The Henson Journals

[133]

Friday, September 29th, 1922.

Kitty Bruce sends me her first novel, "The Chequer Board", published by Heinemann, and she inserts an affectionate inscription which compels me to read it! Having done so, I must of course, acknowledge the book with suitable compliments. But this is not easy, for the book displeases me as being thoroughly unwholesome. It belongs to the class of photographic novels, i.e. those which pretend to give an exact picture of current life: and it describes "the smart set" of modern English society, a truly sordid and swinish company. It is, perhaps, confessedly non–moral, for the title–page carries a quatrain from 'Omar Khayyam', which may, possibly be intended to indicate the writer's attitude.

"'This all a chequer board of nights and days

Where destiny with men for pieces plays,

And hither, thither move, and mates, and slays,

And one by one back in the closet lays.

There is a sensual note which offends me, and occasional profanities which are objectionable, and these startle me, when I remember that the writer is a young English lady married to all seeming very successfully to a young Scotsman, of good family & training. The picture may serve as a comment on the Russell Divorce Trial, which presented the "smart set" not in fiction, but in flesh & blood – flippant, selfish, obscene, blasphemous – a continuing scandal & challenge.

[134]

I prepared notes for tomorrow, and then motored with Clayton to Houghton–le–Spring, where I lunched with Knight, & interviewed an Ordination candidate. He said he was the son of an Australian Archdeacon. Knight took me to see the Kepier School buildings, of which he has acquired possession, & which may become very useful. We went on to Hawthorn, where I dedicated a War Memorial in the churchyard, and afterwards inspected the C.L.B. & Girls Guides who attended the service. Pemberton unveiled the Cross, & I gave an address. After tea in an adjacent cottage, we motored to Sunderland, where I called on Sykes, & learned from him the requisite information about St Ignatius's Parish. He said that the Auckland Castle Brotherhood contributed annually a substantial sum towards the stipend of an assistant curate. Clayton returned with me in the motor car as far as Chester–le–Street, where he took the train for Gateshead, designing to join me at S. Cuthbert's on Sunday morning. I returned to the Castle, arriving about 7 p.m. The weather, which had been so pleasant that we had the car open, changed for the worse. Rain was falling when we reached home, & continued to fall as the night came on.

The news from the East continues to be very threatening, and troops are being hurried to Constantinople with all possible speed. Everybody sees that War may be unavoidable, but the notion of fighting again is utterly abhorrent.

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