LOUIS SIMPSON
587
failed marriages, abortions.
In the States this kind of writing was called confessional. It was the op–
posite ofwhat I thought poetry should
be ...
a work of imagination.
There was a Buddhist Society in London. Every week I traveled with
my wife to 58 Eccleston Square for meditation sessions. They were led by
Christmas Humphreys, who founded the Society and had written a number
of
books
on Buddhism.
He was also a judge, and his father had been a judge before him. This
led to a misunderstanding on my part. Ajudge named Humphreys had
presided at famous trials, among them the trial of Mrs. Rattenbury and her
lover, George Stoner. Thisjudge spoke of Mrs. Rattenbury in such scathing
terms that although the jury found her innocent of her husband's murder,
af–
ter the trial she walked down
to
a stream and stabbed herself repeatedly in
the heart with a knife.
I thought this judge was Christmas Humphreys, and I wondered how
he had found the peace of Buddha. But consulting
The Dictionary
ofNational
Biography
I found that he was Sir Travers Humphreys, Christmas
Humphreys's father. The dictionary said that he believed that capital and
corporal punishment helped to diminish crime and that "too much emphasis on
the comfort of prisoners encouraged it."
I still wondered how it was possible for a Buddhist to be ajudge. But
Christmas Humphreys was not intransigent like his father. When we medi–
tated we had to sit straight as boards, not letting the mind wander. But af–
terwards he was approachable. I told him that I would like to take my wife
and children to see a trial at the Old Bailey. He said that we could come one
day when he was on the bench.
We went on the appointed day. At first the policeman at the door
wouldn't let us in ... children were not admitted. But when we said we were
friends ofMr. Justice Humphreys he admitted us at once.
"Don't expect anything exciting to happen," I warned Annie and Tony,
"it'll probably be traffic tickets." We sat and looked around. When I was a
boy looking at the books in my father's library there were pictures of the Old
Bailey:
'Twas London's Old Bailey and so crowded is the court,
Excitement is stamped on each face .
There's Lords of the Land and Ladies so grand,
To hear a sensational case.
The famous trials held more drama than most novels. The case of
Hawley Harvey Crippen who fled on an ocean liner with his typist, Miss Le
Neve, disguised as a boy ... They were overtaken by Chief Inspector Dew
traveling on a faster ocean liner. The "Brides in the Bath" murders ...
The first case today was that of a man arrested for burglary. He was
