The Henson Journals

[427]

Wednesday, October 6th, 1915.

429th day

The morning brought me a letter of abusive protest from a certain Charles Bevan of Birmingham, occasioned by a brief summary of my sermon at S. Nicolas Cole Abbey, on Sunday night. It winds up with the admonition 'for God's sake get out of the Church: you are out of place there'! This discloses a singular state of mind. From a motive, less rational than whimsical, I wrote him a 'mild answer'. The long casualty list in the "Times" contains the names of Burrows and Smith, sons respectively of the Bishop of Sheffield & of Principal George Adam Smith. I wrote brief letters of condolence to both. Also I wrote to Prof. E. A. [sic] Moore, of Harvard, setting forth the reasons why I earnestly desired that America should join the Allies: and to Jack Boden in Bombay.

Ella arrived at lunch time by an earlier train than she had said, so that none met her at the station. After lunch we sent off some telegrams, and walked on the cliffs.

[429]

Marion carried us all to a soldiers' concert in the Home, where she nurses. There can be no doubt about the cheerfulness of the convalescents. The singing was ardent, & unending: & everything was enthusiastically encored, so that the entertainment was rather excessively lengthy. We got home in a puddle–haunted darkness about 11 p.m. There the 'Westminster Gazette' awaited us with the sinister information that the King of Greece has tripped up Venezelos a second time. The minister has resigned immediately after gaining a majority in the Chamber for his policy.

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