The Henson Journals

[199]

Monday, October 11th, 1926.

A chilly wet day tending to become boisterous. In spite of it, however, Ella and I motored to Mount Grace, Northallerton, & lunched with Sir Hugh & Lady Bell, in the most interesting house which has been constructed in the 17th and 19th centuries out of the guest–house of the Carthusian Priory. After lunch, Sir Hugh showed us the ruins, which are more extensive than I remembered from my visit in 1888, when, on August 14th, I drove over from Northallerton with Jennie. I was just ordained to the Priesthood, and was taking a holiday as "locum tenens" in the little parish of Ainderby, not far from Northallerton. On August 15th I received a letter from Bishop Blomfield urging me to accept the college–living of Barking. My journal, as I read it now after 38 years, reads oddly enough. I little thought then that when I visited Mount Grace again it would be as the Bishop of Durham, and the guest of the proprietor. Is one's life just a lucky–bag full of chances? or, may we dare to think that it is the scene of a particular Providence? Certainly, the latter view appeals most to one's insatiable vanity.

Fawkes arrived by the afternoon train. He had lost his baggage, which, however, arrived by a later train.

That strange boy, Herbert Smith, writes to me from his new school in Devonshire. He gives me an exact account of hours & meals, which almost reads like a prospectus. Yet he is getting [on] for 17 years old!

The weather has been distinctly colder. Fires are now starting everywhere. We burn wood, but even of that the supply is small: and the coal–cellar is practically empty. Yet the men still maintain a resolutely obstinate attitude.

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