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down the Weirhill past the church and was
forced to move behind the protection of the
houses down Weirhill Place, The loss of life and
damage to houses and shipping in the South and in Holland
was tremendous! There is much motor
traffic through Melrose now-a-days, especially
of char-a-bancs, which carry on a constant
traffic with Galashiels, Earlston etc. It must
have reduced the railway traffic. greatly

16th April 1953
We are fully settled in our new home
and are most comfortable. Catherine
Fraser - our much valued cook-housekeeper
and friend of many years, is still with us.
nor must I omit to mention a much
beloved and devoted friend ‘Dwight’ the Pekin:
:ese, who joined the party some 6 years ago as a
small puppy on the day that Genl [General] Eisenhower
visited Edinburgh. Even for a Pekingese his
sagacity is remarkable. As a friend he has
every quality of his breed, intense devotion
and matchless courage. He has few animosities
and some large dog such as a golden Labrador
in Barnton Av. [Avenue] are almost always the object
of it. We are thoroughly settled here and
supremely happy. It is good to have a
firm link with the past in the place in which you

make your home. Mary has many friends
‘forbye’ the cousins, who live nearby., but I feel
so much at home when I go into Melrose with
its familiar aspect and its friendly shop:
:keepers. It must be a busy place for all
shops are flourishing and there is a
large country region around to supply.
It flatters one’s vanity to be hailed by all
and sundry as a fellow native! My
grandfather came here from Kelso in
1798 to live with an Ormiston uncle and
some 20 years later joined Erskine of Sheilfield
in forming the firm of Curle & Erskine, which
grew till it was said to be the largest Country
business in Scotland. If that is true I do
not know, but it was a great & wealthy firm
in the end of the 19th century. - To come
to the present day, Fred Curle my cousin is
the last of the race to be head of it and
with his departure the old family con:
:nection will pass away.

8th July 1952
Life flows on pleasantly in Melrose It must be
a busy little place for there are many well-to-do trades:
:men in it and it is peaceful. The heavy drinking,
which too many of its inhabitants indulged in in
my youth, perhaps owing to the high cost of
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