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[Page] 124
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fortunate in still having our invaluable
Catherine and her old sister Annie in our
service. Last June as I was paying so
much for the services of a jobbing gardener
four days a week and not, even then, getting
all the work done, I engaged an excellent
gardener as my permanent servant, who
had been here jobbing for two years. With
taxation so high I ought not really to
afford it, but I am old and even if I do
draw on my capital I cannot reduce
it much in the next few years. Meantime
my pleasure in my garden is enormously
increased. Last summer I returned
alone in August to the Portland Arms
Hotel Lybster, and resumed the exavation
of ‘the Wag’ in which I had been interrupted
by the outbreak of war in 1939. Though
I found few relics the revelations I made
established, to my mind at least, the close
relationship between the Wags and brochs.
but as the accounts of my excavations
from 1931 to the present day are
being published in book form by Blackwood (1)

[Margin]
(1) This did not eventuate ---

I need not dwell on them here. The hotel
at Lybster was very moderate and the feeding

was remarkably good - 15/- a day as against
the usual charge in larger hotels of £1.1/-. Though
throughout Britain generally the weather in
Aug. was deplorable, in Caithness it could
hardly have been better. I return with Mary
this Augt. Sandy, his wife and Christian
are in Addis Ababa, where he has the post of
Consul General, on the staff of the minister.
He has a very pleasant post.

1st March 1947
I cannot allow this winter to pass away without
leaving a note to its memory, for it has been the
gloomiest and most unpleasant in my
recollection. Not entirely on account of the
weather but on the attendant circumstances
We have a Labour Government in power
with a preponderating majority more bent
on trying out socialistic schemes than in
governing the country. Suddenly they
have awakened to the fact that a serious
fuel crisis is upon us. Instead of the mines
producing enough coal to form the
basis of our export trade they have not been
producing a sufficient quantity to meet
our domestic and home needs. In the
government there is a complete lack of ef:
:ficient leadership - There is no man to call
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