The Henson Journals

[109]

Saturday, January 2nd, 1915.

152nd day

The year begins with very bad news. Yesterday (New Year's Day) witnessed a very bad railway smash at Ilford, and the sinking of the battleship "Formidable" in the Channel. It seems certain that the bulk of her complement (750) has perished. This sub–marine warfare is horrifying: it has the fell mystery of unsuspected poison as well as the fearful mortality of war. I attended Mattins in the Cathedral, & then finished my sermon for tomorrow. After lunch I walked with Linetta for an hour: & then went to Evensong. Then I wrote letters until dinner. Two telegrams from the Editor of the "Times" asking whether I was preaching tomorrow, &, if so, that I would send a summary of my discourse indicated that the services tomorrow are regarded with more public interest than I had supposed probable. I allowed a brace of local press men to make some extracts. In the course of the afternoon I visited old Canon Greenwell. He said that he remembered well the invasion of Hungary by the Russians after the troubles of 1848. After dinner the indefatigable Linetta again assaulted the well–defended citadel of my ignorance. Thirty years ago, when the power to learn had not yet wholly deserted me, she might had had some result of her efforts: but the reluctant intelligence of middle age presents an insuperable barrier to the entrance of every kind of new knowledge

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