft’s note: “Wednesday, July 3. Luncheon with George Bernard Shaw; dined with Moberly Bell” [MTFWE 88].
In London, Sam lunched with Mr. and Mrs. George Bernard Shaw at their flat in Adelphi Terrace. Also at the luncheon were Herbert Beerbohm Tree and Prof. Archibald Henderson, who had sailed over with Sam to gather biographical information on Shaw [London Tribune, July 4, p.6; London Daily Mail, July 4, p.5].
Sam’s A.D. of Aug. 23, 1907 covered the Shaw luncheon:
July 4 Thursday – London. Ashcroft’s notes: “Lunched at Sir James Knowles’s; attended the banquet in celebration of Independence Day at the Hotel Cecil” [MTFWE 91].
July 5 Friday – Ashcroft’s notes: “Dined with Lord and Lady Portsmouth. Forty or fifty guests; two or three hundred came in afterward” [MTB 1399; MTFWE 108]. Note: Earl and Countess of Portsmouth (Newton and Beatrice Wallop). London’s Daily Telegraph, July 6, p.12, “LONDON DAY BY DAY” reported the event plus what the Countess had called a “small party” when inviting Sam.
July 6 Saturday – Ashcroft’s notes:
July 7 Sunday – Ashcroft’s notes:
Called on Lady Langattock and others. Lunched with Sir Norman Lockyer
Except Linley Sambourne, the veteran Punch cartoonist, and Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge,whom I had known in Australia in ’95, all present were scientists.
July 8 Monday – Ashcroft’s notes: “Lunched with Plasmon directors at Bath Club. Dined privately at C.F. Moberly Bell’s” [MTB 1399]. From Sam’s A.D. of Aug. 30, 1907:
July 9 Tuesday – Ashcroft’s notes: “Lunched at the House [of Commons] with Sir Benjamin Stone. Many guests, chief among them Mr. Balfour, and Komura, the Japanese Ambassador, were the other guests of honor. Punch dinner in the evening. Joy Agnew and the cartoon” [MTB 1399; MTFWE 108 combined]. Note: the cartoon (by Bernard Partridge) referred to may be seen in June 25 entry. It is not the inserted one below by W.A. Rogers.
July 10 Wednesday – Ashcroft’s notes: “Went to Liverpool with Tay Pay. Attended banquet in the Town Hall in the evening” [MTB 1399]. Note: “Tay Pay” was T.P. O’Connor.
Insert Cartoon. Caption: “Mark Twain and the Jumping John Bull Frog have been having a good time together” [The Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury, July 9, 1907, p. 9].
The Evening Standard and London St. James’s Gazette reported on Sam’s departure for Liverpool.
MARK TWAIN
July 11 Thursday – Ashcroft’s notes: “Returned to London with Tay Pay. Calls in the afternoon” [MTB 1399].
In Liverpool, England Sam sent a telegram to Henry Rawcliffe Kirkland in West Kirby, England:
“Very very sorry not to have seen you please accept my cordial thanks for your kind letter and my hearty wish for renewed health and strength for you / Mark Twain” [MTP].
July 12 Friday – At Brown’s Hotel in London Sam wrote to daughter Clara, a letter which reveals his activities this final day in England:
Clärchen dear, we sail tomorrow in the Minnetonka (I think.) We are due to arrive in 8 or 9 days.
I have been most mannerly & etiquetical. I have returned every call—card-calls by card, delivered by myself; personal calls in person.
July 13 Saturday – The Pall Mall Gazette, announced the leaving of Mark Twain.
July 14 Sunday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka. This from a Mark Twain dispatch to the NY Times from London, July 17: “Left the Channel Sunday at 1:50 in doubtful weather and sighted the Scilly Islands ten miles off. At 6 o’clock ran into a dense fog, which broke into patches during the night” [July 18, p.4, “From Twain by Wireless”].
Harry E. Brittain wrote from Westminster to send Sam a photo that appeared in the Sphere; he asked Ashcroft if he could obtain Sam’s autograph on the photo [MTP].
July 15 Monday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka. The ship struck a small French bark, the Sterling on this day. New York Tribune, July 20, p.7:
Steamer Minnetonka, at sea, July 20.
July 16 Tuesday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka.
Cooley writes of the time aboard ship and of a new acquaintance made with one of the younger of 129 passengers during the voyage, likely early on: