The Henson Journals

[59]

Wednesday, July 28th, 1926.

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The post last night brought me a complaint from one of the Shildon parishioners against the Vicar's preaching. He (Watts) is a fanatical Labour man, so fanatical that I think the balance of his poor brains is disturbed. The complainant asks pitifully, "Is there no remedy against the pulpit being used as a political platform?" I fear my answer must be unhesitatingly that there is none. "Since the strike when the Vicar led the T. U. C. in Shildon, & sermons were unbearable, I have either gone to South Church or stayed at home on a Sunday evening." Perhaps I had better tell the poor lady that I can only listened to complaints when sent to me formally by the Parochial Church Council. It is really a low way of avoiding acknowledgment of the humiliating fact that I can do nothing. If Watts was a reasonable being, I could try a private admonition. But my experience of him has already proved the futility of that method. There is no remedy for the disease of fanaticism. The intervention of the 10 bishops in the Strike cannot fail to be interpreted as a justification of Watts's attitude, and as a censure of mine! Yet I doubt whether even those foolish prelates would knowingly encourage the extravagances of which he is undoubtedly guilty. But they neither think nor know. Living in this heated "Copec" atmosphere they have lost touch with actuality.

[60]

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July 28th 1926

My dear Mrs Vasey

I am very sorry to learn that you find yourself unable to attend your parish church on account of the political character of the Vicar's sermons. It is, of course, very regrettable that any clergyman should use his privileged position in the pulpit for the advocacy of political opinions which can fairly be objected against as partisan. Whether this is the case with Mr Watts, I cannot fairly decide until I have heard or read his sermons.

You should address your complaint to the Parochial Church Council, and if the Council thinks it well to approach me formally on the subject, I will, of course, give due attention to its representations.

But it is not advisable to attend to merely private and individual complaints against the clergy.

Believe me,

Yours v. faithfully,

Herbert Dunelm:

Mrs Vasey

8 Church Street

Shildon

[61]

July 28th 1926

Dear Mr Beavan

The rule of the Law is that "before an exchange of benefices can be made, it is necessary to procure a licence from the Ordinary to treat of an exchange". You appear to have thought yourself competent to treat of an exchange without procuring such licence: & now ask me to sanction such an arrangement which you had no legal competence to make matter of negotiation.

Mr James is a complete stranger to me. I know nothing of him, and nothing of his wife. The last information is hardly less relevant to a responsible exercise of patronage than the first.

I shall not return to Auckland Castle until the last week in August, & cannot, therefore, arrange to see Mr James for some weeks. In the circumstances, however, I do not imagine that this delay will inconvenience either you or him. And I may, perhaps, in the interval be able to make up my mind on the main question, which is very difficult to answer rightly, viz. whether I ought to sanction any exchange at all.

I shall be staying with the Bishop of Worcester at Hartlebury Castle, Kidderminster, during the first week of August.

Believe me,

Yours sincerely,

Herbert Dunelm:

The Revd F. B. Beavan

The Vicarage

Seaton Carew

West Hartlepool.

[62]

July 28th 1926

Dear Sir Francis Fox,

I must acknowledge your important letter of the 23rd inst. and assure you that it will receive the careful consideration which it deserves. You will easily understand that the economic disaster in which my diocese has been plunged has made it a difficult task for me to sustain the burden of diocesan finance: & makes me reluctant to accept direct responsibility for the Castle. But, of course, I shall gladly cooperate to the utmost of my powers in any effort which the academic authorities may make.

Believe me,

Yours v. faithfully

Herbert Dunelm

Sir Francis Fox

Alyn Bank

Wimbledon. S.W. 20

[63]

The weather was dull in the morning, and wet in the afternoon. Mrs Lawrie carried Ella and me to a Garden party, where we met diverse acquaintances. Colonel & Mrs Darwin were there, looking much older than when they were our neighbours in Durham. Major [Torr?], whom I have often met in the Church Assembly, appeared. He introduced me to his wife, & to Sir George Welby, some kind of a connexion of Arthur Headlam's, & (as he reminded me) a friend of Bishop Ryle and Sir Mark MacTaggart Stewart. Bridget Tallants claimed me; she was with her brother, John, whom I mistook for her husband, & talked to on that hypothesis! Her father, Major Hale, was introduced to me. A nice–looking lad came up, & spoke to me. He said he had been at Durham School during the War, & used to attend the military services in the Cathedral. Unhappily, I failed to catch his name. Save that the rain made everything damp & uncomfortable, the garden–party was more successful than such functions generally are. Mrs Lawrie told me that her aunt, Lady Ross, had originally been an Anglican, but, having been converted to the Papist Church, demonstrates the fact of her conversion by special ardour for the Popish system. I was amused at the zest by which the old lady snapped up a mention of "the Nag's Head"!

[64]

"Industrialism and Drunkenness" might be a suitable subject for the "Earl Grey Memorial Lecture". It would trace the spread of the vice from the Low Countries to England, and thence to the U. S. A. and the colonies. It would distinguish between the orgiastic drunkenness of savages, the more brutal excess of undisciplined appetite among ignorant and semi–barbarous Europeans, the morbid drunkenness of individuals of weak physique & in circumstances of pressure, and the habitual excess determined by the conditions of industrialism – overcrowding, monotony of labour, excessive toil, lack of rational interests. The treatment would be historical, and some influences would be drawn for modern guidance.

"Birth–Control" and "The Colour Problem" are two subjects of large importance and immediate interest, but, perhaps, rather over–done in recent years. "War" and the possible Abolition of War could not but be interesting, but would also be very difficult. Then there is the problem of "Feminism", but this might be too "burning" a subject for handling by an Anti–feminist in a University which contains students of both sexes. The Influence of Education on morals would be interesting, but the materials would be hard to get. I must look again at Lord Bryce's Books, and Lecky's for some suggestions. A single lecture cannot enter deeply into anything, but it ought to be thorough as far as it goes.

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