The Henson Journals

[17]

Tuesday, June 8th, 1920.

I received a long and kind letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury. Then as the morning advanced came telegrams of welcome from the Bishop of Jarrow & Canon Gouldsmith. Also a telegram of congratulation from the Bishop of Rochester: & a letter to the same effect from Prebendary Morgan. In the afternoon I received a "round–robin" of congratulation signed by the Bishop of Oxford, Charnwood, Dorothea & the two girls. All this is alarming enough. The "Times" had a paragraph to the effect that I had been interviewed, & had categorically denied that anything had been settled. So I shall emerge from this torturing interval with the reputation of a liar! Beatty came to see me, & of course began on the same subject. Hence more lies! Knight of Holmer lunched here (still more lies!), and afterwards motored with me round the confines of his immense parish in order that I might be able to form a judgement on his plans for church–buildings. But I felt it was indeed a futile task now.

Headlam's Bampton Lectures arrived. This is a smart piece of publishing. I notice that, in the Introduction, he explains that he has incorporated a good deal that has already seen the light in the "Church Quarterly". I read the first Lecture. It contains much good stuff, but it is disfigured by a note of rudeness to opponents, some of whom at least are too eminent to be thus treated. His criticism of the New Testament gave me the impression of being very thin and dogmatic.

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