The Henson Journals

[212]

12th Sunday after Trinity, August 30th, 1925.

We were called at 4.30 a.m.: breakfasted in our bedroom, & caught the 5.56 a.m. to Stirling, which arrived about 9 a.m. We motored to Sauchieburn, & got to the house in time for breakfast. Sir Evelyn Cecil and Lord Hunsdon were there also. Steel–Maitland talked freely about the economic situation. On the whole I took the impression that he was not much less pessimistic than myself, while, of course, neither Cecil nor Hunsdon (though the first bleated the familiar platitudes about conciliation) was more cheerful. So we were all sufficiently dejected when we issued forth from the house to attend the parish church. The minister of S. Ninian's, a Welshman named Jones who has a good war–record, conducted the service, & preached the sermon. He preached on the Cleansing of the Temple and the challenging of Christ's authority by the Pharisees. I was interested to hear a half–contemptuous allusion to the Union of the Scottish Churches, & the now familiar references to an impending Revolution. The sermon had been prepared with evident care, & was expressed with some literary power, but it merited a better delivery than it had. The preacher swayed to & fro, spoke too fast, & did not manage his voice successfully. Yet, with all deductions, the discourse compared very favourably with the average parochial sermon in the Church of England. One feature [213] of the Scottish service strikes me as rather absurd – a fatuous piece of doggerel called the children's hymn. I could not discern a single child in the congregation, & certainly only the presence of children in some number could justify the introduction into public worship of so incongruous a feature. Mine hostess told me that the income of the parish of St Ninian's exceeded £900 per annum: that the present minister had been his predecessor's assistant; & had been unanimously elected: that his popularity had declined as his authority increased: & that the sermon which I heard was above the level of his average performance.

In the afternoon we walked through the gardens, & visited the fish–ponds: but at this season of the year the fish are "off their feed", &, therefore, though their appetites were provoked by supplies of horse–flesh, there were no interesting displays of competitive voracity, such as we had witnessed on previous visits.

Greville Steel, mine host's nephew, interests me. He was at Rugby under Bishop David, & expressed great admiration for his old head–master: he has taken his degree in History at Oxford (3rd class): & now is about to start in London as articled to a firm of accountants. Evelyn Cecil has his daughter Maud with him – a pleasant frank girl, who is studying Art in London.

Both Ella and I disclosed a tendency to somnolence at a relatively early hour, & retired to bed as soon as we cd decently do so!

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