The Henson Journals

[146]

15th Sunday after Trinity, September 4th, 1921.

A most glamorous day from beginning to ending. We walked about 2 miles to church at Rouseham. The service was Mattins, Sermon, & Holy Communion, and the parson did his duty quite well. He is evidently a scholarly man. After service at which we all communicated, including William, we were introduced to the Vicar, and the Squire (Mr Cotterell Dormer). With the former was a young man who had made a special study of Marsilius of Padua. He told me that he had discovered in the Bodleian an unpublished tract by this great legist, & had sent in an edition of it as a thesis for the D. Litt. at Cambridge. He also told me that Henry VIII paid £20 for the English translation of the "Defensor Pacis", which he caused to be published by way of justifying his ecclesiastical policy. It was odd to light on this knowledge in a small country parish. In the afternoon we called on Lord Dillon, and had tea with him. He was full of interesting talk, and showed us his pictures.

Our kind hosts, having one bottle of 1863 port, opened it in my honour, as that was the year of my birth. These small kindnesses are the decorations of human intercourse, & draw people together with a power wholly out of proportion to their intrinsic importance. They go outside & underneath the conventions, & fix anchors in our hearts.

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