Dabton <1>
Thornhill
February 26th 1877
My dear Papa,
Thank you very much for your kind letter <2> & all its good wishes for my birthday and also for the two volumes of Records <3> which have both arrived safely. I see you have no less than six papers in the 7th vol. – but I have not yet, of course had time to read them – I am very glad to possess them, as I already have the other volumes, which you gave me. Yesterday was a very fine day dry & cold with snow on all the hills – and today it is still finer I think one enjoys the sharp frost very much after all that damp. John <4> & I took a long walk yesterday afternoon in Morton old wood, where it was pleasant, and sheltered from the wind. Today he is off again to the rent collection of which tomorrow will be the last day. Mimay <5> & I spent an hour and a half planting primroses and polyanthus today we have made a border of them in our own private garden round the rockery – & hope they will make a show. I spent some time in Kennedy’s nursery garden in Dumfries, the other day, looking for anything new, but I could not see anything worth having – I am very glad you have told me about the eclipe, <sic> as one is apt to miss those things by not paying attention to the Almanack – the hour, as you say is perfect for the children, if we can manage to have a clear bright evening tomorrow, it will be very nice – These two last nights have been fine and blowy, and I hope this will last. John thanks you very much for your letter, which he will answer soon I am sorry about the doubts which seem to be thrown over Dr Schliemann’s <6> wonderful discoveries – but my wonder is how & where did he find or become possessed of the immense quantity of articles he described, if he did not find them in genuine search as he professes to have done Can they be not gold, but fabricated? – it seems impossible
With much love from the children & from myself –
your most affecte daughter
Tilly
Notes:
1. Dabton, Dumfriesshire: home of WHFT’s daughter Matilda.
2. Letter not located.
3. Records of the Past being English Translations of the Assyrian and Egyptian Monuments (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons).
4. John Gilchrist-Clark (1830–1881), Scottish JP; WHFT’s son-in-law.
5. Mary Emily ‘Mimay’ Gilchrist-Clark.
6. Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890), excavator of Mycenae in 1876.