The Henson Journals

[57]

Wednesday, November 28th, 1917.

1213th day

Bishop Nickson & I walked in the Park after breakfast. He spoke much of the appointment to Hereford, and said that he believed it would be offered to me. The Palace was not, he thought, excessively large, & the Dilapidation Certificate held good to 1920. There was a pleasant garden. It seemed sufficiently absurd to talk about these things, when the probability is that I shall never be asked to go there at all! The R.C.C. resumed its discussion. Proceedings began with a speech by the Bishop of Winchester, who attacked both me & the Bishop of Manchester with some vigour. But, of course, I had no opportunity to reply. The Bishop of Carlisle made a speech which bored the House exceedingly: & the Bishop of Chelmsford was not much better. Both canted horribly. At the end, after Lord Hugh Cecil's variation of my amendment had been rejected, the motion for a new Committee was adopted, but it was made clear that this Committee was quite distinct from that named in the Report: that its reference was wide: that its members were free: & that it could report when it would. I lunched with Gamble: walked to the Athenaenum: & then went into the City, & called on Ralph. I could not persuade him to write the Letter on the Church, which Lord Portsmouth suggested. He is evidently very pleased with his experiences in Scotland, where he has been delivering the Gifford Lectures. The unseasonable heat of the weather makes one feel strangely languorous & feeble. I wrote to Ella from the Club.

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