The Henson Journals

[148]

Monday, April 13th, 1931.

That garrulous and conceited fellow, P.Y. Knight, sends me a cutting from the Guardian, in which he "lets himself go" on the shortage of clergy in the Diocese of Durham. He has the impudence to set out the various attractions of that diocese, reviewing the qualities of the leading clergy!

Thus of his own diocesan:–

"We have a Bishop, indefatigable in energy, of great ability, who always gives of his best in sermons & addresses, & although one may not agree with him, yet he always gives a fair hearing to views different from his own. He loves young men, & likes to have them about him at Auckland."

This is not much to say for the successor of S. Cuthbert, but it is probably all that most would be willing to say, and a good deal more than any could truthfully say. I fear that as a Bishop I must be reckoned a failure. Apart from more apparent faults, of which there are many, I am not sufficiently in sympathy with current movements, and I am not sufficiently interested in ecclesiastical questions.

[149]

Then I walked for an hour in the garden & 'policies'. I wrote a note to the Vicar sending him a copy of the 'Bishoprick', in order that he might read what I have written about the Lambeth Conference.

After lunch Blanche motored us to Southwell where we visited the Cathedral. The librarian (?) Mr. James, an intelligent & well–informed man, acted as our guide: & in the marvellous chapter–house, which is the unique distinction of the church, we had the benefit of the verger's enthusiasm & knowledge. Certainly, the carvings in the Chapter house might well stir enthusiasm. I know nothing more delicately & discerningly beautiful. After seeing the Cathedral, we had tea in an old inn – "the Saracen's Head". Here Charles I. is said to have slept. We were shown His Majesty's bed room.

I finished reading a substantial volume which has just issued from the Cambridge Press :– "The Cardinal of Lorraine and the Council of Trent A Study in the Counter–Reformation, by H. Outram Evennett, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge." The account of the Colloquy of Poissy has a curious resemblance to the story of many modern conferences on the eternal conundrum of "Reunion".

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