The Henson Journals

[48]

Wednesday, November 7th, 1923.

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I received a letter from Lord Robert Cecil:–

My dear Lord,

I hope you will not think me very impertinent if I venture to thank you very warmly for your letter in this morning's Times. Northumberland's speech was quite intolerable & I am glad he has drawn upon himself this admirable & well–merited rebuke.

Again thanking you,

Very sincerely yours,

Robert Cecil

I was so heavily handicapped by my cold that I could do nothing. After lunch Ella and I motored to Staindrop, where I baptized the infant heir of Lord Barnard. The HonbleHarry John Neville behaved very well on the whole, which was the more creditable in view of the fact that his godmother handed him to me feet foremost (!) and the necessary reversal must have been trying! There was a large muster of tenantry, & neighbours. At 5 p.m. I left the Castle, picked up the Bishop of Jarrow, Wilson & Clayton in Durham, & went on to Whitburn, where I instituted Mayor to the Rectory: there was a large congregation: we all dined with old Victor Williamson after the service. My cold grew worse, & by the time I got away from Whitburn, I had lost my voice altogether. We got back to Auckland shortly after 11 p.m. Mayor & his wife are rather alarmingly senior for starting a new work.

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