The Henson Journals

[107]

Monday, September 6th, 1920.

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[The weather cleared after breakfast, and became fine throughout the day. Godfrey & I walked into Lichfield, & there I attempted to telephone to the Foreign Office about the passports, but, having failed to get a message through, I sent a telegram, prepaying the answer. Then we visited the Cathedral. The glass in the lady chapel is admirable.]

Savage, the Dean of Lichfield, came to lunch. He was Lightfoot's chaplain when he became Bishop of Durham, & talked interestingly about Auckland Castle. There was a great dispersal of the old furniture of Auckland when Bishop Villiers' furniture was sold. Lightfoot bought back as much as he could, including the great carpet in the state room. The marble of the two sideboards was said to be from Becket's shrine at Canterbury. Dr Stainer chose the piano for him. Savage spoke generously of Watkins, whom he described as a faithful friend, but he admitted the acute unpopularity which he possessed throughout the Durham diocese. Westcott said that to "run Auckland cost him £3000 per annum": but what precisely he meant by "running" is not clear to me. It is sufficiently obvious that, if we live in the Castle, there can be no question of our doing so on the scale of Bishops Lightfoot & Westcott. The Lodge is said to be a delusive house, of which the top story is altogether a fake! It seems probable that we shall be driven to the audacious procedure of giving into the great house straightaway. We may be driven out again by the super–tax!

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