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[Page] 55
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had managed to thrust out a flower to the air.
The house was as it had been left. The curtains
still hung by the windows, the chintzes on the chairs
& the prayer books on the side table in the dining lay
ready for morning prayers as they had lain for
20 years. Now I hear the old place & all it contains
are for sale! Our landlady, Miss Key, at Braefoot
was too managing for our supreme comfort, and
grudged doing anything beyond the recognised
routine, but she cooked well, & the little house was
clean & comfortable. Mary went off to school
at Downe House, Kent on 19th Sept. Jocelyn
took her up to London with Penelope Hog, and
next day handed them over to an escort taking a
party to Orpington, their railway station. Travelling
at present is far from comfortable & very expensive.
Trains are so crowded that one must travel first
class on a long journey, & the fares are increased
50%. Arrived at your destination a vast crowd
emerges to find few porters and a dire scarcity
of cabs. On 21st Sept. I went N. [North] to Aberdeen
For the greater part of the journey the crops were
standing in the stook & a magnificent harvest. I
fear the continuous wet weather will have done
much harm to it. At Aberdeen I stayed at
the “station hotel”, but should have stayed at the

Palace. The former was a commercial establishment.
I visited various Antiquarian Shops but saw nothing
that tempted me. At Dundee I stayed at “the Royal”.
Mainly commercial; old fashioned but comfortable
enough. I enjoyed here the fashion of the house
a hot bottle in my bed! In my tour of the town
I found a curio shop kept by one A. Mackenzie
Fleming in So. [South] Tay Street, where I made numerous
purchases. 1 pair brass candlesticks with oval bases 16/6d
A brass Burmese peacock 18/- 2 brass mounts - in the
form of vases of flowers 8/-. a brass case containing
pen, knife & ? ruler 4/- a brass lamp with Chi Rho mono:
:gram for handle 2/- a brass boar 3/- and a jug
of yellow pottery 4/-. I purchased also one or two iron
objects for the R.S. [Royal Scottish] Museum. My companion on
this tour was a Mr Casswell of the Revenue & Excise
Dept. [Department] From Glasgow we had considerable dif:
:ficulty in getting away owing to the restricted train
service & the immense crowds trying to get away
for the Glasgow holiday on the following Monday
We only managed to obtain tickets by sending
to the station master & explaining that we
were Government officials with important business
to attend to in Edinburgh on the following day.
We had a forenoon’s work in Edinburgh on
Sat. 26th & left for Newcastle on Sunday
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