The Henson Journals

[94]

May 10th, 1922.

My dear Mr Eayrs,

I am greatly indebted to you for the gift of your edition of John Wesley's Letters, which I am very glad to possess, as, though both the Journal and the Sermons are well known to me, I do not possess any copy of the Letters. Your forth–coming work has a most attractive appearance, & I shall look forward to its appearance. Bishop Butler must needs be supremely interesting to his Successor, but my reverence for him had been created long before I had known of sitting in his Chair: It is not altogether what he says – though that is extraordinarily impressive – nor his style of writing which has itself an amazing authority, but the indefinable spirit of awful reverence which exhales from his pages, & makes one when reading Butler become solemnized as by a greater than any human Presence, that gives him an influence so exalted and so distinctive.

Again thanking you,

I am,

Most sincerely yrs,

Herbert Dunelm:

The Rev. George Eayrs.

[95]

May 10th, 1922.

My dear Cox,

Dr Murray's case is indeed melancholy & full of sinister suggestiveness. What can be the end of it all? I have always been, and I still am, an Unionist: but I hardly expected that my belief in the incapacity of the Irish for self–government would receive such emphatic confirmation.

I hardly think that a man of Dr Murray's abiity could be fitly placed in charge of an industrial parish, such as is typical of this diocese: but I cannot doubt that in one of the Southern dioceses he would be welcomed.

I mean to send you something for the E.R. as soon as this tremendous pressure of work lightens.

If you are going to Scotland, remember to break your journey at Darlington, where you can be motored to this Castle.

Yours ever,

Herbert Dunelm:

Harold Cox Esq.

[96]

Wednesday, May 10th, 1922.

A thrush is nesting on the ledge of the Chapel Door. I put up my hand to feel if there were any eggs, & the bird itself flew out. Not even the Freemasons last Sunday had scared it, though many of them felt the eggs with their fingers. A blackbird's nest with a half–fledged brood, which was in the stone screen, was wickedly destroyed by some unknown miscreants. There is a pigeon's nest on the top of the said screen with young birds in it.

After lunch Frank Berry motored me to Barnard Castle, whither Clayton had bicycled in advance. Here I confirmed 130 candidates. Then we motored to Darlington, where I confirmed 257. The great disproportion of the sexes distressed me, but at Barnard Castle the numbers were nearly equal. I returned to Auckland Castle immediately after the service, arriving about 9.15 p.m. In the last 3 days I have confirmed no less than 1019 persons viz.

At Blaydon	204
" Tanfield	196
" Birtley	233
" Barnard Castle	130
" Darlington	257
–	1019
Confirmed during Lent	3691
–	4710

There are 17 confirmations yet to be taken and the Bishop of Jarrow has confirmed a considerable number. I think it is probable that we shall exceed a total of 7000 candidates for this year.

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