The Henson Journals
Wed 15 November 1922
Volume 34, Page 7
[7]
Wednesday, November 15th, 1922.
I wrote a sermon for the Rescue & Preventative Association which meets next week in the Cathedral, and I wrote letters. After lunch I played bows with William, and for a wonder had something the better of him. He gave his first vote as a citizen this morning, and the new responsibility may have affected his game!
"He had thus gathered a respectable chass of accidental knowledge" This is Henry Cockburn's description of the result of L. Hermand's unmethodical reading. I fear nothing more could be said with justice about the present Bishop of Durham. Systematic reading on any fixed principle is almost impossible in such a "hand to mouth" life as that which a modern bishop is compelled to live.
"On looking back at those times, it is impossible not to be struck with the apparent absence of enlightened public views & capacities all over the community. I do not recollect a single Scotch work of any permanent, or almost of any respectable temporary value, which even the excitement of that age produced".
This opinion of Henry Cockburn must be balanced by the fact that a cultivated but self–centred society existed & was producing not merely antiquarian monographs but a great literature. Political life has for the time being been quite paralyzed by the Revolution & its wars.