The Henson Journals

[27]

Thursday, August 10th, 1922.

After breakfast mine host and I walked and talked in the Park. General Pollock McCall is an intelligent as well as an agreeable man. He has had experience of many lands & has both observed and reflected. He gave an ill account of the chaplains at Gallipoli, who, he said, had the greatest opportunity in the world, and failed to seize it. He explained the superior efficiency of the Papists by the crude simplicity of their system. They were like the gunners who, having in their gun a tangible object to which they cd attach their sense of duty, enjoyed a reputation for eminent steadfastness since they wd never abandon their guns. There is certainly truth in this suggestion.

After lunch General P.M. motored us to Crossraguel Abbey of which there are extensive remains. These are now under the control of the Board of Works by which much labour in excavation and preservation has been expended. But an inevitable resentment is moved in the mind by the "spic–and–span" aspect of the ruins, which suggests rather the fussy efficiency of the modern State than the large magnificence of the ancient Church. The tourist rather than the pilgrim or even the antiquarian finds himself fittingly considered. On our return to Blairquhan we found that more guests had arrived viz a Cheltenham master with his wife and son, Bowers by name. After tea Ella and I walked for an hour in the Park, the weather continuing fine all day, and becoming warmer at even.

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