The Henson Journals
Tue 17 September 1929
Volume 48, Pages 324 to 325
[324]
Tuesday, September 17th, 1929.
Derek Elliott writes to say that he will not be able to come here tomorrow, as he must be operated on for appendicitis!
I received another letter from Kensit, wanting to know what I intended to do in the matter of Merryweather!! The plot thickens.
Ella and I left the Castle at 11 a.m. and motored via Newcastle to Wallington, Cambo, where we lunched with Sir Charles and Lady Trevelyan, and shown the house and gardens. The house is about 200 years old, and is an admirable example of the chaste & comfortable architecture of that period. In Sir Charles's study were two tables bearing silver plates. The one recorded that Macaulay had written his history on it : & the other that Sir George Trevelyan had written his ''American Revolution'' on it. The books, which were far fewer than I had expected, included some which had belonged to Macaulay. They were full of his marginal notes. Some bore the stains of his thumbs, for he read while he shaved, & and turned the leaves with his soapy [325] hands. George Macaulay Trevelyan & his wife were at lunch. He looks very grey, though he is only 53. We had some talk about Disestablishment, & I think what I said impressed him. He said that when he was quite young he was intensely Evangelical under the influence of a pious nurse. When, at a later stage, he read Darwin & other scientific writers, he abandoned belief in miracles. Then he was frankly non–religious, but in the late years he had come to think more kindly of the Churches, & especially the Church of England. He continued however, to regard the Roman Church with extreme abhorrence. The gardens which were laid out by ''Capability'' Brown, are very fine.
We motored to Park End, near Wark, and had tea with Lady Chelmsford, & her married daughter Mrs O'Brien. Then we returned by way of Hexham & Tow Law to Auckland having spent a pleasant day. The fineness of the evening disclosed the beauties of the moors, over which our road lay.
Mrs Parker Smith and Miss Gainford left the Castle.