Letters to a Sister (25 page)

Dearest Jeanie,

... Yes, I go to Oxford [again] tomorrow, till Monday... but I
may
come home on Sunday evening, very likely, as I have Monday engagements. The latest of these is an evening reception on a Turkish ship, to which the Embassy has invited me. I think it wise to keep in with Turkey, so shall very likely go to this. I like to make friends with the mammon of unrighteousness—not that they are more unrighteous than most other governments, and less than some we can think of. I prefer to keep in with them all….

On Sunday I attended 10 o'clock Mass at [the] King's Weigh House
²⁰³
—a nice service, very like ours in words, but the minister, Dr Daniel Jenkins (a very learned man, I am told) celebrated in a black gown only, and stood facing us, and no candles on the altar, and of course no crucifix. A very small congregation, about 6 or 7, I should think, all communicants, including me.

I must go to some other services there sometime. I have been reading a book about Congregationalism; they say
they began in 1185
[sic],
which seems strange.
²⁰⁴
I have started a new group, called Inter-communionists, which I hope you will join. I shall make my communion in all the non-Anglican churches near me which have it at a possible time; in time I may even work up courage for St James's round the corner, but at present I feel that would be bad manners as they wouldn't let me if they knew.

The thing is not to hide the fact that one is (probably) Anglican, in the Nonconformist chapels, or it would be useless as propaganda; I mean, I behave exactly as I do in an Anglican church, so that anyone noticing it would think ‘I see Anglicans communicate with us. We ought to communicate in
their
churches too.' So gradually it will become common form on both sides, and the fences will lapse.

I agree with the Wolfenden Report. I don't like to see these unseemly goings-on in the streets, it looks very ugly & common.
²⁰⁵
I don't in the least mind grown men in private doing as they like together—why not?
²⁰⁶
The whole business, homo & hetero, seems, when one thinks of it, a little unseemly, but the whole animal race appears to be so made that it seems to be an essential part of love (anyhow for males), though one may feel, with Sir Thomas Browne, that it is a pity nature did not invent ‘some nicer way than this of coition'.
²⁰⁷
But we are as we are, and love is what it is, and it seems it can't only be kept for reproduction purposes.

I think sitting up part of the night might be all right if you
really slept and rested for a corresponding time in the day—but would you? Otherwise, it would be much too tiring; even for me.

Very much love.

E.R.M.

20, Hinde House, Hinde St, W.1 20 October, [1957]

Dearest Jeanie,

I enclose some religious reading for you, from
Church
and
Sunday Times.
(Ignore the Byron poem, which is carnal not spiritual.)
²⁰⁸
Do you think any of the other animals will ever evolve into thinking and potentially religious beings? There really seems no biological reason why man should be alone in this. I don't know what scientists say about it; I must ask Julian Huxley, whose special thing is biology.

I handed the jazz Mass cutting to Fr Harris after church, but I fear he won't try it.
²⁰⁹
He said he had heard it performed, and decided that it would shock the congregation, who are many of them old-fashioned. I told him it would attract a quite new congregation, young and skiffle-minded.... I said he ought to be avant-garde from time to time, as the old will die out and there must be a new generation to take their places. He said he would talk to the organist, Dr Latham, about it. But we
are
rather stick-in-the-mud at St Paul's. St Thomas's [Regent Street] (Patrick McLaughlin's church) was far more experimental….

I will post you Vol 1 of
The Early Church,
²¹⁰
if you'd like to read it. Then Vol 2 when you've read it.... It is interesting, but one doesn't, I found, want to read it all, there's so much apocryphal literature described, not all worth study. I like the account of the Gospels and their origins.

I am just off to the Tate Gallery to see the paintings by chimps.
²¹¹
I have found
Manservant and Maidservant
²¹²
and will bring it for you to look at, to see if you know it or not. I think it is one of the best, much better really than
The Father and his Fate,
which is almost
too
impossible in plot.

Very much love….

E.R.M.

20, Hinde House, Hinde St, W.1 30 October, [1957]

Dearest Jeanie,

... I had been just going to write to say that unfortunately I can't come this week, as I have the Cranford Folk Mass on Friday evening, and on Saturday have to draw the lottery at a St Paul's sale. Anyhow it would have been difficult to come, as I suddenly have to do a longish
Spectator
review of a Life of Jowett
²¹³
by Monday, so ought to work all the spare time I have till then. I am looking forward to the Folk Mass. It won't be very perfectly done, as the performers aren't much, nor the musical instruments, in fact I think they will only use a piano; but the congregation will join in, when they pick the tunes up, which people are v. quick at doing, mostly, and I shall get the idea of it. I will report on it.

