The Henson Journals

[190]

Tuesday, September 30th, 1919.

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Glorious weather but cold. No letters thanks to the Strike. A note from the station master informed me that a train would take the mails to Leominster. After lunch Ernest accompanied me to Dilwyn, where I preached at the Harvest Thanksgiving in the parish church which was well–filled with a rural congregation. The Vicar, Rev. F. Mellor, has been in the parish for 28 years. He is a rough but not unpleasing type of pastor. I took a good impression of him & his people. In the course of the sermon I took occasion to speak about the Strike in very plain terms. On our way home we overtook a young soldier walking into Hereford (c. 11 miles) to report himself. I took him into the car & carried him into the City. The Vicar lent me a paper on Dilwyn Church by Rev. W. Heather LLD, from which I gathered some information about an unusually interesting church. Before the Reformation there was a college of 6 priests at Dilwyn. The Vicar was their custod. "The whole seven were required to serve in the choir every Lord's Day". There is [a] knight bearing a shield with the arms of a Talbot under a canopy on the north wall of the chancel. The particular member of the Talbot family is unidentified. A very noble south porch of the 15th century, & a fine screen are notable features of the church.

[191] [symbol]

Hugh Lyon, who has been staying with some cousins at Dillwyn, came back with me to Hereford after the service. On the way he told me that he was engaged to be married. This is well enough as he is 26 years old.

I walked round to Bannister, and told him that I would myself preach in the cathedral pulpit next Sunday morning. It seems to me that, however petty one's sphere of influence may be, it is the evident duty of every citizen to exert himself with the object of keeping the public mind firm & steady in support of the Government.

Streeter and his friend Rich came in to supper. We had much discussion after dinner of preaching, and, as two of the party were designing to be ordained, the subject was not altogether ill chosen. Certainly, if much practice in preaching could constitute any man an authority on it, I might claim to be such, for I have preached constantly for 32 years: Moreover, my experience has been unusually varied. In Bethnal Green & Barking I preached to artisans both skilled & unskilled: in Ilford I had clerks & shop assistants for my hearers: in Westminster I had what is called an "educated congregation": in Durham I preached in many churches to many types of people: and here in Hereford my congregations are almost wholly rural. I have preached in the Universities to the academics: and at legal Inns to the lawyers. It is, perhaps, as varied an experience of the pulpit as any clergyman could have.

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