gb0551ms-33-16

Transcription

[Page] 16
[continued from page 15a]

rocky hillocks, showing many of the
features which distinguish the brochs.
but larger in extent, and apparently
of only one storey. Chambers in the thickness
of the walls were often apparent, but in
no instance was there any indication of
a stair so placed. I saw more than
one dun with a double wall - an inner
portion, the main one some 6 ft [feet] thick faced to
the exterior, and built against it an
out casing some 3 ft [feet] thick. Such
walls occur in many of the French-Gaulish
forts but I have not come across one
here before, though I suspected some such
construction in a fort near Beattock.
I returned from Skye to find the transference
of the Museum contents to the Portrait
Gallery completed and my belongings
installed in a very comfortable room at
the same level as my own.
Some weeks ago a bronze age cist was
discovered by a man ploughing near
Arbroath and an urn was found within
it described in the local press as inlaid
with gold!! Learning that it had been
taken possession of by the local police

I made application to the King's Remembrancer
to secure it for the Museum. In reply I was
sent for perusal a correspondence which
included letters passing between Mr L. McL.
Mann, & the policeman in which the former
stating that he was acting on behalf of
certain professors of the University of Glasgow,
tried to induce the policeman to cede the urn
to him. I chuckled as I read the letters for I
well knew I was the last person in the world
the writer would have wished to to see them.
Sharp practice seldom pays in the long run!
I laid the case before the authorities with the
result that a circular letter was despatched
to all the procurator fiscals in Scotland drawing
attention to the Treasury requirements in regard
to finds! I got the remains of the urn in
hundreds of pieces but I have reconstructed
enough to show the shape & ornament.

13th Oct. 1914
Since my last entry much history has been
made in Europe for the war cloud which we
have all been conscious of on the horizon these
last ten years , but which most of us thought
would pass by, has burst and the most
terrible war that the world has ever known is
raging at this moment. Its progress will
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