The Henson Journals

[8]

Thursday, September 4th, 1930.

The weather again has degenerated. It began by cloud and mist, and ended in steady rain. The post brought letters from Derek, who is again in England, bursting with the experiences of a fortnight in Italy. I spent the morning writing letters, and in trying to write some more of the article on Disestablishment, but my mind seems as arid as the Sahara. After lunch I decided to motor to Carlisle, and get my hair cut. Mine hostess & Ella accompanied me but our expedition was a failure, for all the shops were shut for the weekly "closing–day"; and the weather was villainous. We visited the poor fragment of a Cathedral, and found a parson reading Evensong with no congregation save a responsive Verger! [symbol] I noted two new and rather gaudy altars, each adorned with a crucifix. What is the serious intention and conscious belief behind this policy of multiplying altars in the Cathedrals, which evidently commends itself to the Cathedral bodies? Is it merely a convention?

[9]

The museum in Carlisle contained a number of Roman remains, mostly from the Wall, a fine collection of stuffed birds, especially aquatic birds, & the usual 'flotsam and jetsam' of miscellaneous oddments. These, however, were less prominent than is usual in country museums. The railings have been removed from the Close, & the Cathedral is the better seen from the street. I am interested in the eager efforts of our Cathedral Bodies to make their cathedrals popular. Chester had led the way: Canterbury has followed, & the rest are following. The public are invited and almost implored to regard the great churches as their own, & 'to take their pleasure therein'. Fees are abolished: guides are organized with no charge for their services: plays are introduced within the sacred walls: & even refreshments are arranged in the cloisters! How will all this affect the treatment of the Cathedrals when the stroke of Disendowment falls? In one of his novels Scott attributes the brutal maltreatment of the medieval churches by the Protestant mobs to the mistaken policy of the Medieval Authorities who had suffered much rude horse–play to proceed within the sacred buildings under various religious pretences.

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