The Henson Journals

[57]

Thursday, January 2nd, 1930.

A pleasant day following a stormy night. I spent the morning in working at a sermon for the Cathedral next Sunday. For some reason or other my mind was infertile, my imagination failed altogether, and, although I succeeded in finishing a discourse, it was poor stuff, & quite other than I had intended.

The Rev. J. C. R. Creagh Coen, assistant curate of St Chad's, Gateshead , lunched here, & discussed with me the questions whether he should accept the living of Usworth, which had been offered to him. He was for six years a missionary in Nyasaland, and expressed himself in answer to my question very intelligently, I was distinctly well impressed by him.

I walked round the Park with Dr McCullagh. Bryden had caused yet another tree to be felled for the providing me with fire–wood. He and his sons were busily engaged in sawing it up. This also was a larch, and rotten within. What may be the reason why the trees in the Park are perishing is not easy to determine, but the fact cannot be questioned. By the time that I have paid for the labour and the cartage in addition to the small charge which the Commissioners exact for the wood itself, I doubt whether the burning of wood from the Park is an economical practice. Coal wd perhaps be cheaper.

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