The Henson Journals

[132]

Wednesday, August 8th, 1917.

1101st day

The weather continues to be thunderous and sultry while the sky is overcast. We were called at 7 a.m. & breakfasted at 8.30 a.m. I spent most of the morning in going through transcripts of the Warden's letters to the "Times". After lunch we walked across the moors. The flies are numerous, persistent, and exasperating. The local vicar, Mr Pybus & his wife called and chatted with us for best part of an hour. He says that his parish is 6 miles long. The parish church consists of the northern transept of a great monastic church, of which the greater part has been wholly demolished. Even in this little rustic community he says that there are many dissenters. I asked whether the National Mission had done any good, & he replied that he had not observed any effects in his people. This appears to be the general verdict, yet the fiction persists in Lambeth that the Mission was an event of the utmost importance, & the attempt is actually being made to build on it a reconstruction of the Establishment. The Abp. Has surrounded himself with enthusiasts who live in a world of their own & hear nobody else's voice. They "compare themselves with themselves", & are not wise.

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