Your answers
With reference to your feature on the Barchester Chronicles (Features,
17 April), does anyone recall the name of the bishop who once
announced to his clergy that there was nothing he enjoyed more than
going to bed with a good Trollope?
The Revd Robert Runcie, as he was when Principal of Cuddesdon in
our day, did say in, I think, a pastoralia lecture (!), "There was
a time when I never went to bed without a Trollope." But we
suspected that it was no more original to him than all the hairy
experiences he claimed to have had in his two years as curate at
Gosforth. And he wasn't a bishop yet.
In 1952, Harold Macmillan said: "Whenever I feel bored, I like
to go to bed with a Trollope." But he wasn't a bishop, just
involved in appointing them. John Major is supposed to have said
much the same. That's as far as I've got.
I'll bet someone said it during Anthony Trollope's lifetime. And
there's always Joanna: rectors' wives, beware!
(The Revd) Ian Falconer
Staveley, Chesterfield, Derbyshire
In an article on The Guardian's website on Sunday 29 May
2011, "Give MPs a night in with Trollope", Mark Lawson wrote:
"Reviewers of the recently published prime ministerial diaries of
Harold Macmillan have commented on the remarkable number of novels
the politician manages to consume even while running the country:
entries regularly confirm the truth of Mac's celebrated claim that
he liked nothing better than going to bed early with a
Trollope."
So I believe the quotation is correctly attributed to Harold
Macmillan rather than a bishop.
(The Revd) Hugh James
Norwich, Connecticut, USA
Your questions
What is the correct vesture when preaching but not presiding at
mass? Some churches I have been invited to ask for alb and stole,
others for cotta and stole, and sometimes a cope is thrown in for
good measure. Which is correct?
F. S.
The idea of the church as a family united at the Lord's table on
the Lord's Day is out, and the individualism of the "eight o'clock"
is back, with the difference that the service must be entertaining,
and the day and time convenient for "me". The clergy collude with
this, for the sake of numbers. Is this analysis of the spirit of
today's C of E fair?
A. N.
Out of the Question, Church Times, 3rd floor, Invicta
House, 108-114 Golden Lane, London EC1Y 0TG. questions@churchtimes.co.uk