The Henson Journals

[227]

Monday, September 7th, 1925.

Diocesan Expenses for, 1924–5 (apart from stipends.)

Primary Visitation	£182.13.8
Ordinations	56.6.6
Stationary, Postage, Telegrams & Crockford	46.7.8
Type–writer & repairs	29.3.8
Robes	23.4.6
Board of Finance – Pamphlets from Central Board	10.16.9
Confirmation Forms	1.0.10
Annual Meeting of Lay Readers	6."."
–	£355.13.7
Case for Storing Documents	20.2.9
–	£375.16.4

I wasted the whole morning in preparing a claim for Income tax deductions, paying the income–tax due on 1st July last, and writing to Lee, Bolton, & Co. Also I corrected & returned the proofs to Williams & Norgate. The beastly book is now off my hands. I wonder what its fate will be. These publishers have never done anything for me before, though they have asked me to give them something to publish. But I was then sticking to Macmillan.

[228]

I walked round to Mr Spedding, the dentist, to consult him about the swelling in my jaw. He decided to 'let well alone' for the present. Then I took a turn around the Park, in which I was accompanied by the lanky bird–loving youth, who was rather more communicative than usual. I talked with 4 good looking lads who were hanging about the golf–course. All about 15: all had left school: all were workless, & with no plan beyond "getting a job". They all said that they would gladly go to Australia. Then I came upon a large number of unemployed miners playing (lawlessly) on a football field. Three of them overtook me, & talked freely. We walked round the bowling green. They spoke of their continuing unemployment with genuine disgust, & something like despair – an ill note to hear on the lips of young men.

Gerald Marshall & Ernest arrived about 6 p.m.: and, of course, there was an end of work for the day. This is the grand & irremovable objection to the practice of hospitality that it necessitates so grievous waste of good time. If one could harden one's heart & close one's door, how possible it might be to concentrate one's mind on a given task, work continuously on it, and even carry it to completion!

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