The Henson Journals

[99]

Christmas Day, December 25th, 1923.

I celebrated the Holy Communion in the chapel at 8 a.m. There were no less than 18 communicants including myself, for Ashton, his wife and daughter, George Laws, & old Mrs Smith joined the household. After breakfast I motored to Crook, and there celebrated the Holy Communion, & preached the sermon. The communicants numbered 128, of whom half were men. I noticed that the hands out–stretched to receive the Blessed Sacrament were almost without exception toil–hardened and toil–stained. I returned to Auckland for lunch. We all motored into Durham, where I gave Christmas Boxes to the Vergers & Reeve. Leaving Ella, Fearne, & Ernest in the Cathedral, I went on to Wynyard, where I baptized Catherine Edith Helen, the daughter of Lady Maureen Stanley, in the private chapel. I preached at Evensong, & stayed to dinner. It had been arranged that Ella shd Join me at dinner, & that we should return to Auckland the same evening, but a considerable snowstorm made the roads dangerous. Ella telephoned that she could not come, & that I must stay the night. There was an old–time Christmas party at Wynyard. The guests included Princess Marie Louise, the Duchess of Sutherland, Lord & Lady Chester, Lord & Lady Dufferin, Lord & Lady Plunkett, Lords Castlereagh & Staindale, & many appendant children. Dancing was maintained with much vigour until midnight, & then we all went to bed. The snow was some inches thick.