The Henson Journals

[105]

Monday, August 20th, 1906.

The forenoon was wet and tempestuous. We perforce remained within doors and wrote letters. The rain ceased about noon, and we walked across the valley to the ruined shell (there is hardly more) of the Castle of Newark. The Yarrow is at this point especially beautiful. In the afternoon we motored to St. Mary's Loch and the Grey Mare's Tail. The latter was in remarkably good form, as the recent rains had provided plenty of water. The sheer fall over naked rock could hardly have been less than 150 feet.

The papers report another terrific earthquake from America. Valparaiso has shared the fate of San Francisco. Probably the first estimates of the loss of life are excessive, but enough is known to make it evident that a disaster of the first magnitutude has taken place.

I read, or rather skimmed, shallow novel by Mrs Felkin née Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler. She is an ardent Anglican, and a vehement advocate of marital authority! What changes can matrimony cause! She was once an original & entertaining writer.

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