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Transcription

[Page] 52
[continued from page 51]

watering is necessary in gardens & allotments
Jam is expected to be so scare next winter that
it is to be rationed at ½ oz. [ounce] per head per week.
Food conditions, never serious in Edinburgh, have
grown easier of late. We get quite enough meat,
especially as ham and bacon are unrationed,
and of butter we usually can acquire a little
more than our rationed quota at the end of a
week. Sugar as heretofore is a scarce commodity
marmalade quite unprocurable, and cheese only
to be had at rare intervals. No one is allowed
more than ½ lb [pound] of sweets at one time and an
early call at a sweet-shop is necessary to procure
that quantity. The food rationing has really
been very well done here, and such a thing
as a queu outside a shop is quite a
thing of the past. The temper of the populace
is admirable, and there seems to be no
wavering in the determination to see this
war through to complete victory. American
soldiers, it is authoritatively stated. are pouring
into France at a rate of over ¼ million a month.
The Germans have been every where held in
their offensive and a renewal of it, for which
we are said to be prepared at all points,
is overdue. The allotment, the

drought notwithstanding, has done well, and I have
practically kept the house in vegetables since the
beginning of May. Spinach has been especially suc:
:cessful but the want of rain is delaying the swelling
of the peas. We are going to rooms in
Gattonside for August & part of September this
year. Sandy at the R.M.C. [Royal Military College] gets only a fortnights
leave. I had a visit to Inverness lately to inspect
furniture etc. at Guisachan for the Inland Revenue,
a very pleasant 3 days trip, including a motor
run of 33 miles out & back There called
on me on Tuesday (2nd inst) in the Royal Scottish
Museum an individual who greatly aroused my
curiosity. He followed in his calling card, which
bore in printed characters " Charles Francis
Moray-Steuart" - No "Mr," and no residence other
than "Cockburn Hotel" scrawled in pencil. In ap:
:pearance he was short, rather thick set, and dark
with black hair and moustache, and, I should
think, about 44 or 46 years of age. He was well
dressed & and wore a grey tweed ulster of fashionable
cut with a short strap at the back. On the first
finger of his right hand was a ring with a
large red stone in cabochon & set with a
matter of four or six small diamonds. He
carried a cane with an ornamental head
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