gb0551ms-33-121

Transcription

[Page] 121
[continued from page 120]

commit them to writing but I fear he never did.
There was Thomas’s description of an indifferent
farm high on Gattonside hills. ‘A cauld peasweepy
kind o’ place’ etc. and his remark when Sandy the ploughman,
who had an unpleasant wife, was troublesome.
‘It’s her that mak’s the ba’as for Sandy tae fire’
and his scathing denunciation to the lady herself
‘Wuman! It rins in ma heid ye hae carried a
basket.’ Probably a reference to a humble occupation
before her marriage.

17th Nov. 1944.
Steadily the might of Germany is being
compressed into the Reich. The allied
armies of the west have almost entirely
liberated France and Belgium. They
are well into Holland and almost
as far North as the Po valley in Italy,
while the Russians are moving steadily
forward from Buda Pesth westwards.
Here we live in peace. Only once in recent
months have our sirens sounded except
for the monthly try out and then only when a
solitary reconnaissance plane appeared
over the east coast. Notwithstanding
the rationing we live very well and seem
to thrive on the diet. We, in this establishment
are wonderfully fortunate in being

served by our faithful Catherine, now in her 28th
year of service, and by Annie her elder sister, who
came into our service early in the wartime.
We must be one of the very few dwellings in
Edinburgh, who still carries on, subject to war
conditions, in our pre war standard of life.
I have been striving to get the garden brought
into order and at last am seeing it assume
a tidier aspect, by the removal of weeds etc. Two
men, or rather I should say 1½ men, for one of the
two neither in stature or capability could hardly
be considered a man, though I have to pay
him a full man’s wage 2/- an hour. As soon
as the regulations permit, Russell, the good man
of the pair, is coming as a full time gardener,
and I do not think his doing so will cost
me much more than I pay at present to
Notman, through whom I have to hire him.
Mary has at last got her discharge from
the army having nearly broken down with
a tired heart from over-work and worry.
She has now been home for over two months
and is looking in much better health.
Priorwood is for sale and the Town Council
of Melrose are considering the purchase of
the property for a building area, but in
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