The Henson Journals

[61]

Friday, September 2nd, 1927.

A brilliant warm day from morning to nightfall. I made a start on the Edinburgh Article.

Morris Young came to talk about Shildon. He stayed to lunch. Captain Armstrong, and his wife, whom I knew as Eleanor Murray, arrived on a visit: and were soon followed by Mrs Murray, & an American friend named Coolidge. There was lawn–tennis in the afternoon. Lionel returned from his holiday.

"The awful worries of the Coal Trade position make everything more difficult" – so writes Francis Priestman, himself a coal–owner, to me this morning. What reception is he likely to give to an appeal for £120,000 for the saving of Durham Castle? Normally, he is a public–spirited and generous man, who might be reasonably counted upon for assistance, but now? If from the coal–owners I turn to the ship–builders, I find no more promising outlook. That industry is just struggling back into activity after a prolonged period of almost complete paralysis. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners are large land owners and royalty owners. In this character they certainly ought to contribute largely, but when I raised the question with Sir Lewis Dibdin, he swept it aside as if obviously answerable in the negative! Nevertheless, I think it must be raised again. If I write directly to the Archbishop, the letter could hardly be ignored. The Commissioners ought to do for Durham Castle what they did for S. Paul's, viz: make a grant of £10,000: but they won't!