The Henson Journals

[35]

Wednesday, December 6th, 1922.

I worked at a sermon for next Sunday, & put together some notes for a Confirmation address. Then Lazenby arrived for lunch, & was very cheerful and conversational. Then we, i.e. Lazenby, Clayton, and I, motored to Tudhoe, where I consecrated an addition to the Burial Ground. The site is exposed, and there was a bitter wind. In the circumstances I thought an address was superfluous. We returned to the Castle for tea. At 6 p.m. Clayton and I left for the Confirmation at Trinity Church, Darlington. There were 87 candidates, of whom 31 were males. Only one was under the age of 14, and most were older. There was some coughing which annoyed me, and, perhaps, my address was not very congruous with the habit of a church, which is disclosing "Anglo–Catholick" proclivities! I spoke on the value, method, and duty of Bible–reading. We had supper after service with the Misses Foster, and then returned to Auckland. Miss Foster said that "in her father's time" there were reports of subsidences in Bishop Auckland. Lazenby, to whom I showed the disturbing symptoms of sub–soil disturbance in the Bowling Green, declined to accept the view that the ground was "creeping to the river", & held that there were clear signs of mine–workings. This is sufficiently alarming, for the disturbance is apparent within a few yards of the fabric. Where shall I find resources to restore the building if it comes to ruin?

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