The Henson Journals

[177]

Sexagesima, February 24th, 1924.

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I attended service in the College Chapel. Johnson is getting more bowed in figure, and slower in his speech, but he reads beautifully still, & is very vigorous for a man of four score. I went to S. Mary's and heard the Bampton Lecture. The preacher was one of the ablest of the resident Anglo–Catholics – N. P. Williams. His sermon was clever, interesting & learned. He allowed himself in some humorous versions of the Biblical Fall–legends, which made the gallery titter. I was struck by the size of the congregation. I lunched with the Spooners, and then returned to All Souls, where I dined quietly with mine hostess. After dinner, I went to S. Mary's, and delivered the sermon on which I had bestowed so much labour. So far as I could judge it was a total failure. The congregation was not as large as I had expected, a circumstance which may be partly explained by the chill & cheerless weather. The Church was cold: the undergraduates were bored: I was myself consciously dull! It is humiliating that one should be so dependent on moods or conditions.

Katherine, now a fine young woman of 23, resides in London, where she is studying astronomy at the University. She week–ends at Oxford regularly, & retuns to London after dinner.

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