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declared this sword must come from Dumfries-shire.
The Minister was somewhat taken aback but ad:
:mitted it, and suggested that I should return
the sword to Mr Bell & tell him its interest.
This letter eventually brought a reply to the effect
that if I would visit Torbreckhill near Ecclefechan
I might possibly be given the sword away with
me! Eventually I arranged for a visit in
September before I returned to Edinburgh, and
accompanied by Sandy, I duly reached the
place, up in the hills, some 8 or 10 miles
inland from Annan. We were very hospitably
entertained to lunch and tea, and returned
to Rock-cliffe with "Excalibur".
Ere I got back to town I also secured a
fine pair of Viking brooches, a pin, a buckle,
a wheel and a horse's bit, all found in
the sandhills at Reay, Caithness.
My time suffers much from interruption
by all sorts of callers, some profitable, some
amusing, and some intollerable bores. A
stout middle aged dame, with a red face
& wearing a hat rich with waving ostrich
plumes, flustered into my room one day
and asked if I would relieve her of an Egyptian
figure which she had received from a

favourite nephew some eight months previously,
as she had never been well since she took
it under her roof! I accepted the gift, a nice
ushabti figure, which I am told dated some 500 B.C.
and so far have suffered no inconvenience from
its presence.
My reorganising goes on apace. I have
had a recall of books to the library, also a
recall of slides; the cellars have been lighted
with electric lighting, and today Mr Edwards
and two labourers with handkerchiefs over their
mouths, have commenced to clean up.
Our first step is to get aid of empty boxes,
remains of obsolete show cases, turnstiles, broken
plaster casts etc. and our test will be to
try and remove some of the 20 years accumula:
:tion of dust so that we may ascertain what
lies below it. There appears to be quite
half a cart load of bones from excavations,
I suppose, many of them probably human,
mostly in boxes with no label to say where
they have come from. I am at a loss
how to dispose of the rubbish for unless it
is consumed in fire it may be brought
back again!! Mr Edwards's outer
room is being fitted up as a laboratory
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