The Henson Journals
Thu 14 March 1929
Volume 47, Page 164
[164]
Thursday, March 14th, 1929.
Morning mist, and somewhat colder.
I revised carefully the Presidential Address, and inserted a "purple patch" about parsons' wives. The poor ladies have few champions now, and yet, if patient unselfish service, unheeded & unrewarded, were the basis of consideration in society, I verily think that these unattractive & unpopular persons would stand well forward. I am quite sure that mission=preachers & fashionable divines of every kind would be at the bottom, a grade above the criminal classes!
Richardson, an Ordination candidate, lunched here: and, after his departure, Lionel & I walked round the Park.
Lionel and I motored to West Hartlepool, where I confirmed 79 persons in S. James's Church. Before the service I was taken by the Vicar (Coates) to two houses; in the one, I confirmed a sick woman, in the other, I confirmed a sick boy. There has been, and is still, an epidemic of influenza in the parish. This circumstance may explain the tempest of coughing, through which, with difficulty, I conducted the service.