The Henson Journals

[173]

Monday, August 20th, 1923.

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D r Rowlands, with whom I talked yesterday, said that he had read the articles in the Morning Post, and heartily agreed with me. He said that the situation in Lichfield was difficult. He had been unable to have his daughter prepared for confirmation by his own parish clergyman, because of the latter's insistance on auricular confession. This is a grievance very deeply felt all over the country. The hardship, indeed the injustice, inflicted on the lay people is very great, for nothing can be more evident than that the teaching to which they object is novel, unauthorized by the Law, and disapproved by the Bishops.

Godfrey & John took their departure after breakfast. I settled down to writing letters, & reading the 'Congress Books'.

After lunch Dorothea motored us to call on Lord Hatherton. He told us that both the Littletons and Lyttletons descended from the same renowned lawyer. When the old house was demolished to make room for the existing mansion, there was discovered a hoard £16,000 in 15th century coins, and also a smaller hoard of £2000. The first was thought to have been money designed for the payment of troops in the Wars of the Roses: the last was supposed to have been the dowry of one of the Littleton ladies. Some of the coins are preserved in a glass case in the library. After tea Lord H. and his daughters showed us 'the largest rat in the world', a tame nutria, which had been brought from South America. It is an aquatick animall [sic], having webbed feet.

[174]

In the Hall, under a glass case, is preserved a curious carved figure of a king, which is thought by the antiquarians to date from the XIIIth century. Also, Lord H. possesses a beautiful medieval chalice & paten, which are said to date from A.D. 1525.

The Dean of Lichfield, D r Savage, came to dinner. I had some talk with him about Durham, where at one times he was beneficed as Vicar of South Shields, and about the Anglo–Catholic movement, of which he spoke in terms of strong disapprobation. He himself is a high churchman, but of an old fashioned type, and he agreed heartily when I expressed the opinion that we could not rightly or wisely make any concession to the demand for reservation for purposes of devotion. The Bishop of Lichfield, D r Kempthorne, has abandoned his Palace, which is by no means excessive in point of size. The Dean said that he regretted & disapproved of the Bishop's action. We spoke of Watkins, for whom he declared that he had always felt an affection, but he agreed that the Archdeacon's influence was bad, his career unhappy, and his death unlamented.

After the Dean had departed we sate on in the drawing room. Dorothea suggested that I should read Praed's quaint poem, "The Red fisherman"; and this piece was succeeded by others, so that we had passed the normal hour of retirement when at length the signal was given, & we bade one another 'Goodnight".

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