The Henson Journals

[43]

Wednesday, November 16th, 1921.

I spent the morning tiresomely in preparing notes for the dedications of war memorials: &, after lunch, motored to Durham, where first I called on Tolliday, and said prayers with him. He assures me that he is getting better, & speaks very humbly & gratefully about the parish & his colleagues. Then I went to the Castle in order to examine the Ordination candidates on the Anglican classics. The first man claimed to know something of Chillingworth. He began badly by being unable to tell me correctly the name of the famous book, which he was understood to have studied, but he did seem to have some confused recollections of its contents. Then came in succession two men who proffered Butler's Analogy. Both had read, but neither had understood my eminent predecessor's illustrious work! The last man was an assistant master at Durham school who claimed to have read through Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity. Even so, he had a very hazy notion of the judicious divine's argument. However, we must acquiesce in the vaguest knowledge of Anglicanism since we can with difficulty secure any understanding of Christianity!

Clayton joined me at tea, and then I motored to South Shields, where I arrived about 6.30 p.m. at the Vicarage. Hudson Barker walked with me to the High School, or rather to the Church Hall, in which the Prize giving for the High School had been arranged to take place. There was a large assembly of boys and parents, & the proceedings were of the normal character on such occasions. I distributed the prizes to a succession of shining young Pharisees, and then discoursed to the company for half an hour. The only thing which was in the least measure fresh in my oration was my insistence on the fact that the whole machinery of education was wholly dependent on the industrial life of the nation, & could not survive any really protracted or considerable interruption of industry. I reminded the boys of the gratitude they owed the country for providing so liberally out of the taxes for their education. The usual complimentary votes followed, and I moved the enthusiasm of the boys by asking for a holiday. Before going to bed I had a good deal of talk with Hudson Barker. He agrees with me that any measure of shortage in the numbers of the clergy is preferable to a lowering of the standard of education & character.

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