The Henson Journals

[265]

Monday, November 29th, 1926.

A letter from Mrs Eade tells me that her husband has died in the Nursing Home in Darlington. He was ordained as long ago as 1870, and had held the Vicarage of Aycliffe since 1880. It is in the gift of the Dean & Chapter, and is said to be worth £391 net.

I received from Mrs Moss, the widow of a former head–master of Shrewsbury School, a letter enclosing a privately circulated memorandum, which described the condition & procedure of "Malling Abbey" in which her daughter had, against her mother's wishes, been "clothed". This institution is an unrecognized society of "enclosed" nuns, & appears to be in very urgent & obvious need of drastic handling. I wrote to the Bishop of Rochester asking him whether he intended to do anything.

During the afternoon I walked round the Park with Jimmie and Ernest: and then abandoned myself to reading the dramatically fascinating account of the late German Emperor by Ludwig. It is certainly a terrible reflection that the fate of civilization should have been at the mercy of the whims & prejudices of a neurotic creature, to whom pomp was the salt of life, & for whom power was the condition of failure.

Arthur Shadwell arrived about 6 p.m: and I had much talk with him. He is pursuing investigations with the object of counselling the Government on the pressing & difficult question of Trade Union Law. I note with regret that he is not very hopeful that anything effective can be done.

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