I heard the Dick Sheppard programme,
²¹⁴
but thought, as there are so many recordings of his voice, they should have had some; his voice and manner of preaching was so charmingly characteristic, and no one else could possibly convey it. No, he hadn't a lot of common sense, tho' more than one might think, and could be very shrewd, especially about people. As to being like Christ, certainly his love and understanding of people was, and his power of sacrifice, but less judgment, no doubt. He would never have abused the Pharisees in that violent way that I'm sure Christ
didn't
(the Evangelists must have put that in, being themselves annoyed with the Pharisees). Dick would have asked them in to drinks and made friends with them and been calling them all by their Christian names in a minute or so, and would very likely win some of them round to his point of view, tho' of course many would have strongly disapproved and disliked his ways, as people did the Peace Pledge Union.
²¹⁵
Dr Matthews
²¹⁶
and he were very fond of each other, though so utterly different. His pacifist programme was firmly based on what he kept repeating, ‘I must not kill my brother', and the consequences of it had all, however terrible they might be, to be subordinate to that. I thought at the time, and still think, he was right, whatever the outcome might have been, and might be now. But he was quite often ill-judged in his methods, and worked himself to death of course. He was unique, I think, and it is nice to have known him….

No flue yet. I feel like the psalmist, with 10,000 falling beside me but it shall not come nigh me,
²¹⁷
perhaps because of inoculation, perhaps because of my righteousness. With you, it must be righteousness. Do keep it up! Constance
Babington Smith says we must both be stronger after Pleshey;
²¹⁸
she is a nice mixture of great simplicity and real ability. Her air-photography book
²¹⁹
is being serialised in the
Sunday Times
(some of it) thro' December. She is a great dear, and radiantly happy about her book promising so much success.... I hope she won't have her head a little turned by fame & money.

I thought Canon Warren Hunt
²²⁰
wrong about Lazarus not having improved at all after death. He showed real unselfish concern for his brothers, and might in the end develop a wider pity and generosity. ‘As we die, so we stay' seemed to be Canon Hunt's belief.

V. much love.

E.R.M.

Guy Fawkes
[5
November,] 1957

Dearest Jeanie,

... Do you remember your minute of silence each morning at II. O for Little Lemon?
²²¹
I'm afraid the Russians have quite done for themselves with the English now. They tell us reassuringly how comfortable Little Lemon is, and how he'll soon be shot out, won't become a satellite on his own (I should like him to fly round the earth yelping) but will be parachuted gently to earth and picked up. But this morning a Soviet scientist blundered, and said something about ‘if the dog is still alive then', so obviously they know he'll die soon.

If they'd any sense, or wanted to please us, they would have called him a rat or guinea-pig, then only a few children with guinea-pigs would have minded. Dear me, how clever they are! The next thing will be the moon, and quite soon. Perhaps they'll send Zhukov there. Would you volunteer, if you were offered £10,000 for missions? Would you think it right to?…

The Folk Mass was quite attractive, I thought. I drove down Fr Derry and Fr Jeffery (whom you talked to, and who is going back to Grace Dieu)
²²²
and Gerard Irvine's brother, a clever young barrister who attends the Annunciation Church [Bryanston Street] and is amusing company. We had an enjoyable evening; tho' Fr Derry, who is musical, doesn't think the music very good, nor do most musical people, but it suits me quite well. Fr Jeffery said no use for Africans, who prefer hot Jazz and rhythm, like many young people here. Myself I prefer neither really, but something more classical. However, this is worth trying.

I went on Sunday to the All Saints' [Margaret Street] patronal festival mass, with the Bp of Tewkesbury preaching and a fine procession, the Bishop blessing us to right & left all round the church and people falling on their knees as he passed. The church was packed out, with lots standing. Then in the evening I went to mass at the Weigh House, where Dr John Huxtable preached a magnificent sermon, great waste really, with only about a dozen people there. He was most impressive, about the Table prepared for us in the presence of our enemies (Ps. 23) who prowled in the background waiting their time to get us again and sneering ‘I shall get you in the end.' My blood ran cold, he was so dramatic. I wonder if Congregationalists are dwindling; so very few people go there. After the sermon and prayers they had the communion, Dr Huxtable consecrated the bread and wine, and a lay helper took them round to us in our seats. As I had
been [to an] early [celebration], I couldn't practise intercommunion this time. Before the service the minister said it was free to all denominations.

