The Henson Journals

[81]

Thursday, September 15th, 1927.

'Two days ago I saw the greatest curiosity in London, aye and in England to…. I have seen Elizabeth Fry in Newgate, and I have witnessed there the miraculous effect of true christianity upon the most depraved of human beings. And yet the wretched outcasts have been tamed & subdued by the Christian eloquence of Mrs Fry.'

The American Minister in 1917, quoted in D. N. B. 'Elizabeth Fry'.

I finished the Article on Quakerism, and sent it to Harold Cox. There came to lunch the Rev. J. McGowan, the Vicar–designate of Hamsterley, a poor smirking man. After lunch I walked round the Park with Col. Craster. J. G. Wilson came to tea, & went with me & Lionel to Ebchester, where I instituted the new Rector, Morgan. The Church, dedicated to St Ebba, is interesting. It was filled by a congregation almost entirely feminine. We returned by way of Lanchester & Durham, dropping J. G. Wilson at his own door, & arrived at the Castle about 9.5 p.m. Miss Binnington, the sister of Gilbert's wife Lois arrived on a visit.

The weather today was fine & fresh: but the evening paper reports a prodigious great rain–fall in the South of England.