The Henson Journals

[228]

Monday, July 29th, 1929.

[symbol]

There was a welcome rain last night which penetrated as much as three inches. I made a start on the article for the Nineteenth Century & After, but made small progress.

Rufus joined the Army and went off without so much as a word of farewell! Yet I have been kind to him. I confirmed him. But there is little sentiment in these people, &, of course, no consideration!

Pattinson, my new chaplain, came to stay a few days here before Lionel departs to learn something of his duties.

The notices of the Archbishops' Letter are not very complimentary. Indeed it is a very poor production, & leaves one in some astonishment that their Graces should have thought it worth putting out. The solitary suggestion is so trivial as to seem almost petty. "Bible study circles" are hardly the prime requisite in such a situation of confusion as that into which the Church has come. Yet I can find nothing else in the Pastoral Letter.

[229]

[symbol]

An American Bishop, Atkinson, the co–adjutor of (I think) Arizona, who has been staying at the Deanery, Durham, came to see me. He is a hale old man of 72, like all Americans loquacious & dogmatic, but unlike many Americans, not offensive.

Jimmie Dobbie brought his fiancé Joyce Jobling, to tea. She is a young pretty girl with an intelligent manner. The spectacle of a clergyman "in love" is always a little ridiculous, but one must make allowances.

I received a formal invitation to the functions in Edinburgh in October which are to "consummate" the Reunion of the two Presbyterian Churches in Scotland. I accepted, but without enthusiasm, for these orgies of mutual compliment are very trying, & make me melancholy! Moreover, I think the unreality of this particular fusion is in some respects unusually great. There was never any adequate cause for the schism: & the principal motive in bringing it to an end has been religious than economical.

---