The Henson Journals

[214]

Monday, December 22nd, 1930.

I thought it prudent to leave Charles at home since the threatenings of pleurisy are not wholly absent, when I motored to Sunderland for the consecration of S. Mary Magdalene's new church. There was a great gathering of clergy, a very carefully arranged ceremonial, a large & evidently interested congregation. In deference to me, illegalities were avoided, &, on the whole, I was pleased. There followed a luncheon in the Palatine Hotel, and I found myself sitting beside a very unpleasant woman, Dr Marion Philips, M.P., one of the representatives of the borough in Parliament, & a truculent member of the Labour party. Wright made an impudent speech, glorying in his law–making, & trailing his coat very insolently. But I mainly ignored him, though I did remind him that both he and I had taken very solemn pledges at our Ordination. Then I went to the Rectory where Wynne–Willson & his wife presented me with a silver gilt ciborium, which was part of the loot of a French Church recovered from a German officer. Then I returned to Auckland calling on Rushworth in Durham on the way, but unavailingly, to get a present for Ella.