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[Page] 6
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told me that he had in his custody two
viking bowl shaped broochs and a pin
which he had persuaded the finder, a
farmer in Isle Oronsay, to allow him to
bring to Edinburgh to deposit in a Museum.
It seemed to be a mere chance that had
brought him to me rather than have taken
him to Chamber St. To make our position
secure I told him to get a letter at once
from the finder presenting the objects to
the national Museum, and to my joy
he came in on Monday last bringing
the letter and the relics. The latter consist
of two particularly fine oval bowl shaped
brooches both still retaining their iron
pins, though greatly corroded. (In a mass
of rust on one appears some of the fabric
through which the pin has passed) Further
a fine bronze pin with a moveable circular
head; a whistle formed of a cylindrical
piece of bone pierced across near its centre;
and a much rusted pair of iron shears.
I chuckled when I learned from Mr Bishop's
own lips that he and Mann had just
obtained permission from Lord Strathcone
to excavate the very mound from which

the relics came. Their emissary Mungo
Buchanan went to the island on Wednesday
of last week, and the brooches left it some
three days earlier!
Tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon I have promised
to conduct over the Museum a party of
lads from the student's settlement in the
Cross-Causeway. I expect about a dozen of
them. The other day I found a bevy of
maidens from a girl's school wandering
aimlessly in the prehistoric gallery and
gave them my services as guide for half
-an-hour. I am trying to instruct the
attendants not only by pointing out to them
objects of interest, but also by giving them
copies of papers relating to relics under
their charge. Someday I hope to have
an efficient guide attendant in each
gallery, and my latest dream is of models
of prehistoric structures in the window re:
:cesses of the stairs, and a reconstructed model
of the Roman Fort at Newstead during the
Antonine period.

6th August 1913.
This morning I received an announcement
to the effect that on the recommendation of
the Secretary for Scotland His Majesty
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