gb0551ms-33-68

Transcription

[Page] 68
[continued from page 67]

Gaul; this evening I think of Italy itself, perhaps
even farther East! I have had a great day.
Jocelyn, Clare, & I worked at cleaning etc. till nearly
12 last night & carried all the treasure up to the
nursery. This morning I woke with my mind
full of it & with a headache: Little wonder! I
called early & reported the discovery to the King’s
Remembrancer to avoid any difficulty & to get
Sir Kenneth Mackenzie interested. Then I had a
Council meeting of the Society at 2.30 & made
a brief general statement, getting them, through
Macdonald, to vote £5 to each of the work men.
After tea ‘Sir Kenneth’ & Findlay came down to
see the haul, & were duly impressed & I think
funds will be forthcoming to have some of the
pieces, that have been doubled up, opened out.
I have been asked to be one of the judges for
the diplomas on design in the College of Art.
It may be amusing.
A few weeks ago I got Mr Hobson of the British
Museum to come down for a Sunday & value
for me a collection of early Oriental Ceramic,
(Chinese & Korean) lent to the Royal Scottish Museum
by Lt Col. [Lieutenant Colonel] Dingwall. & offered for sale at what I
thought reasonable terms. Mr Hobson valued
the collection after withdrawal of sundry

undesirable specimens at £3000 & at that figure
I have acquired it. It is to be paid as to £2000
this year & £1000 next or over the next two years.
This is a nice collection of a class unrepresented
in the Museum & enables me to get rid of a lot of
rubbish into the cellar. I am effecting great altera:
:tions. I have reorganised the glass collection and
am now overhauling the china & pottery. The gallery
has a changed appearance now to what it had.

29th. June 1919
The Treasure of Traprain has created a great
sensation throughout the country. For a fortnight
we kept it in the house only breaking the news
of its discovery to a few trusty friends, being a
little afraid of interference by visitors to the digging.
But when I found that rumours were rife in East
Linton, I realised there was no use sitting on a
lighted Mine, so I got George Macdonald to
write an article to the “Scotsman” while I
contributed one to the “Glasgow Herald”. Before
doing this, however, I had the treasure all
conveyed to my own room in Queen St. &
put into a case borrowed from the R.S.M. [Royal Scottish Museum]
The result of publication was to bring me many
congratulatory letters and visits from numerous
people, interesting & otherwise. In due course
I had the silver weighed & found that we
[continued on page 69]