The Henson Journals

[109]

Saturday, May 20th, 1922.

Tom Benson, the only son of Colonel & Mrs Benson, has died. He is one more victim of the great War. He pleased us as a small boy, when we first saw him in the Yellowstone Park, where his father was Commandant in 1909. He pleased us ^as^ a young man, when he & his mother visited us at the Deanery, Durham, in the early days of the War, before the U. S.A. had come into it. Now he is dead, leaving his parents desolate. "The economy of Heaven is dark."

George wrote to me from Amsterdam very cheerfully. Mr Holt is evidently keeping in touch with him. It looks as if I might venture to think that my concern for this lad is justifying itself.

I wrote to the woeful Dolphin saying that I could indeed do nothing for him: But to do this by a man in distress & appealing for assistance seems much the same as to refuse help to a sinking comrade. "The way of transgressors is hard" – hardest of all in this particular that their transgression paralyzes friendship itself, & destroys the efficacy of their own extreme need.

I wrote a letter of condolence to Col: Benson on Tom's death. After lunch I prepared my discourse for tomorrow, & then went to Durham by train. A telegram from William – "Car not ready writing" – arrived just before I left the Castle. It is really exasperating.

[110]

May 20th, 1922.

Dear Mr D.

I have considered very carefully the request that you have made to me, desiring greatly to do anything that I can rightly do to assist you to prove your repentance by "making good" in some way of honest effort: but I have reached the conclusion that it would not be right for me to attempt to obtain for you any kind of privileged treatment, and that no practical result could come from my making any such attempt.

Certainly, whatever assistance you can derive from your past services must be obtained through the Foreign Office, where presumably the record of your work is preserved. I could in any case only attest your character, as it has disclosed itself within my knowledge, and, alas, the nature of your offence robs all such character attestation of all value.

Believe me,

Yours v. faithfully.

Hebert Dunelm:

[111]

May 20th 1920

My dear Mr Downing,

The Deer House in Auckland Park was built by Bp. Crewe about the year 1700, and is a remarkably picturesque, & even beautiful building. Since 1856, when the Bishop's deer were sold to the Duke of Cleveland, its original purpose has ceased: & it has rather enshrined a memory & adorned a landscape than fulfilled any practical function. In recent years it has been very useful to Boys' Scouts & others using the Park as giving a convenient place, sheltered & accessible, where they can make tea etc. I cannot doubt that its demolition would not only be most distressing to everyone who knows & cares for Auckland, but would be widely regretted by the People. I should be very sorry indeed if the Commissioners took so ruthless a course. If (which may Heaven avert!) the Park were handed over to the local authority to be maintained for the recreation of the People, I cannot think that a proposal to destroy the Deer House would be received with any other sentiments than those of astonishment & indignation. Undoubtedly, the maintenance of the Park as practically a public Park does involve a considerable expenditure, but it is precisely such an expenditure as the Bishop of Durham, residing at Auckland Castle, would cheerfully incur if his revenues permitted: [112] [symbol] and the Commissioners might, perhaps, fairly be regarded in this connexion as representing the Bishop in his proper obligation in respect to the Park. It occurs to me that the rent which I pay for the Inner Park might be raised rather than that the Deer House should perish.

Yours sincerely

Herbert Dunelm:

I dined in college. In common room we had much pleasant talk. Ellershaw came to my rooms, & asked me to celebrate in the chapel tomorrow. He stayed to talk, & as it happened, our conversation turned on the burning subject of "mixed education". I was surprized at the decisiveness with which he condemned it. He said that it was not working well in Durham: and that in Oxford there was a growing discontent with it. I remember that one of the Bishops on Thursday said that in Cambridge the notion was current among the girl students that sexual intercourse assisted the action of the intellect, and, in fact, many of them did have sexual intercourse, using contraceptives, with a view to their examinations! This might seem quite incredible, but it was stated by a bishop: and in these mad days, it may well be true.

[113] [symbol]

May 20th, 1922.

My dear Colonel Benson,

I have just heard of the heavy bereavement which has befallen you and your wife: and I take leave to send you both a few lines of genuine sympathy. Indeed, Tom's death distresses me with a real sense of personal loss, for both in the Yellowstone, where I first saw him, then a charming boy, in 1909, and in the Deanery at Durham, where in the early days of the War, he came, a young man, with his mother to visit us, I formed a high opinion of him, & felt a true affection. It is a hard stroke which you have to sustain. Death is never so cruel and enigmatic as when he seizes the young, especially when they have disclosed powers and graces which authorise large hopes. "The economy of Heaven is dark" says an old writer, and truly.

Eastertide has its own message of comfort, for it is the message, not of Death, but of Life – irresistible, all–conquering, everlasting, Life. On Bishop Westcott's grave in the Chapel of this House is inscribed the Word of Christ "I came that they may have life, & that they may have it abundantly". Assuredly, as Christ is true, yea, the very Truth itself, your Boy lives, and lives for the largest issues of Life. You will forgive me for inflicting so long a letter on you, & – with the kindest remembrances to your wife, Believe me, most sincerely yrs.

Herbert Dunelm:

[114] [symbol]

I received a type–written copy of the answer which the Church of Sweden has returned to the resolutions of the Lambeth Conference, and which was delivered at Lambeth by Brillioth. It is a very interesting and suggestive document. This paragraph is worth transcribing:–

"No particular organization of the Church and of its ministry is instituted jure divino, not even the order & discipline & state of things recorded in the New Testament, because the Holy Scriptures, the norma normans of the faith of the Church, are no law, but vindicate for the New Covenant the great principle of Christian freedom, unweariedly asserted by St Paul against every form of legal religion, & applied with fresh strength & clearness by Luther, but instituted by our Saviour Himself, as for instance when, in taking farewell of His disciples, He did not regulate their future course by a priori rules & institutions, but directed them to the guidance of the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost".

The essential point is, not organisation, but "whether & how far the two communities agree in these ideas as to the content of that message of salvation, founded on the divine revelation, which has been committed to both of them". This is the true Reformation platform as stated by Archbishop Ussher.

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