The Henson Journals

[184]

19th Sunday after Trinity, October 6th, 1918.

1525th day

A beautiful morning, but the day became gusty with showers of rain in the afternoon. Wonderfully packed up, I motored with Ella to Bridgnorth, 43 miles. Our journey was a "joy–ride" for the beauty of the country, with the colourings of autumn beginning to glow on the trees. I preached twice in the parish church, celebrated the Holy Communion, and addressed some wounded soldiers in the little hospital. We motored home in a dark night, and arrived in the Palace about midnight. Prebendary Clark Maxwell, Rector of St Leonard's, Bridgnorth, is an active intelligent man; a High Churchman but of a moderate type: an antiquarian and a man of affairs. His wife, if I understood him correctly, is a grand–daughter of Bishop Selwyn of Lichfield. I was particularly pleased with his reading of the lessons, and not less by the attention which the people gave to them. There is an interesting library – the Stackhouse Library – preserved in the vestry. It was left to the Bridgnorth clergy by the Rev Hugh Stackhouse in 1742, and included "nearly 1240 publications and 163 pamphlets". The greater part of the collection had belonged to Mr Stackhouse's predecessor in the Headmastership of Bridgnorth Grammar School, the Rev Richard Cornes, and came into Mr S's possession when he married Bridget Hall, the relation ad sole executrix of Mr Cornes. Some additions have been made by later gifts.

---