The Henson Journals

[160]

Monday, August 25th, 1924.

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I inserted into the charge a passage on the subject of Temperance, taking occasion thus to make an answer to the critics of my House of Lords speech, though, of course, not mentioning them.

In the afternoon I motored with the three ladies to Monkheselden, and had tea with the Vicar (P. l'Argent Bell) and his wife. He showed us his rose–garden which, though dashed & disordered by the recent rain, makes a fine show. The pastor's zeal for rose–growing has spread to his parishioners, who, not only seek his advice in the selection of trees, but also send their orders to the nursery–men through him. The Church is a poor white–washed building, but the walls are very ancient, & a decayed door–way is reputed to be "Saxon". The northern wall had evidently been rebuilt, for the remains of an early round–headed window were inserted but upside down. A second such window, though blocked, was apparently in situ.

The Vicar told me that he & his wife and son lived in the Vicarage, keeping no servant, but doing all the necessary work themselves. The economy of expense was not the reason but the extreme difficulty of inducing anybody to accept employment as a servant. This is a "sign of the times". It is not merely their poverty which is evicting the gentry from their houses, but even more the impossibility of obtaining and retaining the indispensable servants. The revolution is twofold – agrarian and social.

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