The Henson Journals

[213]

Tuesday, August 12th, 1930.

A brief paragraph in the local newspaper announces the death of the Vicar of Hebburn, the Revd A. F. Marr. This is an untoward event, and as unexpected as it is untoward. When I left Auckland for London at the beginning of July, he was reported to be making a good recovery after his operation. He was ordained in 1890, so that he was 3 years my junior in the ministry. For 29 years he has worked in Hebburn, one of the woefullest places in all Slumdom, and he has preserved his faith and his cheerfulness. I have ever regarded him as a 'bonus pastor', one of the very best type of "Anglo–Catholick". There are 12,500 parishioners, largely unemployed. The income of the benefice is, as usual, £400: & the patron is the Rector of Jarrow. It will not be easy to find a suitable successor to Marr. That he ought to be an "Anglo–Catholick" seems to be required by equity. That an "Anglo–Catholick" young enough to be equal to the work is likely to be either religious or reasonable is, alas! by no means probable. And a bigotted jack–ass of the now normal type would create a multitude of difficulties for the Bishop of Durham.

[214]

"Neither religious nor national hatred hurts antiquities quite so deeply as the plain emotionless farmer or the builder of modern houses or even the too ardent restorer of the past."

Haverfield, 'The Roman Occupation of Britain', p. 162.

Peers sends me his 'Anniversary Address' as President of the London Society of Antiquarians. It is a learned & interesting review of archaelogical activities in Britain at the present time. He says that 'it appears to be established by recent research that both the Roman Wall and the Vallum are due to Hadrian,' the Vallum being the ditch dug to mark the frontier of the empire – a mere geographical boundary, while the Wall came into existence not many years afterwards, in recognition of the fact that if the frontier line was to be respected it must be of such a nature that the northern barbarians could not cross it with impunity'.

I went into Durham and attended a meeting of the Durham Castle Preservation Fund. Peers was there, & came back with me to Auckland.

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