The Henson Journals

[29]

Saturday, May 18th, 1918.

1384th day

The warm bright weather continues. I went to the Palace after breakfast, and, after revising the sermons for tomorrow, wrote a number of letters. Among these was one to the Bishop of Manchester, who had written asking me rather urgently to write to the "Times" against the "hustling" of Prayer–book Revision. I declined to do this as the nation is not in the mood to attend to anything but the War.

Miss Burdon came to lunch. She is a sister of Colonel Burdon of Castle Eden, and impressed me as a sensible & intelligent woman. After her departure I went to the Palace and worked at arranging my books. It is amazing into what confusion they have been brought. The bill for work in the Palace garden is sufficiently alarming – £40.14.9 in six weeks. About half of this is for seeds, tools etc, & the rest for the labour of the soldiers. This represents at least 3 times the amount which a gardener would cost. Similarly, the cost of the motor car is at least 50% more than it wold normally be. It is odd, but very common in this odd world, that extraordinary expenditures come upon the unusually poor man, rarely upon the unusually rich one. The pleasant Proverb that makes Providence "temper the wind to the shorn lamb" is not often verified in my experience. Every post brings appeals for subscriptions, and it is simply not possible for me to respond. To be not only unsound in faith, but also impecunious is to be condemned to failure by a double title!

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