The Henson Journals

[152]

Thursday, April 16th, 1931.

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Life in Cambridge must be mentally stimulating in no common degree. I do not mean that the distinctive activities of a great modern university must needs create an atmosphere & habit which are intensely intellectual, (though this of course is immensely influential in colonising the social life,) but that the collection into a single community of so many keen & cultivated people, associated together so closely as neighbours, compels a closeness & continuity of conversation at a high level of knowledge & intelligence, which must of itself stimulate the mind in no common degree. The abundance of adolescent life charges the place richly with the ardour, recklessness, facile intimacy, and futility of paradox which distinguish that phase of existence, & clothe it with unique charm & interest. Nearly everybody has travelled, many have travelled widely. The academic temper of limitless tolerance brings every kind of subject under discussion, and, if it is not favourable to conviction, is certainly favourable to tolerance, courtesy, and mutual understanding.

[153]

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Contrast this vivid social life with the slow and empty habit of the ordinary clergymen. He hears his own voice more often than any other, for, apart from his professional necessities, he is mostly associated with his inferiors, who listen more easily than they speak. My own case as Bishop of Durham residing in Auckland Castle is a sufficient illustration. How rarely is my table adorned by persons of culture and intelligence, who can converse with ease and interest on matters of importance! The clergy are the most frequent guests: & they are generally ill–educated and of a narrow experience. They leave most of the talking to this diocesan! Ella's friends do not for the most part belong to the intellectual class: and Ordination Candidates tend to be monosyllabic. Things were better in the Deanery at Durham, for the little University provided a Society of the academic type, & visitors to the Cathedral were fairly frequent. But Auckland Castle is like Palmyra, a noble monument in the wilderness! Perhaps, indeed, like Butler at Stanhope, one thinks the more for talking the less.

[154]

The Times reports the death of old Canon Wilson at the great age of 95. His correspondence with me, which he published in the 'Modern Churchman' must have been one of his latest efforts.

I wrote letters all the morning, including one to that foolish creature, Lomax, in answer to an immense screed from him. He was evidently chagrined and humiliated by his experiences at the last conference. But he deserved all he got. They came to lunch Colonel & Lady Mary Griffin and Miss Eddington, the famous astronomer. We had much pleasant conversation.

Then Mrs Burkitt went with us in the car to Ely, where, after some vain effort to see the Dean & Canon Creed, we visited the Cathedral. It is completely open to the public, but I think we should have preferred to pay sixpence, & be taken over by a verger. One really needs guidance in these great Churches. I had forgotten how magnificent the great Norman nave is. After leaving the Cathedral we had tea in a 15th Century house, "Ye Olde Café", very comfortably and then we motored back to Cambridge.

[155]

Sir Thomas Oliver and Sir Robert Bolam will have a 'private and unofficial' interview with me at Auckland Castle on Monday. What shall I attempt to secure? I can hardly accept the contention that the whole matter lies outside my jurisdiction, for every member of the University has the right to approach the Visitor, and the autonomy of the College of Medicine can hardly be so interpreted as to destroy this right in the case of those members of the University who are also members of that College.

Moreover, though the Council have limited their action to dismissing a lecturer, yet in as much as the main part of the Professor's income is derived from his lectureship, the effect is to dismiss him from the professorship also. Ought not the visitor to vindicate Equity against a subtle & hair–splitting legalism?

But, if the Council stands stiffly on the ground that its statutory autonomy sets its action outside the Visitor's jurisdiction, what can I wisely do? Much turns on their own estimate of the situation which has developed.

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