5 Independence .sx Minnie was very happy to have Fred back home , frequently referring to how 'good' and 'nice' he was , how gently he behaved with his father , and what jolly company he provided .sx He also looked wonderful .sx When he went for a medical check-up , advisable after exposure to Egypt , Mama reported that the doctor said 'what magnificent health Fred was in , " like an Apollo " he said , in the perfection of his muscles .sx Lor !sx ' .sx Within weeks , Fred renewed the acquaintance he had made on the Nile with Lord Alfred Douglas , who introduced him to Oscar Wilde in June 1894 .sx Wilde presented Fred with a copy of his very rare and controversial book The Sphinx , inscribed " To E.F. Benson , with the compliments of the author , Oscar Wilde " .sx Limited to two hundred copies , The Sphinx needed to lurk in obscurity , for its pagan and homosexual themes artfully mingled with Christianity made it decidedly 'decadent' in the fashion of the day , and appearing at the very time that mad Lord Queensberry ( Alfred Douglas's father ) was being taunted to distraction by Wilde's impudent defiance , it would have been a dangerous provocation had the book been widely available .sx Shortly afterwards , Douglas gave Fred a copy of Wilde's even rarer Salome , limited to a mere one hundred copies .sx Wilde had written it in French and dedicated it to Douglas , who translated it into English .sx With illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley to add to the spice , Salome was soon notorious enough to be banned in England .sx It is indicative of the relative closeness of their friendship that Douglas signed his presentation copy with both their nicknames , " To Dodo from Bosie " .sx There is a delicious piquancy in the juxtaposition of events , that while Fred was enjoying the company of this amusing , intelligent but definitely louche society , his younger brother Hugh , now twenty-two years old , was taking Holy Orders .sx Edward was relieved that at least one of his sons should join the Church , and it was wholly appropriate that it should be Hugh , the most innocent and na i ve , the one who had been spoilt in compensation for the cruelly early death of Martin .sx The Archbishop had long surrendered hope for Arthur , old before his time , or Fred , apparently captive to frivolity .sx If Fred had felt any pressure to conform to paternal expectations , which had been unlikely since Cambridge days , the pressure was finally lifted when Hugh was ordained .sx Minnie began to fret that Fred was lacking direction , that he needed a job or at least something to do , but to suggest he was leading a life entirely devoted to amusement is unfair .sx He produced two learned papers for the Journal of Hellenic Studies which were so well received they were republished as pamphlets ; one was an archaeological and historical analysis of Aegosthena , the eastern-most bay of the Gulf of Corinth , the other a study of a fourth century Head in the Central Museum of Athens .sx Both came out in 1895 .sx Of far more interest to us is an article he wrote for the Contemporary Review in July of that year on a literary subject with strangely prescient echoes .sx In it , he starts by telling the reader that the attempts of biographers to illumine the work of artists by dwelling upon their personal habits is futile ( a view he will over - turn forty years later in his biography of Charlotte Bront e ) , then goes on to talk about the sad aberrant gene in the family of Charles Lamb :sx [Lamb's] sister .sx ..was liable to fits of madness , in one of which she killed her own mother .sx Later on these fits were preceded by some warning , and she would go voluntarily with her brother to the asylumn before they obtained complete mastery over her .sx A friend of the Lambs has related how on one occasion he met the brother and sister , at such a season , walking hand in hand across the field to the old asylumn , both bathed in tears .sx .sx Quite apart from this being a rather moving image , it is also a personal one , and the first time , so far as I am able to discover , that E.F. Benson mentions the subject of inherited madness .sx It is another mark of Benson reticence that he would never use the word when referring to the misfortunes that befell his own flesh and blood , although he must have reflected upon their source and , when he was writing about Lamb , he would have witnessed the first distressing signs of them .sx His father had always been prone to melancholia , and we have seen that Minnie pleaded with him to seek help of medical men to combat what she was certain was a disease .sx Arthur , though respectful in his diary , is initially much more hostile , ascribing his father's moods to sulking and petulance .sx Edward was " unscrupulous , bringing in higher motives to make people do as he liked , and talking pathetically about other people's selfishness , when it was only a question of two alternatives , one of which he did not happen to care for .sx " The Archbishop longed to be surrounded by love and joy , yet was unable to see that enjoyment could not be compelled , and when thwarted in his desire he was convinced that everyone was doing wrong .sx Thus justified , he would revert to his black moods of despair at the essential sinfulness of humankind .sx Arthur was not free from the taint , and in 1895 began to feel renewed stirrings of that 'black dog' which would eventually make his life a misery .sx As yet it was faint and mysterious .sx He told his mother that he was suffering from " a peculiar nervous condition the discomfort of which I can hardly describe " .sx As the years went on the condition hardened , and he would expend much of his energy on the attempt to describe it .sx Then there was Maggie , who suffered from pain at the temples and head and was liable to throw herself into a temper with very little provocation .sx In Athens she had suffered what was euphemistically called an 'attack' , and it had befallen Fred to coax her back into self-control , a task he had undertaken with a ready heart .sx Minnie had written to him