The Henson Journals

[9]

Monday, July 31st, 1922.

What is the work of the Vicar of Egglestone? There are 450 people in the parish mostly living in the hamlet that surrounds the Church, but most of the people are Dissenters, and worship in three chapels, which are served by ministers who come out from Middleton. Thus he is the only resident minister. There is a church school but, for fear of wounding Dissenting susceptibilities, he doesn't teach in it. At Easter there may be a many as 70 communicants. On the Electoral Roll there are about 80 persons. I looked at his books, and could see no evidence of a student's habit. A few shelves were filled mostly with cheap & obsolete rubbish. The small garden was neatly kept, but I suspect there had been a "clean–up" in preparation for my visit. Is it a reasonable proposal in the present state of the Church that an adequate income, say £400 a year, should be provided to remunerate the labours of the Vicar of Egglestone? Can it be said with any truth that he is doing adequate work to justify the income? Yet Egglestone is 4 miles from the mother church of Middleton–in–Teesdale: the inhabitants would certainly resent the extinction of their ecclesiastical independence: and the existence of a small cure with its relatively petty obligations might be of real service in a diocese, in which most of the parishes are large & arduous. But the severity of the climate in winter might make it impossible to appoint an old man, while the smallness of the duty must needs make it unwise to appoint a young one. The ideal solution would be to ordain the schoolmaster, & make him combine the duties.

[10]

I paid my taxes for 1921/22 at last – £1446:6:0. This enables me at last to set down the fixed charges on my bishoprick, viz.

Taxes	1446.6.0
Super–tax	739.1.6
Tax on Castle	128.2.6
Rates	282.13.0
First–fruits & Tenths	131.5.6
Loans	171.18.9
Rent	75.8.0
Insurance	66.10.0
–	£3041:5:3
Rents recd by me.	–
Ferens	£33.2.0
Castle Garden	£65
Park	£21
Cottage 9	128:2.0
–	£2913.3.3
Add Lea's Comn say	46.16.9
–	£2960.0.0
Dilapidations & Repairs c.	300.0.0
–	£3260.0.0

There must be added the practically indispensable contributions to Diocesan & Parochial Objects. These do certainly amount to about £350. Another £50 may be added for Offertories and Collections at meetings.

[11]

The Chancellor of London (Mr F. H. L. Errington) has ordered the removal of a number of illegal ornaments from St Magnus–the Martyr & St Michael's Crooked Lane, of which the Revd H. J. Fynes–Clinton is Rector. In giving judgement he said:

"He passed by the ingenious theory set up some years ago that the Ornaments Rubric required every incumbent to have in his church all the ornaments that were used in the pre–Reformation services which were abolished. Such a construction was so far removed from common sense and so wanting in historical accuracy that it might now be disregarded".

Nevertheless, a considerable number of incumbents are acting on this preposterous reading of the Rubrick: and they are little likely to be influenced either in their opinions or in their practice by a Chancellor's judgement.

The Travers family took their departure after breakfast. He asked to go into the Chapel to pay, & receive my blessing before leaving, and I yielded to his request. There is a vein of sentiment in Americans, which must not be belittled or ignored It is like the moods of children, something incalculable & sometimes absurd, but always fresh & never negligible.

I fussed about in my study arranging my books, wrote a few letters, played bowls with William & got woefully beaten, generally wasted my time deplorably. It is evidently high time that I should get away for a holiday: yet as the time of going away actually approaches. I feel an extraordinarily reluctance to pack up my traps, and make a start.

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