Monday
Brilliant sunny day, but
cold. Was not wakened until 9.30, and
had another breakfast in bed. Saw in
Scotsman today that there were bombs early on Sunday morning.
“A flying bomb which struck a
house in a residential district in southern England early yesterday killed a
woman, Mrs Seymour, injured her husband and daughter and started a fire.
A short alert was sounded in the London area.
Watchers reported that one flying
bomb was brought down into the sea and others inland.”
At once my thought is – was the
“Residential Area” in Colchester ? Was the house in Wellesley Road ? Was it perhaps that Ann Seymour was home for the
weekend? What is one to make out from
such an evasive, tantalising report?
Who are these ubiquitous
“watchers on the coast”? Do they mean
Royal Observer Corps men? If so, why not say so? “One” bomb shot into the sea does not sound
like very successful defence. Curious
that defences are supposed to have had such wonderful successes in Kent yet the results are so poor in Essex and Suffolk .
Lay in bed all morning, with
rather painful belly ache, reading papers and ‘Our Mutual Friend’. War news very saddening. All allied
offensives are slowed down now or stopped, and there is obviously not the
slightest chance of a break into Germany
this year, and of course the next 6 months will allow Germany to
build up a new army and air force, to say nothing of divers etc. Yet in Britain all precautions are being
dropped, Home Guard stood down, ARP and NFS partly disbanded. In Scotland ARP is almost entirely done away
with. What on earth will be the effect
on the general public when new and terrifying attacks are made?
I honestly believe that the Germans
have a very good chance of winning yet, and they may well fight like insane
devils when they see how in countries occupied by allies starvation is the
first effect, followed by all sorts of “judicial” murders as are now going on
in France.
What is to be the end of it
all? I believe there is no power in the
world which can stop the war.
This afternoon suddenly decided
to get the cycle out and go into Holyrood
Park
Depressing to see how houses have
been built right up to the park wall on the east, half way up the hill. Such a pity not to have acquired the slope
down to Duddingston as an open space, but of course the Scots are as mean,
paltry and narrow minded as the English where our amenities are concerned.
It is only thanks to their
passion for golf that any open spaces have been preserved at all. Dunsapie Loch, a tiny seemingly remote pool
among the crags, as it might be in Sutherland, water fowl swimming on it, and
an old man sitting on a wooden seat watching them. It was here that Dora and Ethel Biggam’s brother-in-law
drowned himself.
On some of the rocks were a few
very sutty sheep and several girls on ponies came riding down a grass
track. Swept down the long hill to St
Margaret’s Lock. A crane has been erected, over-hanging the water. Don't know what is going on, but nearby some
fellows were working with rods and a level.
On the crags above the Loch the ruins of St Anthony’s Chapel stood out
absolutely against the setting sun. Past
the gurgling well, and through the Park gates by the Palace into what used to
be known as ‘Back Canongate’, but is now called Holyrood Road , lined with breweries,
great Clydesdales crashing along over the cobbles.
Went to the Library and searched
all the papers for references to divers, but found nothing more.
Back to Glengyle Terrace for tea, by George Square ,
magnificent houses, and along the Meadows.
Am told that some of the holders have fen-charters dating back before
the draining of the Burgh South Lock, and have specified therein that they have
a right to have a boat on the lock, although there has been no water since
c.1691!
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