The Henson Journals

[90]

Whit–Monday, May 20th, 1929.

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The glorious weather continues, but alas! I have so sore a throat & so heavy a cold that I cannot enjoy it.

The post brought from Lord Sands a copy of his account of Wallace Williamson, and, being exceedingly decrepit, I read it through rapidly, and then wrote to the donor a letter of acknowledgement. The subject was not a great one, and the biographer has not handled it with much ability. But the Scots think all their preachers are remarkable, and no anecdote is too trivial for their reverential narrating if a preacher be the central figure.

Dearmer sent me a very civil reply to my inquiry about sacring bells inside the church, and enclosed a not very informing memorandum.

Ingram sent me his letter to the 21 Anglo–Catholick rebels, extracted from the 'Church Times'. This is, perhaps, a rather undignified method of publishing what he has written.

[91]

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My throat, which had been unsatisfactory yesterday, threatened to fail altogether today. Finally I yielded to my fate, and caused Dr McCullagh to be sent for. He declared that 'I had a temperature', and must forthwith take myself to bed. Accordingly I returned to the seclusion of my bedroom with no better comforters than Pepys' Diary, and Scott's 'Fortunes of Nigel'. Ella read 'Vanity Fair'.

I was interested to notice that Pepys was accustomed to write up his Diary at intervals, sometimes as long as a period of eight or nine days was recorded at a sitting. Thus his recollections of conversations & of his own sentiments are not so recent as to preclude the shaping influence of reflection. He exhibits a very singular moral paradox. His edifying observations on the licentiousness of the King & Court accord oddly with his naive compassions of personal transgression. Music and women provided irresistible temptations and both were constant accompaniments of his private & public life.

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