The Henson Journals

[100]

13th Sunday after Trinity, August 29th, 1920.

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This is the last Sunday of our residence in Hereford. We went to the Cathedral at 8 a.m., & received the Holy Communion together. Both of us felt a certain melancholy as we reflected that we had reached the end of a chapter of our lives which had begun in clouds, and ended (so far as the external appearance of things goes) in sunshine. I was consecrated in Westminster Abbey on February 2nd 1918, and I vacated the see of Hereford at my confirmation as Bishop of Durham in York Minster on July 27th 1920. It is scarcely 2⅟2 years, a brief episcopate, too brief to effect anything worth naming, and yet not wholly insignificant. Certainly when I came here I thought that I was entering on the final phase of my career, for, though there were many persons in Durham who spoke of my returning thither as Bishop, I did not myself think that there was the smallest likelihood of their expectation being fulfilled. It seemed quite incredible that I should be regarded as safe or suitable for translation in view of the outcry raised against me at my consecration. I acted on the supposition that I should live out my life in Hereford. With that view I spent money in stocking the garden with fruit trees, & in making the Palace habitable by putting the drains to rights, & installing the electric light (i.e. in extending the installation). Had I known that my stay here would have been so brief, I might have saved my money. As it is, my successor will reap the benefit.

[101] [symbol]

[I wrote to George, & to Symonds of Montreal. After lunch I walked my guests to the top of Dynedor Hill, a hot but pleasant expedition. The view was obscured by the mist, but even so was worth going to see. Mrs Dillon came to tea. I wrote to the Hotel Rydberg to secure rooms from Sept. 14th to 16th: and to the Chaplain at Stockholm suggesting that I shld confirm certain young women on the 15th.]

We all attended Evensong in the Cathedral, when Streeter preached the 3rd of his lectures on the Creed. His subject was the 2nd article: ‒ "I believe in His only Son our Lord". He quoted the Christian Sadhu who has made so great an impression in England recently, & mentioned that he was engaged on a small book about the Sadhu's work. Like all Streeter's sermons it was too sketchy, suggesting haste and carelessness; but he said some striking things, & held the attention of his congregation.

[Mrs Dillon came to supper. She was at Newnham, & had common ground with Elizabeth.] Wynne Willson brought the synopsis which he had prepared of the Swedish Lectures, & stayed to supper.

So ends my last Sunday in Hereford, a brilliant day, but with sad suggestions. When shall we have again a settled home? The problem of Auckland Castle doesn't grow easier of solution as time passes. It seems evident that one must go into the great house, and highly probable that one will not be able to stay there! The immediate question is how and when we can get into the place.

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