The Henson Journals

[141]

2nd Sunday after Easter, April 18th, 1920.

I left the Palace at 8.45 a.m., & motored by way of Ludlow & Craven Arms to Diddlebury. There was much land under water about Leominster: at two places the road was submerged, & the car had to make its way through water rising to the axles. I read the lessons & preached in the parish church, my pastoral staff being carried by a choirman. The Church of S. Peter is an ancient edifice of very great interest, villainously restored & filled with intolerable glass. The north wall of the nave is apparently Anglo–Saxon work of the "herring–bone" type. After service I baptized the infant daughter of Captain Ludlow the churchwarden. Then I lunched with Mr L. Swinnerton Dyer. At 3 p.m. I went to the Chapel, concerning which so much friction has been caused. Evensong was sung, and an Anthem sung very effectively. I preached again, and then had tea with Mr Dyer. Mrs Martin still remains hostile, but I think there is some chance of her coming to a better mind if she be left alone. I think Mason, the Vicar, though probably more well–intentioned than tactful, has behaved fairly, in rather a trying situation. On the return journey we were delayed at Ludlow by "dirt in the petrol", as William's diagnosis ran. I was back in the Palace before 7 p.m. The weather was dull with some transient intervals of sunshine in the middle of the day, and some slight essays at rain as the day drew to a close.

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