The Henson Journals

[627]

Saturday, January 29th, 1916.

544th day

I devoted the morning to the Robertson Sermon. Later in the day one of new hon: canons, Macdonald, arrived with his wife to stay the week–end. Lillingston and his wife came in to dine. The Dean of Chichester (Hannah) sent me an interesting but not very informing letter about Robertson. He evidently belongs to the High Church section which sympathized with Wagner, the Vicar of Brighton, who refused to approve Robertson's nominee, Tower, as curate. He says that 'a fierce newspaper correspondence broke out in his time on the subject, when the Revd A. D. Wagner, the son of the old Vicar, took up the cudgels very strongly for his father'. The Dean adds that he 'is steeped in Robertson lore of a sort', but he is unable to throw any light on the point which puzzles me viz: how did the amazing popularity of the posthumously–published sermons arise?

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