The Henson Journals

[20]

Tuesday, December 17th, 1918.

Croft was a country gentleman, of ancient lineage and large property. He had the prejudices as well as the virtues of his class, and both are considerable. He was neither a student nor a thinker: but he had an active mind, and a considerable fund of information. He evidently "fancied himself" as a preacher, and did possess a vigorous flowing style, which lent itself to popular uses. He was probably a good diocesan, active, masterful, and genuinely concerned for the religious welfare of the people. In these days, he would have been a prominent advocate of what is called "reform". I suspect the new Bishop of Coventry is the nearest modern parallel. Yeatman–Biggs also is a local magnate, with the double advantage of pedigree & property: & he shares with Croft a fussy zeal for well–intentioned innovation. My predecessor was, I think, the greater of the two, but he lived in an age less favourable to make–belief than our own: & his proposals, unlike those of the modern bishop, were not mere echoes of the clamour of the crowd. His most considerable, & most creditable, composition is "The Naked Truth", which, though published anonymously, seems almost at once to have been identified as his work.

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