Great discussion. Thanks everyone. And keep making comments, if you want.
I remember Arthur making the distinction between things (a place to stay, money in a few cases) that he just gave people, on the one hand, and loans he made to friends. He said that it irked him that with the loans, when people did not repay, they often clearly avoided him - would not talk to him, would see him and walk around a corner stuff like that.
In terms of my ow thinking, and in terms of what people have said in this thread, I can easily decide that he should have had a lawyer - or at least a noterized paper spelling out details, signed by himself and the person he loaned to. The informality probably felt good at the time, but I guess it just proved impractical.
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