The Henson Journals

[116]

Tuesday, August 17th, 1926.

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During the night there was a considerable thunderstorm, and this morning the air continues to be very heavy & oppressive. It is a strange season. Yesterday's papers were filled with accounts of earthquake shocks. As in the famous case of 1750 the most violent shock appears to have been felt in Hereford: but the shocks were distributed over a very large area.

The old Scottish missionary to whom I wrote (v. p. 103) returns to the charge in another lengthy epistle with which he encloses the cutting from the Scotsman, on which he based his original letter, and a copy of "The Miner" containing an article by A. J. Cook. He is evidently an advanced Socialist, and represents what is becoming a numerous class in all the Christian churches. Their finest flower is the reckless & canting incendiary, Lansbury. They draw from their religion nothing but the consecration of their hatreds. In the xxth century they represent the same psychological type and the same moral and religious perversion as the Munzers [= Müntzers?], Knipperdolings, &c. represented in the xvith century. In their hands economics becomes a fanaticism: and Socialism finds in them the murderous zeal of a Clement or a Ravaillac. Probably many of them are literally "unbalanced" mentally: & in quieter times would be either harmless or confined: but in these distempered epochs of Revolution the general madness releases them into prominence and activity. They march to the front, & fill the world with their violence.

[117]

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My dear Sir,

I am obliged to you for your further communication. The quotation from the Bishoprick in the Scotsman is fair enough: none the less, I shd prefer that you had the whole article in front of you, & I have directed my chaplain to send you the copy of the Bishoprick which contains it.

I fear that our views, both economic & social, wd be too discrepant to make it worth while for me to discuss the large propositions, explicit and implicit, of your letter. I live among miners, & I have access to excellent information as to their condition, and I know that it is absolutely untrue to describe them as suffering much acute hardship during this "stoppage". I speak of my own district, Durham, but I am informed that the situation is not different in the other mining areas.

Believe me,

Yours v. faithfully

Herbert Dunelm:

The Revd Wm Warwick

10 West Mayfield

Edinburgh

N. B.

[118]

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We left Bramfield Hall at 10.15 a.m. and motored to Walsingham Abbey via Bungay and Norwich, arriving at 1.15 p.m. We wasted about 45 minutes in getting out of Norwich. We lunched with Sir Eustace & Lady Gurney, who showed us their very interesting house, and the ruins of the Augustinian convent. We visited the very fine parish church, & admired the font, adorned with bas–reliefs of the Seven Sacraments. The church has the aspect of a Roman Catholic place of worship. There is a confessional box: the air is heavy with incense: images with tapers burning before them arrest the eye: the Stations of the Cross adorn the walls: & the Sacrament is reserved. The Vicar happened to be in the church: so Lady Gurney introduced me: he dropped on his knee and kissed my hand! Walsingham has again become a place of pilgrimage, and I gathered that this annual event was to take place tomorrow. Mine host tells me that the church is well–attended, & that the villagers seem to like the services, which he himself detested. The Bishop of Norwich had visited the church, & left the impression that he was pleased with what he saw! We returned by the way we had come, stopping in Norwich to have tea, & to visit the Cathedral. I had forgotten, or had never before realized, what a very noble church it is. It was crawling with tourists. We got back to Bramfield at 7.15 p.m.

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