The Henson Journals

[110]

Thursday, August 18th, 1921.

After breakfast I attended the morning service, and then I changed (after some bullying of the manager!) a cheque at the local branch of Barclay's Bank. Then I shewed Ella over the cathedral. We walked round the church, observed the statue of Richard Hooker, a native of Exeter, in the close, and admired the Jacobean houses with their beautiful doorways. "Moll's Coffee house" is a picture–shop on the north side of the cathedral, which dates from 1580, and is said to have been used by the local gentry who commanded the English fleet in the battle with the Spanish Armada; their arms are painted around this wall. The room is said to be shaped in the fashion of the stern of a battle–ship. After lunch the Dean and I motored to Crediton, where we visited the very noble parish church in the Perpendicular Style. It is disfigured by a memorial to General Butler, whose criminal incompetence in the South African War inflicted heavy disasters on the country. The parish sandstone of which the church is built has a very pleasing effect. We continued our drive for some miles in order to call on Lord Portsmouth, but we found his Lordship absent from home. The newspapers report another vehement speech by De Valera, who appears determined to make a settlement as difficult as possible. There seems great reluctance to interpret his utterances seriously.