The Henson Journals

[100]

Friday, July 26th, 1918.

1453th day

I began by writing another nonsense–letter to Adrian. James came to see me, & I took occasion to gather from him as much information as possible. On the whole, what he said was re–assuring. He described the Vicar of All Saints as a "very High Chairman", extreme "for Hereford", which, perhaps would not be so regarded elsewhere. He thought the said Vicar a fairly straightforward man, and mainly absorbed in the work of his parish. At 3 p.m. Treherne appeared, and talked with me for more than an hour. He told me incidentally that Hermitage Day had ceased to assist him since my arrival. He has evidently had difficulties of his own with the extremer members of the "Catholic" following. He has no desire to re–open "S t Barnabas" at present. It had collected a small clique of none–too–loyal "spikes", and become a kind of rival to the parish church. I inquired whether there was any real prospect of such a population growing up in the district as to justify the hope that in process of time a new parish would have to be formed. His answer was in the negative. The Durham paper arrived. It contains an account of Welldon's Installation as Dean of Durham. I shall not soon or easily escape a proprietary interest in that description! My appointment to Hereford was gazetted on December 13 th, 1917. My successor was not installed at Durham until July 25th, 1918 – an interval of more than 7 months. This must be unprecedented for a very long period.

---