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May I take advantage of the Knight-Boulding competence of a number  
of HES members to add another query?   
 
In annotating Harrod's correspondence with Knight, I came across a  
reference to Boulding, which maybe someone could help explaining.   
 
Harrod wrote, in July 1937: 
 
"You speak of the decay of the aristocratic tradition. That is no doubt  
due to the low birth-rate of the aristocrats. I suppose the face of  
Oxford has been transformed since the last century. The majority of  
undergraduates are of an entirely different class. This is not, I believe,  
because the old class are not sending their sons, but because they have  
not the sons to send. The vacant places are filled by others. I feel that  
what I see going on before me is immensely encouraging, that what is  
valuable in our tradition is being preserved, albeit in a sense completely  
transmuted.* The manners and feelings of the men are in a way quite  
different. But the tradition of leadership is preserved and indeed  
transfused with a new vitality. The effect of this on the government of  
the country has not yet appeared. I have confidence that when the new  
generation does work through, it will preserve a liberal faith and a  
power of leadership and also a power of adaptation to new  
circumstances which will come to it naturally because it is itself of a  
different social origin."   
 
Knight underlined the words ' low birth-rate of the aristocrats ' and  
'have not the sons to send', and commented in the margin, next to the  
sentence marked with a *: "Inf of women? cf. Boulding".   
 
Any ideas as to what he meant? Ross Emmett suggested that Knight  
might have meant that aristocratic sons were no longer attending  
Oxford, possibly because of the influence of women being admitted. In  
the midst of the latest Knight-Boulding discussion on this list, Ross  
wrote back to me and suggested that maybe Boulding was a case in  
point. Sounds possible, but I wonder whether there is some evidence  
supporting this. Maybe a biography or autobiography of Boulding  
could help: does one exist? 
 
Thank you. 
 
Daniele Besomi 
 
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