The Henson Journals

[33]

Monday, March 27th, 1922.

Our rasher faults.

Make trivial price of serious things we have,

Not knowing them until we know their grave:

Oft our displeasures, to ourselves unjust,

Destroy our friends & after weep their dust:

Our own love waking cries to see what's done,

While shameful hate sleeps but the afternoon.

'All's well that ends well'

Lee writes to ask for a cheque for £360:9:8 on account of the balance of taxes due. This, added to the £1500 already paid, & the £63 paid in Jan. 1921, makes a total of £1923.9.8 for taxes, apart from the super–tax which I await. The rates now reach nearly £300, and Lee's charges will not be small. 2.A.B, mortgages, & rents spoil £500. The total will hardly less than £3500 i.e. half my income.

The Bishop of Wakefield sends me the draft of a reply on the doctrinal question, which has been sent from Temple. It is commendably brief and clear: but hardly satisfies me: I wrote in reply:–

"I like Temple's draft: & think its comparative brevity a strong recommendation: but before I could sign it, it wd. have to be supplemented by a frank acknowledgement of the need of theological restatement, & a candid encouragement of suitable efforts thereunto. Also, I don't quite like the form and scope of the doctrinal affirmation. The first part seems to me superfluous: and the last, too technical".

[34]

March 27th, 1922.

My dear Bishop,

Thank you for what you say about the sectaries. On the reunion question, I am now in much perplexity. It always seemed to me a possible and even a hopeful policy, by wise and tolerant administration of the National Church to recover to its membership the bulk of reasonable English Protestants: but now that the whole principle & plan of National Christianity have been repudiated, I don't see on what basis we are proposing reunion. The "Catholic" principle was given up in deference to a higher interest, when we broke away from the Catholic system at the Reformation: we are 'shut up' to the contractual or sectarian basis on which the Nonconformists have organized themselves. The immediate value of cultivating friendly relations with the latter is not merely that it is right in itself for they are our fellow Christians, but also it 'gives the lie' to the preposterous fiction of the 'Anglo–Catholicks', & so makes the ecclesiastical atmosphere a little less murky with gratuitous humbug than it commonly is!

Yours affectly

Herbert Dunelm:

The Right Rev. The Lord Bishop of Newcastle

[35]

I wrote letters to Marion, Frank, Paula, the Bishops of Newcastle & Wakefield and George. Wykes, the son of Canon Wykes, came to offer himself for Ordination at Trinity. He will get a title from Archdeacon Derry. Croft, the Vicar of Lamesley, came to report the situation in his parish in which Ravensworth Castle is situated. It appears that a Newcastle incumbent, named Cutter, celebrates the Holy Communion in the Castle Chapel every fortnight for the girls of Miss Anderson's school, which now occupies the Castle. He does this without authority from me, and, according to the Vicar's statement, against the Vicar's wishes. I caused a letter to be addressed to the said Cutter, inquiring what he did, and by what authority he did it. Clayton and I walked in the rain for an hour. We visited the garage, and found a scene of activity. William was at work on the car assisted by George Laws, and Frank Berry was busy on the lathe. The thought crossed my mind that the mechanical training of our youths does on the whole produce a more intelligent and self–respecting type of young man than the stable yard produced and employed. Chauffeurs are certainly more sober than coachmen & grooms. They are better mannered, & more attractive to look at. William is not only a motor driver, which requires nerve and pluck: but he is able to repair the car on emergency, & this implies skill & intelligence. He is in constant personal association with me, and that fact unquestionably has its effect on him.

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