The Henson Journals

[249]

Monday, June 21st, 1915.

322nd day

The Caröes left early. I attended Mattins in the Cathedral. We motored into Northumberland, & lunched with the Tullibardines, who had established themselves temporarily in a commodious & beautifully situated house near Bedlington. Among the officers was one, Leslie, who claimed to have met me before when he acted as secretary to Sir Wm Anson at All Souls. I did not remember his face, but that proves nothing against the probable truth of his recollection. Lord Tullibardine gave me a racy description of his recruiting experiences in the island of Tralee, where the Gaelic speaking inhabitants are mostly 'Wee Frees', and live in the continuing sense of Hell as an imminent fate! After lunch we went on to Bedlington, and called at the Rectory. The Frasers seem to be very happy in the parish, but I heard with regret that Fraser has given credit to the soldiers' stories of angels appearing on the battle fields to succour our men against the Germans, and that he actually preached on this theme to his parishioners! Superstition is not very far from any of us in these times of emotional strain. On our way homewards we stopped in Newcastle, while Ella called at the Nursing Home to see Mrs Quirk, and we both called on the Miss Olivers, & had tea with them. We reached home about 6.15 p.m. The 'Northern Mail' has a fair account of my speech of yesterday, evidently framed from my notes, which I threw down to the Reporters' table. In the Newcastle paper some kindly person has thought it worth while to extract Fry's attack on me at the meeting of the 'Church Reform League'. It is marked by his too–familiar characteristics, & has an offensive ring, but nevertheless I shall not answer it. In this time of tragedy, the one thing which we cannot tolerate is personal controversy.

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