The Henson Journals

[36]

New Year's Day, January 1st, 1919.

The weather was as bad as could be – heavy rain from morning till nightfall. Nevertheless our kind hosts carried through the programme they had arranged for us. We motored to Colne St Aldwyn and had tea with Lady St Aldwyn & her daughter Lady Victoria Hicks–Beach. On the way we stopped at Cirencester, and had lunch very comfortably in the King's Head, a hostelry opposite the great parish church. The last we visited after lunch. It is mainly of the late perpendicular style, very lofty & spacious. At Colne St Aldwyn we were kindly received. Lady St A. insisted on showing Gee and me the little church, which, however, had nothing in it worth seeing. The parson came in to tea. I asked him whether there were any traditions of Keble lingering in the parish, and he replied that there were hardly any, none certain or important. It is a sign of the times that the younger ladies are proud of their skill as dairy–maids, & are about to adventure taking a farm on their own account. The butter was admirable, & only the sternness of the Food Controller hindered Lady Victoria from presenting me with a pound of her own manufacture. We returned to Gloucester through a violent down–pour of rain, and arrived in the Hotel in comfortable time for dinner. It could not be described as a cheerful start for the New Year.

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