The Henson Journals

[226]

Wednesday, December 31st, 1930.

The last day of this most evil year was calm and mild, with some rain in the morning, and a very beautiful sun–setting at the close.

I spent most of the morning on the Article, being interrupted by Groser, the vicar of Whitworth, who wanted me to approve his appointment of an elderly man with a somewhat disconcerting record to the assistant–curacy of his parish. I told him that both he and I must first have a personal interview with him, & I must write to the Bishop of London & receive some official information about him. After lunch I walked in the Park with Dr McCullagh.

I received from Costley–White, the Headmaster of Westminster, a rather belated acknowledgment of "the Bishoprick" which I sent him some weeks ago. However he made up for delay by his flattery! He had read all 3 articles, & liked them all:–

"Each one of the three was a joy & a privilege and an education to read. I can't tell you how grateful I was to get them, & I shall not attempt to express my admiration of the lucidity, skill, & catholicity of knowledge with which they are written." This is handsome indeed.

[227]

I dined at Wynyard, & saw the old year out merrily enough in the hospitable house.

There was a pleasant company, including a good many youngsters. I got some talk with Maureen, and told her how much I regretted her going to Hollywood. She is disarmingly impudent & provocative. Robin carries himself with something of a senatorial dignity. His election for the Irish constituency is a foregone conclusion. The princess danced with youthful vivacity. There was a Hungarian diplomatist name Pallavicini, who had presented our host with some bottles of imperial Tokay, which was 120 years old, and some of this was offered to the company. I found it sweet & heavy, rather like cherrybrandy. At 12 o'clock we all exchanged kisses and good wishes. After singing 'Auld land syne' we came away. I carried Lady Eden back to Windlestone, & arrived at the Castle a few minutes before 1 a.m.

So ends one of the woefullest & most ill–ordered years that I have known, and I make a start on a New Year, which threatens much & promises little.

[228]

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1930

This year has been important, restless & unhappy. The record of personal loss is unusally heavy. There have passed away seven persons who, in one way or another, have entered into my life, viz.

1. Archbishop, Lord Davidson

2. Lord Muir Mackenzie

3. Sir Henry Graham

4. The Bishop of Worcester (Ernest Pearce)

5. Alfred Fawkes

6. The Dean of Winchester (W. H. Hutton)

7. Miss Mary Maxwell.

The number of my personal friends grows rapidly smaller, & my way becomes increasingly lonely.

[struck through][Two circumstances have told in the same direction, both being in different ways isolating. On the one hand, my wife's deafness is a sore trial. It makes social intercourse difficult, & tends to make us unwelcome. I do not see how this can be remedied. It is one of those troubles that must be accepted & endured. On the other hand, my open advocacy of disestablishment make me intensely unpopular, all the more since my reasons are seen to be irresistible.][end]

[229]

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The year has been marked by two disciplinary cases, which were extremely distressing in themselves, and caused me much personal grief. Martin Gillett's downfall was heartbreaking, & Merryweather's incredible folly has created a very difficult situation.

The Lambeth Conference must make the year notable. I realized how definitely the conduct of the Church's affairs had passed into the hands of a younger generation, whose language I hardly understand, whose methods I dislike, and whose ideals I only half–approve. "Copec" is in the saddle, and I know myself to be a "back–number".

In the course of the year I preached at Windsor to their Majesties, at Christ Church, Newgate Street to the Lord Mayor of London (the Spital Sermon), at Eton to the School, at St. Cuthbert, Edinburgh, to the Presbyterians.

The speech I made on June 18th, to the Individualist Club on 'The British Lazzaroni' aroused some comment. On October 9th I gave an address to the Medical Students of Newcastle on 'The Physician's Ideal', & on Oct. 15th, I made a speech in Durham Castle at a Dinner in celebration of Vergil's 2000th Birthday.

[230]

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So far as publications go, 1930 was a barren year. Beyond the pamphlet "Church & State in England", and the Spital Sermon, I published nothing. I wrote an article on Disestablishment which appeared in the "Nineteenth Century & After" (April), and another, at the Editor's request, for the Daily Herald, on the same subject. On July 3rd, I addressed the members of the E.C.U. in the Albert Hall on the same subject. Thus I have become closely identified with that abhorred project, and undoubtedly I have become in the eyes of many "a troubler of Israel". Nevertheless, I incline to think that this odious task is laid upon me, not indeed to inaugurate an agitation for Disestablishment, for which the time is unpropitious, but to keep the subject before the public mind, and to educate churchmen, that, when the battle is joined, they may not be altogether ignorant of the issues at stake, as is certainly the state of most of them at the present time. But the rôle which I must play is unpleasing, and promises me nothing but a deepening isolation.

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