The Henson Journals

[26]

Wednesday, August 9th, 1922.

The weather had so far cleared that the rain had ceased. We lunched at Murraythwaite, & then started in the car for our next visit. Our route lay through Dumfries (where we replenished the car with petrol), to the bleak and empty moorland which connects the counties of Dumfriesshire & Ayrshire. We arrived at Blairquhan, Maybole, about 6 p.m., and were welcomed by our hostess, Mrs Pollok McCall. The house belongs to the Hunter–Blair family, & is a large building of stone, erected about a hundred years since. It is surrounded by an extensive park.

General Pollok McCall served in the Thibetan [sic] campaign, & some of his 'loot' adorned the table at dinner. I was particularly interested in a piece of silver plate which might easily pass for a chalice, but which served to carry a wick lighted in oil. He was at Gallipole during the war, & held that there never was at any time any reasonable prospect of success. He said that the conduct of the Australian troops was very bad & violent. They were, indeed, very brave in action, but this selfishness & lack of discipline made them universally odious. He gave an ill account of the Jews in Palestine; whose greed & dishonesty were freely displayed in their transactions with the British Army. But he owned to being vehemently prejudiced against the Ancient People, & therefore discounted his own censures.

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