The Henson Journals

[26]

Wednesday, March 23rd, 1927.

I motored to Sacriston, and there confirmed 73 persons. The vicar, Revd A. R. R. Hutton, asked to be excused the effort of reading the Preface on account of his voice, which was indeed, hardly equal to giving out the hymns. I asked him afterwards whether he was always so handicapped and, if so, how he conducted service. He replied that the cause was 'nerves'. This poor creature has charge of more than 8000 people, and was ordained in 1897. He has held his present position for 10 years, &, of course, has no curate. I went to my rooms in Durham Castle, and had tea there, then I went to Brandon, & confirmed 71 persons. There are more than 15,000 people in this parish, & 3 clergy. There ought to have been at least twice as many candidates. This is a rather aggressively "Anglo–Cathilick" parish, and as usual, the candidates were very young, & a certain atmosphere of flippancy pervaded the church. Braley brought one of his men to be confirmed.

I started to read another book about Russia, which purports to be a first–hand study by a competent student – "The Russian Revolution (1917–1926) by Lancelot Lawton. As it is published by Macmillan & Co it may be presumed to be a reputable publication.

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