The Henson Journals

[664]

Tuesday, April 18th, 1916.

624th day

Cloudy & mild. I received the Holy Communion at 8 a.m. The Bishop of Jarrow was celebrant. I started to work at my Good Friday sermon, but made little progress, partly perhaps, of the thundery atmosphere. There were heavy downpourings at intervals. I attended Evensong, and afterwards spent nearly two hours with Clarence Stock in arranging the new supply of wine in the cellar – surely the oddest form of disciplinary exercise for a clergyman in Holy Week! Ethel Gore–Booth arrived on a visit. The Deanery is too full for the time, & my work suffers in consequence.

List of Wine in the Cellar:

1	Bottle of	Cognac
3	" "	Whiskey
8	" "	Sherry
19	" "	Port
30	" "	Moselle
30	" "	Hock
36	" "	Champagne
5½	½	"
6	" "	Claret

To this we added the new supply of 18 dozen of Claret, & 4 doz: of Burgundy. I shall buy no more German wines, until (if Heaven grant it) I can again visit Germany, & resume intercourse with German Folk. For the nonce, I confine myself (not without misgivings) to the Latin Nations, (morally decadent & largely papistical communities!)

Hughes came in to dinner: & the evening passed pleasantly enough, though none of the ladies could play the piano! On the whole, I think there is much to be said for the female accomplishments, which were once so much regarded, & now so generally discarded. For men seek recreation in the society of women, not (as the Bluestockings vainly pretend) intellectual comradeship. This they must find in the members of their own sex, who are colleagues and partners in the business of life. The Suffrage Movement has disgusted women for their true rôle in society.

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Issues and controversies: female suffrage