The Henson Journals

[145]

1st Sunday after Trinity, June 19th, 1927.

A heavy atmosphere with gusts of hot wind did not facilitate the securing of a good night. I emerged on the day feeling rather dilapidate. For some while I read before getting up Rufus Jones's account of the American Quakers. Their attitude towards military duty & oaths was extraordinarily difficult to fit in to any working theory of good citizenship in the actual circumstances of colonies, always menaced by the Indians, & necessarily involved in the wars with France & Holland. Nor do the Quakers themselves appear to have been consistent.

I preached in the Temple Church at 11 a.m., and remained to the Celebration of Holy Communion. There was, of course, a large congregation, but the Benchers and Judges were conspicuous by their absence. The fact that it was Hospital Sunday, & that the Judges were going to St Paul's in state during the afternoon, may have gone some way to explain their absence, but I suspect that there is some resentment against the Bishop of Durham in connexion with his Lordship's attitude on the Prayer Book Revision. At least I know that the Master of the Rolls assigned his own absence to this cause. I noticed how significantly senior the men in the congregation were. All bald heads and grey beards, nowhere anything young. Why is this? and what does it portend?

[146]

My sermon was listened to with attention, but it did not "bite". Perhaps, the people were disappointed at having a sermon on "Tolerance", when they expected an appeal for Hospitals. Anyway, I felt baffled. After the services, we lunched in the Middle Temple. The company was small & uninteresting. Mr Justice Banks, a heavy man, presided, & was civil enough. Then I returned to the Master's House, & rested until tea–time: after which the Master & I walked to the Priory Church of S. Bartholomew only to find it locked. Then we called on Hine–Haycock, and had talk with him. – We called also at the deanery, & found Kitty at home, but Ralph absent. Catherine was there, a blooming girl of 17, so pleasant & unaffected. Crawford comes of age on July 5th, & I promised if I could to look in on the family party. As we passed through the garden on our way home, the master called my attention to the lawn–tennis which was being played by some young men, & told me that it had but recently been permitted. The secularist leaven is working throughout the entire mass of English life.

I dined quietly with the Master & his wife: and after dinner he and I had a considerable palaver before going to bed.

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