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Transcription

[Page] 110
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in the street. and still an acrid smell of burning
in the air. The railway stations and the
houses in their vicinity had suffered most;
also the House of Commons, which had been
wiped out. Westminster Abbey had been hit
but the damage was said not to be serious
and none of the monuments had been harmed
Notwithstanding the bombardment on
Saturday night I had quite a good
audience to my lecture and as it is to be
printed I presume it was suited to requirements.
I did not meet Sir William Bragge as the dislocation
of traffic had prevented his return to London.
I returned to Crab Hill that evening and next
day went by train from Paddington to stay
with Mrs Bond, a gardening friend, near
Shepton Mallet for a night. There I met Cecil,
who next day drove me to Chilfron Cottage
where I stayed for six days with her & her
parents enjoying a sight of Christian.

22nd.
23rd. Jany. 1942
Since I wrote last nothing has happened in Edinburgh
to distract us. Occasionally at long intervals
during the summer and autumn the sirens sounded
but no raids eventuated and at night our slumbers
were never disturbed. Elsewhere in the war areas
there has of course been much activity & events have

happened that history will record. It had been
my intention in Sept. to take a fortnight's holiday
at Melrose, but a week or two before the date of my visit
word arrived that my niece Barbara with her two, young
children, who had been since the outbreak of the war, in
Malta had managed to get a passage home & were
returning to St. Cuthberts, where in consequence there would
be no room for me. So I quickly re-arranged my plans,
going first for three days to Halnaby to see Kate
Wilson Todd & break the journey, and later to Chilfrome
Cottage where the Mowbrays had kindly consented to have me
My visit to Halnaby gave me an indication of
what must be the fate of such large and ancient
mansions as this, in an impoverished post-war
Britain. The spacious lawn before the house and
the broad grass verges, formerly trimly cut by a
mowing machine, had been mown with scythes
to save labour and the large walled garden, which
used to be so well kept free from weeds,
and full of flowers was now, for want of labour,
much overgrown with weeds, its borders unkept
and the dahlias , gladioli, etc. which in other
days helped to make it bright, alas! are there no more. So
will it be with most of the gardens & grounds
of large houses, which aforetime were so resplendent.
They will no longer be suited to the changed
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