that he was " a son who inherits his mother's propensities in some things " , a reflection which was looking more and more true as they stood together against the illnesses which threatened the rest of the family .sx To Maggie she wrote , with mock hilarity which in the circumstances was perhaps ill-judged , " Oh do be normal , " and " PUL-EASE do what is best .sx " Maggie had been told by someone that she was a disagreeable sort of person , and had brooded upon an insult which she might earlier have dismissed as pointless .sx Her mother begged her not to distress her " blessed little mind " over it ; she didn't - " I larf , I dew .sx " .sx When Maggie returned to London she was sent to consult the eminent gynaecologist Dr Mary Scharlieb , which suggested her trouble might be more physical than psychological , but the diagnosis was vague - " congestion , dilation , displacement " .sx In her diary in 1896 , Minnie confided that she had endured the anxiety about Maggie for three years , together with anxiety about Edward and , for good measure , irritation with Lucy Tait as well .sx Lucy worked hard among the poor , as had Nelly , and like many martyrs longed for her martyrdom to be acknowledged .sx She chided Minnie with lack of sympathy for herself or for the poor and , more ominously , began to show authority in the household at Lambeth :sx " [Lucy] was didactic and I was unkind and huffy , " wrote Minnie .sx " She laid down the law .sx " That was precisely the characteristic of Miss Tait which would eventually break the Benson family apart .sx Pathetically , through all this Minnie is wont to blame herself .sx If only she was less self-indulgent , less fond of comfort , had more humility , and so on - " oh how often would things have been better if I had held my tongue three minutes more .sx " .sx Fortunately , Fred gave no cause for worry , apart from an excessive fondness for whisky and wine ; this gave rise to quarrels with the abstemious Archbishop which made Fred furious at first , though all was generally resolved in humorous fashion .sx When he went to stay with Lady Henry Somerset he had to conceal his bottle ; he told Bishop Talbot " in that unalcoholic hospitality I secretly purchased a bottle of whisky for private consumption , and how Lady Henry shouted with laughter when in a conscientious fit I confessed .sx " .sx There is no evidence whatever that the scandal which consumed Oscar Wilde and Fred's friend Lord Alfred Douglas in 1895 reverberated within the walls of Lambeth Palace , although it would be impossible to believe that they never discussed it .sx Minnie was no stranger to these delicate matters .sx Two of her closest friends were sisters - Adeline , Duchess of Bedford and Lady Henry Somerset , daughters of the redoubtable Lady Somers who was one of the fabulously beautiful Pattle sisters .sx Lord Henry Somerset , a son of the Duke of Beaufort , had been driven out of the country in 1879 when his interfering mother-in-law broadcast his love for a seventeen-year-old boy .sx Ten years later his brother , Lord Arthur Somerset , was implicated in the Cleveland Street scandal revolving around the use of a male brothel in central London .sx Thus Wilde's dilemma was not as novel as some of those in court liked to pretend , and Mrs Benson would certainly have known what it was all about .sx If she or her husband remonstrated with Fred about his friendship with such people , all references to their discussions have disappeared .sx In later years Fred distanced himself from Wilde and his disgrace , managing deftly to express compassion and disapproval with the same voice .sx Wilde's second trial was a " savage stupidity " , since the man was already ruined after the first .sx His " poor tortured soul " produced one of the finest ballads in the language , yet his prose suffered from " tawdry glitter " .sx Wilde's tastes were not " ordinary" , his appetites " uncontrollable " ( is it fair to read into this choice of word an implication that Fred's appetites were strictly ) .sx And here the pious and the forgiving combine :sx " the slime of intemperance and perverted passions gathered upon him again , till the wheels of his soul were choked with it .sx No decent man can feel anything put sheer pity and sympathy for one so gifted and so brittle and withal so lovable .sx " .sx Immediately after the Wilde trials there was a panic of emigration from the country by frightened or prudent homosexuals .sx One such , who settled in Capri , was an interesting but indolent poet called John Ellingham Brooks .sx He will bring a tangent upon Fred's story a little later .sx At the same time , Arthur was relishing his friendship with Henry James , whose letters to him are maddeningly elliptical .sx While it is possible to suppose their florid , perfervid style is Jamesian in rhetoric , some of the phrases he employs merit a stab at bewildered reflection .sx " I am divided between two sensations , " he tells Arthur , " painting for tomorrow p.m. or blushing for all the hours of all the past days " , and he signs off , " Yours almost uncontrollably " .sx A couple of months later he is talking of " an indestructible tenderness " and lamenting the passage of time which keeps him and Arthur apart :sx long-quotation .sx He signs off with typical flourish :sx " Farewell , noble ghost .sx There is no life , but I am if not for time at least for eternity yours .sx " .sx Shortly afterwards , James took the lease on a cottage with a view at Point Hill , near Rye ( presaging his , and Arthur's , and Fred's eventual adoption of the town ) , whither Arthur sent him a photograph of himself which James received with " a good conscience if not with mad rapture " .sx The letters demonstrate , too , the evident pleasure James derived from his visits to Addington and his very warm appreciation of the " noble courtesy and kindness " of Edward and Minnie .sx He also mentions Fred in flattering terms as " your gallant brother , my illustrious colleague , or rather confr e-grave re .sx Please assure him of my watchful interest when you have a chance .sx " .sx