The Henson Journals
Mon 26 May 1930
Volume 50, Pages 41 to 42
[41]
Monday, May 26th, 1930, Edinburgh.
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Archbishop, Lord Davidson, died yesterday. The Scotsman gives great prominence to the news, and publishes the usual "tributes" to him. What is my deliberate estimate of his character and career? He certainly impressed me as a large–minded, tolerant, magnanimous man, with an affection for younger men, and a genuine humility which was overpowering. I hold him to have been a very sincere & humble–minded Christian. He was sagacious and far–sighted, but he was betrayed by his anxiety to avoid the common fault of old men – lack of sympathy which the young – that he sometimes was unduly deferential to their wishes, & thus deprived them of the benefits which his wisdom & experience could have brought to them. He was an opportunist, and never went to the root of the problems with which he was confronted. Hence it came about that his policies rarely succeeded, & though he postponed many difficulties and dangerous questions, he answered none.
[42]
Mine host took me to see the Scottish War Memorial in the Castle. I had heard that it was remarkably good, but I was not prepared for so much dignity and depth of sentiment. It is really a wonderful revelation of the Scottish character. No memorial in England can come near it.
I was interested to see the little Norman chapel, and "Mons Meg", and the Cemetery for Soldiers' dogs, & the Scottish regalia, & Queen Mary's bedroom with the window from which the infant James was lowered. Then we went to the Assembly, and I sat beside the Moderator. He introduced me to the members, & I made a very brief speech to them, designed, it must be candidly confessed, for English rather than for Scottish consumption. After lunching in the Moderator's room, I went to the station & took train for Newcastle. There I was met by Pattinson, and, after doing some business in Newcastle, I went to Medomsley, where I confirmed 147 persons in the parish church. After the service we returned to Auckland, where we found Gerald & Enid Linnell had arrived.