The Henson Journals

[8]

Friday, October 3rd, 1913.

I devoted the day to the preparation of an "Inaugural Lecture" on 'History as a guide to Social Reform', and delivered the poor result of my labours to a meeting of the "Workers' Educational Association" in Newcastle. The audience included several clergymen & ladies, but the bulk of it was composed of eminently respectable artisans. They listened with sombre attentiveness, and applauded demurely when I sate down: but the tone of my references to current social efforts was too detached & depressing for them: & they were perhaps a little disappointed. Ella went with me. We returned to Durham by a slow train stated to arrive at 10.11 p.m. It actually reached Durham at 10.55 p.m.

On the station in Newcastle I bought for sevenpence "The Autobiography of Mark Rutherford", and finished reading it through before going to bed. It is a striking picture of the spiritual penury & mental squalor of English Dissent.

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