Fr Harris... is worrying in the November
Parish Mag.
why more don't come to Sunday evensong, and what he can do to entice us. Jock Henderson used to have discussion meetings after church at the vicarage, which people liked; I went to several, but the level of intelligence seemed rather too low for a sensible discussion of the book we were reading. However, it was popular, if rather dumb. I doubt if Fr H. would have this, discussion not being in his line, but he contemplates a social gathering sometimes. I would like a discussion of the sermon, as I have often told him. People would have lots to say about that, I think, even the less intelligent of us. I wish he would try it. I would like him to cheer up and not feel discouraged about his congregations. All the same, I can't often go to evening church, I am too busy, and rely on Sundays to get some work done without interruption. This Sunday I had to finish reviewing the Life of Jowett, a most interesting work, for
The Spectator,
and get thro' a great many letters. Work first, worship later if time, I think must be my rule. You might like to read Jowett's Life; the part about
Essays and Reviews
(1860) and the extraordinary excitement and hostility against it, and the heresy prosecutions for statements we all accept today, makes very interesting reading.
²²³
I suppose in another 100 years things that shock orthodox Christians today will all be accepted except by a few die-hards....

Very much love.

E.R.M.

[P.S.]

A correspondent in
The Tablet
this week says Anglicans can't be considered by Catholics as belonging to the Church—I suppose the Christian Church.
²²⁴
This seems to me to be going too far, and if I was the editor I wouldn't print it. I wonder if Canon Mortlock (against whom the letter was addressed) will answer it, or think silence better.
²²⁵
I don't suppose the writer is very educated—at least he puts the name of his house in quotation marks, which is usually a sign of this.

Wednesday [20 November, 1957]
²²⁶

… Yes, I think the Church would be
made
if a Bishop went up for the dog. I hope the R.C.s won't get in first. I'd send one of those East Anglian bishops, who are so evangelical—no, I wouldn't, I'd send a very High one (any except Tewkesbury, who can't be spared). I wished you had seen with me the TV interview between Muggeridge and Alec Vidler, the Dean of King's. I went to my Club to see it. It was v.g. I took notes of it. I also wrote to the B.B.C. to say they must have it on sound radio. Dr V. answered M.'s questions, about the creeds, Articles etc. None of them are to be taken literally, all are
symbols
of truth. (Tell Miss B——this.)…

Much love.

R.

27 November,
[1957]

Dearest Jeanie,

I am so very sorry about your flu…. Nancy said it began quite suddenly, which this Asian [kind] always seems to. I know a man who started for his office at 9.0, feeling quite well, walked to the underground, still feeling well, and suddenly collapsed just as his train drew up, fortunately before he got into it. He took a taxi home and went to bed with a temp. 103, which had come on quite suddenly. He stayed in bed 3 days, and then was able to go about again. I have heard of several which began equally suddenly, sometimes with a faint, as Dorothea's did. I do hope you won't get up too soon… N. says
she
is quite safe from catching it, because she isn't afraid of it! This is what my old char used to say when I begged her not to come near my bed when I had flu and tried to make her smell Vapex. ‘You don't catch it unless you're afraid of it', she said, and no number of times of being proved wrong would shatter this dogma, which uneducated people always seem to have. It is no use telling them that it is often caught quite unconsciously, from sitting near someone in a bus as they won't believe it. I notice that the Dales
²²⁷
say this whenever any of them have flu or a cold. But anyhow it is certain that flu isn't catching after the temp, is down, or has been down for a day, so Friday will certainly be safe. I should be disappointed not to come. When I do, shall I bring you
Jowett,
and an interesting book (older) about the Oxford movement, by J. Lewis May—very good about all the leading people.
²²⁸
I have been reading several books lately partly about that, as it was raging in the mid-century at Oxford. Its effect on poor A. H. Clough was disastrous; for a short time he was carried away by ‘Newmania', but very soon rallied and reacted against it, having a v.g. rational
intellectual mind, and having been trained by Dr Arnold, who disliked the whole business. But his earlier faith was shattered by all the discussion and argument, and his work went to pieces owing to lack of attention to it, and he only got a 2nd instead of the 1st every one expected of him. Later he swallowed the Articles, which they then had to do before matriculating, and got an Oriel Fellowship, and lectured there for 6 years, but the Articles were very indigestible all the time, and he was very honest, and after 6 years he threw them up, together with his job, and left Oxford, which was very sad. He was a very attractive character; I have just been reviewing two large vols of his letters, and those to him.
²²⁹
They are full of interesting things and people. However, I am selling them, while still clean, as they apparently cost £5:5....