The Henson Journals
Fri 3 October 1930
Volume 51, Pages 73 to 74
[73]
Friday, October 3rd, 1930.
Jack Carr went off after breakfast. I gave him the volume, 'Temple Gardiner of Cairo', which I find too aggressively pietistic for my taste, but which he, born and bred in an Evangelical atmosphere, will probably find spiritually stimulating.
Bishop and Mrs Talbot left shortly after noonday. They are so burdened with the infirmities of old age that it is doubtful whether visiting in strange houses can bring them any pleasure, and quite certain that it can bring pleasure to nobody else. The Bishop has a letter in the Times of today, championing the Tractarians, and seeking to disprove the allegation of the Times leader–writer, that they were now dead.
I expended the morning in reading a fascinating volume – Comparetti's 'Vergil in the Middle Ages' – which I had taken out of the London Library. It pleased me so much that I wrote to Blackwell asking him to procure it for me if possible, if it were now purchasable.
Charles and I walked for an hour in the Park, where Bryden, Ashton, & William were busy in cutting up beech–trees, & have [sic] having them transported to the Castle.
[74]
Meeting of Archdeacons & Rural Deans.
At 4 p.m. the Archdeacons & Rural Deans began to arrive. All were present except Wykes and Croudace, who sent excuses for absence on the ground of ill–health. After tea, we had a conference from 5 p.m. to 7.15 p.m. We talked much, but not to much effect. I raised the question of the licensing of lay workers to assist the priest by ministering the chalice. The project was evidently not so much welcomed as feared. I told them that I dissented from the view that deaconesses were by "ordination" admitted to the clergy, and that I should not permit them to preach to the general congregation.
We dined together pleasantly enough, though two of the party abstained from meat, presumably because it was Friday. These were Rawlinson and Jackson. We are all getting older, and the continuing trouble in the diocese is telling on our spirits. None of us except Rawlinson is less than sixty and some of us are nearer eighty than seventy. Nor are all of us well.