The Henson Journals

[100]

Monday, March 9th, 1931.

Much snow fell during the night, & much more during the day.

I wrote to the Bishop of Bristol with reference to an Article in his Diocesan Gazette on the Establishment by the Modernist, Bezzant. Charles and I motored through the snow to Barnard Castle, where I confirmed about 40 persons in the parish church. Bircham, the Vicar, was present, and (to my surprize and relief) quite polite and even affable. Perrott brought 7 girls from Middleton, and no boys. He assured me that the hostility of the people, who are mostly Dissenters, to Confirmation was such that there was little prospect of any improvement. Gleaves from Whorlton brought candidates. He has now been 15 years in that little parish which has little more than 200 inhabitants: and he is growing grey. I suspect that his mind ages even more than his body.

I was really annoyed to find that Ella had gone to a meeting of the Women's Institute. Quite apart from the disregard of my wishes, it cannot but be a very risky thing for an elderly woman, just recovered from protracted illness, to go out on a night like this. But, que voulez vous?

[101]

The builder of this universe was wise;

He planned all souls, all systems, planets, particles:

The plan he shaped all worlds and œons by

Was – heavens! – was thy small nine–and–thirty articles!

The severe weather is telling hardly on the birds. Already there are reports of dead birds being picked up: and it is apparent that the food supply is, for the time being, destroyed. We shall have a silent spring if this weather continues. Some days ago we noticed that the berries on the holly trees, which had been uncommonly plentiful, had all vanished. Unhappily, those gay songsters, the thrushes appear to be specially sensitive to cold, and very helpless against privation.

The great earthquakes in Tchecho–Slovakia and Bulgaria are said to have been accompanied by the emergence of great geysers. Japan, Java, New Zealand, and now the Balkans – the physical system is evidently disturbed in no common degree. Is it wholly extravagant to connect these disturbances with "the strife of men, & the madness of the people"? And are we not on the same road as that which led the ancients to their astrological doctrines?

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