The Henson Journals

[134]

Friday, August 1st, 1924.

Lady Constance Butler and Bishop Knight went off after breakfast, Fearne took Mercy Webbe into Durham to show her the cathedral. I wrote letters and cheques. Greenway, the Vicar designate of Eldon, came to lunch, and to talk about his new parish. According to him, the late Vicar was one of those saints whose business incapacity carries them into procedures which in the case of laymen would be thought dishonest!

After lunch I played bowls with William and Frank.

After tea, I wrote letters to divers kind folk who had sent me their condolences. Also I wrote to Fawkes and George Nimmins.

The newspapers announce the appointment of canon Barnes to the Bishoprick of Birmingham. I wrote to congratulate him. It does at least indicate that intellectual distinction & ecclesiastical independence are not yet a barrier to episcopal office. We have witnessed such strange transformations of men under the conditions of episcopal life that it is impossible to be very hopeful, but it is difficult to imagine how Barnes can repudiate a past which identifies him so closely with liberalism in theology and evangelicalism in practice. In any case, he will hardly be so fatuous and so futile as the outgoing bishop. It is impossible to imagine more utterly different men in type, temperament, and ability than the three first bishops of Birmingham – the fanatick, the windbag, and the Apostle of the middle class, Gore, Wakefield, Barnes.

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