gb0551ms-36-17-1

Transcription

[page] 1

Thuster House, Caithness. 22 May 1910.

[Opposite page]
Note In 1907 or thereabout I lunched at
Thuster with the Hornes who have made it
into a charming dwelling as their residence
having an old Stirkoke --

Here we took up our residence Yesterday after:
:noon having left Edinburgh early on Thursday
morning and, to be duly respectful of King
Edward's memory, passed Friday at the Suther:
:land Arms in Golspie. This is a gaunt,
ugly farm house, whose cold bare walls are
relieved by no creepers. Interiorly, it is a sparsely
furnished and as our luggage, sent up by
boat, has not yet arrived, it is, at present,
much less comfortable than it may ultimately be.
We have neither groceries, silver nor linen!
The house stands in a great arable plain,
chequered with dykes and hedge-rows. By
our own doors and around the better
houses are occasional clumps of trees,
but woodlands there are none, nor is a
hill of more than trifling elevation anywhere
visible. The mists that have rolled in from
the sea obscure the sun and beneath them
the landscape lies grey and featureless.

23 May 1910.
Labour is scarce here, but I have secured
a boy of sixteen from the lodge at Stirkoke
to accompany me daily as assistant.
Soon after breakfast J. & I bicycled
into wick to transact some necessary
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