The Henson Journals

[151]

Saturday, February 18th, 1922.

My dear Bishop,

When I got home on Thursday night I was pleased to find a note from the Secretary of the Council of the Durham Colleges in these terms: –

That the Council &c &c (v.p. 148)

This is quite satisfactory so far: and now we must draft the Bill, or rather hammer out the scheme in a shape which can go into a Bill.

I wish you wd tell me your mind on the following points viz:

1. The subjects of the Chairs.

2. Whether there shd be provision for the retirement of professors when past work, and, if so, what.

3. Whether assistant professors cum jure successionis is a feasible and desirable arrangement.

4. Whether the Professors shd be designated Regius Professors, & the Dean made Head of the Faculty, by specific provision in the Bill.

I enclose some correspondence which will enable you to appreciate the financial position. Please return.

The Abps. of Canterbury, when I saw him in London a fortnight ago, suggested that it wd be well for me to print the Commemoration Sermon with a Memorandum. What do you think of this? I enclose the Diocesan Gazette, which has the sermon. Perhaps a Memorandum, in which salient passages of the sermon appeared, might suffice. Could you and I issue a joint memorandum?

Yours affley

Herbert Dunelm:

P.S. I have written to Browning declining to be a Vice–President of the Anglo–Catholick Congress.

The Right Revd the Lord Bishop of Ripon.

Broadbelt, the curate of Bishop Auckland, came to consult me about an offer of a living which he had just received. How can I advise him either way? If I tell him to refuse, he will inevitably suppose that I have promised him a living here!!

[152] [symbol]

After lunch Clayton and I motored to Usworth, where I dedicated 3 war–memorials in one of the squalidest parish churches I have ever seen even in the diocese of Durham. The first memorial was erected by the Church to the men from the parish who fell in the war, and consisted of a chancel screen surmounted by a crucifix flanked by a khaki–clad soldier on the one side, and a sailor on the other. I forgot to inquire whether a faculty had been obtained for this erection. The 2nd memorial was erected by the parishioners generally, and consisted of an alabaster tablet containing the names of the men, 121 in number. The 3rd memorial was an organ screen set–up by the Rector & his wife to the memory of their son, Lieut. Alexander Begg. The church–warden asked me to dedicate the first: the Chairman of the Parish Council asked me to dedicate the second: & Sir Thomas Oliver asked me to dedicate the third, and all three made speeches. Then followed the National Anthem, the Last Post, and my Address. After the service we went to the Rectory, & had tea. Then we returned home, arriving about 5.45 p.m.

Lucie Soderblom in her rather halting English, asked me whether it was true that I was always "quarrelling" with my clergy. She had been told that this was the case! Yet after 4 years experience of the episcopate I do not recall one single experience of the kind. The fact is that, partly from a natural kindness of heart, and partly from an inability to care much about anything, I do not easily quarrel with anybody. I have a very keen sense of the ridiculous, and a great dislike of being made to look absurd. Accordingly, I do not allow myself to be drawn into squabbles which have an undignified appearance, such as most conflicts of Bishops with their own clergy almost always have: and I have a great capacity for keeping silence when I think it prudent to do so. None the less the popular conception of me is that I am always dragging my coat for people to tread on, & exulting in the consequent disturbance. It is the oddest thing in the world that so wide a chasm shd yawn between a man & his reputation.

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