Arguments between Common Room

After 12, I walked for 3 hours with O. in the shrubbery and read the letter.

It did not pacify him. “The Warden had not in the least retracted the conclusion to which he had been led originally by N’s false statement”. However after afternoon Roll we walked to Radley Copse and there while gathering orchises and anemones I induced him to consent to make a statement to the effect that he would waive the question of the injustice done to him, and sacrifice as far as might be his private feelings to the good of the place. Accordingly, after tea we concocted a letter for him to myself which the Warden received kindly. At 9½ the Warden accordingly came to his room and a reconciliation was effected, O. being quite satisfied with the kindness and sincerity of the Warden’s manner. And so to bed with a quiet mind, after feeling as if I had been in hot water for 3 days. God be praised who alone enabled me in this matter to become a Peacemaker. Amen.

William Wood’s Diary 1855-1861, ed. by Mark Spurrell, is available from Oxfordshire Record Society. These excerpts are presented to give a flavour of life at Radley in the 1850s