The Henson Journals

[33]

Tuesday, December 31st, 1918.

The last day of the annus mirabilis was bright & cold. After writing some letters we were taken by the Dean to see the Cathedral, and spent the morning most agreeably. The great east window commemorating those who fell at Crecy, the vaulting of the Choir, the amazing cloisters, the crypt & chapter–house, and the pillars of the Norman nave are features which entitle Gloucester to a place among the greatest English Cathedrals. After lunch Gee and I walked for an hour, returning in time for Evensong. The admirable acoustics of the church from the musician's point of view impressed me. Lord Beauchamp, the Lord Lieutenant, was in the congregation, & spoke to me after the service. We dined with the Bishop of Gloucester in the house which he has been occupying since he gave up his Palace for a Hospital. The Palace is a new house, which replaced a 17th century building pulled down in 1859. The demolished palace was more interesting than comfortable, for it faced the wrong way, & was consequently sunless. Bishop Gibson was very friendly: we avoided controversial topics: & found agreement in bewailing the financial oppression to which the Bishops are now subjected, and which threatens their official existence!

[34] [symbol]

The year that has ended must be always notable in the private record of my life. Scarcely had it began before I found myself the centre of a strange controversy, carried on with extraordinary bitterness by the opponents of my opinions &, perhaps even more, by the opponents of my personality. Neither had any first hand knowledge of me: hardly any had read anything that I had written: few had ever seen me: but for years my name had figured in the "Church Times" in connexions of depreciation & abuse, and large numbers of church–people had been led to believe that I was little better than an atheist. My consecration in Westminster Abbey on February 2nd was effected in the teeth of the most considerable ecclesiastical opposition disclosed since Temple's consecration half a century since. But the nation was obsessed with the War, I did everything in my power to extinguish the controversy, the exposure of the nefarious methods of my opponents made the High Church people themselves anxious to get the episode buried, so that I came out of the conflict with nothing but the disadvantage of a persistent & general calumniation & none of the distinction which normally attaches to the victorious victim of organized bigotry!

[35] [symbol]

In Hereford there was no open opposition, though I suspect there is much smouldering resentment among the Tractarian squires in Shropshire The abnormal conditions created by the war made it easy to minimize contact, and thus to postpone the expression of disagreement. I was studiously conciliatory. By appointing Treherne to the first vacant Prebend, I cut away the ground of an agitation, and secured the advantage of a dignified "pose"! But I do not deceive myself. The opposition is silent but it is not absent: and it will disclose itself on the first suitable occasion.In the Convocation and at Bishops' meetings the situation has not been altogether easy: & the shameless forcing forward of the Selborne scheme by the Archbishops has brought me into the necessity of fresh conflict. My health has been more unsatisfactory than in any previous year of my life, and it causes me a certain anxiety, for an ailing man could not possible carry the burden which has accumulated on my shoulders. If my indifferent health is, as it seems not unreasonable to assume, mainly caused by the process of acclimatisation, I may indulge the hope that it will not be a permanent factor. In so far as it has been the consequence of mental worry, I fear that there is but little prospect of any improvement.

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