In 1947, when Ronald Knox moved in to the Manor House at Mells to stay, it seemed as if St Jerome had taken up residence. \u201cAll that is needed,\u201d\u009d wrote Daphne Pollen, a frequent visitor, \u201cis a lion.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
For Ronald Knox had just completed his single-handed translation of the Bible, in idiomatic if poised English. His character, given to melancholy, had considerably less asperity than St Jerome\u2019s. He was hypersensitive to causing trouble. \u201cWhen would K least hate for me to arrive?\u201d\u009d he asked of the head of his new household.<\/p>\n
This was Katharine Asquith, the widow of the prime minister\u2019s son Raymond, killed in the Great War. To her had come Mells, a medieval house set off by a lovely 16th-century church and ancient Somerset village. She had with some sacrifice embraced Catholicism, struck by the way faith had sustained her friend Hilaire Belloc after his wife\u2019s death.<\/p>\n