The Henson Journals

[163]

Tuesday, February 12th, 1924.

What shall I say to the Undergraduates at Oxford on the 24th, when I am pledged to preach to them? I want, of course, to work in a reference to Holy Orders, and I must at all costs be "interesting"! My knowledge of them is very slight, and any attempt to imagine aspirations and perplexities which one does not actually share is not very likely to be successful. I might illustrate an argument on the right handling of life by the case of Lord Byron.

The Rector of Castle Eden arrived at 11 a.m., & I spent the rest of the morning in going through with him the meticulous gravamina which had been sent to me from his Squire's lady. He seemed to me to have a very sufficient answer to most of the allegations, and I wrote to that effect to Colonel B. The situation in that parish is, perhaps, representative. Everything belongs to the squire, whose will no man will venture to gainsay. The parochial church council is but the megaphone through which he shouts, & the wretched parson is either his creature or his victim. He is commonly very eloquent against what he calls the autocracy of the incumbent!

After lunch I ventured a walk in the Park, the first for some days. The weather was damp & chilly, but total abstinence from physical exercise is not to be unduly prolonged.

I finished my re–reading of "The Newcomes". What a world was Thackeray's! Is ours anywise bettered?

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