gb0551ms-33-119

Transcription

[Page] 119
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of Viking relics, which he amassed over a number
of years and which he subsequently disposed
of, for, I think, about £1000 to the British
Museum, as he felt it was more suitable
for a public, than a private collection.
The price paid did not exceed by much, if at
all, the cost of making the collection and
its value was, probably, greater.
In 1906 Mr Roberts, proprietor of the fields
at Newstead, known as the Red Abbeystead,
farmed by Mr Porteous of Leaderfoot Mill
decided to lay a series of field drains in one
of the fields. Jim learned of this and ‘jaloused’
that here was a Roman camp. Kitty and I
were staying at Priorwood at the time so
one day, arrayed in ‘putties, & armed with
a spade I proceeded to Newstead to make
a trial dig. I remember the hole I dug
and the mass of sooty soil & stones I turned
up, on what I subsequently learned was the
site of the baths. I then interrogated the
farmer and learned that over certain
parts of the adjacent field he was unable
to drive in posts of sheep nets. This we presumed
to indicate the position of roads though probably
it was the lines of walls of buildings.

I then gathered a collection of shards of Roman
pottery off the surface of the fields, which I took
to Edinburgh and subsequently laid before
the council of the Society of Antiquarians, who thereupon decided on ex:
:cavation. At this point I retired from the ‘show’
but I well remember Jim’s remark after my
preliminaries. ‘If you are going to excavate
at Newstead you will have to find someone
else to look after it, for I am not going to
trudge down there every day.’ How little we can
oppose the fate that awaits us. ‘We a’ maun drie
the weird that God decrees to bind.’ Not only
did Jim superintend the excavation of
Newstead but his description of the excavation
and of the finds has rightly won him a European
reputation and must long remain a model
for work of its kind. The study of the
buildings of the fort, its defences, and of the
relics brought him into contact with
many scholars and excavators in this
country and abroad, as his Scandinavian
collection had brought him into contact with
Swedish & other Scandinavian archaeologists
Among the former was George Macdonald, who
till the day of his death was a warm friend
to Jim and myself. Jim’s interest in
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