The Henson Journals

[2]

Tuesday, March 20th, 1917.

960th day

The faithless porter who was to have called me at 6 a.m., failed to do so. Happily I was awake, & rose of my own accord. However, there was breakfast duly provided, & I succeeded in catching the 7.38 a.m. train to Birmingham. This was by no means a reasonable route to Lichfield, as I discovered at Derby, where the train made a lengthened stop. I was advised to go to Burton, & there change into a train for Lichfield. This course was adopted. At Burton there was a delay of more than 2 hours. This I utilized by visiting the fine modern church erected by the opulent piety of that Prince of Beer, Lord Burton. Here I was interested in the papers & pamphlets exposed for sale, or set out for the reading of the faithful. Among the latter was a paper on 'Reservation' by Ronald Knox, in the course of which he says that the Church is 'the same, yesterday, today, yea, and for ever'. This language is, in the Scripture, applied to our Lord. It is significant that the protagonist of Ritualism should apply it to "the Church". At Burton Ella joined me, having travelled from Durham by the early train. We arrived at Lichfield at 1.50 p.m., & were met by the carriage, & carried to Stowe House. During the afternoon I wrote some letters, and had some talk with Godfrey.

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