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Transcription

[Page] 86
[continued from page 85]

This move we carried out just about Christmas
in 1933. The name had no interest or attraction
for me, so after much thought, we called the place
‘Ormsacre; in reference to my second name
‘Ormiston’ The place particularly attracted
me from the extent of ground available for
layout to my own taste, the Southern ex:
:posure, and the excellent soil. And so I
have built up a fine collection of Alpine
plants, with two little glasshouses, and a
still smaller one in which I raise seeds.
I do not intend to write up my biography -
My life has not been sufficiently important.
I retired from the Royal Scottish Museum
in 1931, on my 65th birthday. A few years
previously H. M. [His Majesty] King George V. conferred on
me the Companionship of the Victorian Order
in Buckingham Palace, and the University
of Glasgow some years afterwards honoured
me with an LL.D. [Doctor of Laws] I have done much
excavation since I retired, in Shetland,
and in Caithness. The pages of the Proceedings
of the Society of Antiquaries will bear ample
testimony to my energy, and discoveries,
so I need not go into the matter here.
Life has passed pleasantly with Mary

and me, going off to excavate for a month
or six weeks in the early summer, and
to the continent in the autumn. In
Edinburgh I had much to do on various
committees. For a number of years I was
on the Board of the College of art, acting as
Vice chairman, the ex. officio Chairman being
the Lord Provost, for several years. I was on
the executive Committee of the National Trust,
and a member of its permanent Bursaries Com:
:mittee. The Society of Antiquaries, the Royal
Commission on Ancient Monuments, the
Advisory Board, and the Disposal Board
of the Office of Works, the Board of Manage:
:ment of the Orphan Hospital, and other
bodies, claimed my attention from time to time.
At one time I was a member of the Council
of the London Antiquaries, but as I was
only once able to attend, I ceased to be so
after one year. My great interest in the
cultivation of Alpines caused me to be elected
president of the Scottish Rock Garden Club,
but owing to the exceedingly discourteous
and irregular behaviour of certain individuals,
at the annual general meeting in 1938,
I have retired and declined to have anything
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