The Henson Journals

[212]

Monday, October 10th, 1921.

I left Bishop Auckland at 11.43 a.m., and travelled viâ Darlington and York to Birmingham where I arrived a few minutes after 7 p.m. I drove to the Rectory, where I was received by Canon Grose Hodge and his wife. The Bishop of Chelmsford was also staying there.

We had much conversation before going to bed. The Bishop of C. gave us the whole history of the lamentable discipline case at Little Ilford, and the absurd business at Thaxted. He also told us that when he was in Australia, he visited the grave of the unhappy Eyton, and that he made the acquaintance of the doctor who had attended him, whom he described as a genuinely Christian man. This doctor, discussing Eyton's case with him, said that Eyton had so strange a malformation, or unusual development of the genitalia, that abnormalities were almost inevitable in his sexual conduct. I do not quite understand this, but anything that can reduce the moral significance of this painful and not infrequent aberration is welcome. I inquired whether Eyton had "kept straight" after his arrival in Australia, and he replied in the affirmative, adding that everything went on well enough until his wife joined him. It was a miserable history from beginning to end.

[213]

Dear Mr Coates,

I am very glad to learn that you will continue to act as Treasurer, and that I may look forward to meeting you and your wife at the Lord's Table on the 30th inst. when it is my purpose to come to Birtley.

It is clear to me that there is in Birtley a deep division between the older church–going parishioners and the present Incumbent. That division makes large demands on the Christian forbearance of both. I am sure that Christ's Beatitude on peace makers will be fully realized by every one who gives up his own preferences in order to maintain godly union and concord.

Would it be possible for your daughter to be prepared for Confirmation by one of the neighbouring Incumbents? I should be prepared, in the circumstances, to sanction that arrangement.

With kind regards, I am, Sincerely yours,

Herbert Dunelm:

The above was written in reply to a letter from Mr Coates. I am not quite sure how it ought to be understood. It may mean a genuine revulsion of feeling on his part, a belated but sincere movement of his conscience; or, of course, it may mean another trick of the man Harrison, whose puppet Coates is.

[214]

Dear Mr Read,

It is the rule in this diocese that candidates for Holy Orders must have a University degree; and that rule is only set aside in very special circumstances. The examination which must in all cases be passed requires a measure of knowledge and intellectual discipline which your record hardly suggests that you possess.

I cannot see my way, therefore, to accept you as a candidate for Ordination in this diocese: and I incline to think that you will probably do better work as a Church Army Officer than as a clergyman.

Yours sincerely

Herbert Dunelm:

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