IMPRESSIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 30 March 1938, Page 11

IMPRESSIONS OF GREAT BRITAIN

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS NELSONIANS TO THEIR PARENTS 1 have just returned from Dublin. Left London for Dublin 8.45 p.m., arrived at Holyhead 1.25 a.m., boarded the ferry, and arrived in Dublin 6.30 a.m. It being Easter time I couldn’t get a seat below. So had to stay on deck in a freezing wind; I have only once been colder. The ferry dumped me at Dun Looghaire, where I was met and taken to my uncle’s house at Black Rock. Said I. with chattering teeth. "It’s pretty cold isn’t it.” Said he. "No. not a bit.” So I suppose it wasn’t. On Saturday we went to Howthe. It is one of the Heads of Dublin Bay and is a wonderful place on a fine day. Wc went to a film at Dun Looghaire, which is evidently the Royalist part of the city, as they cheered and clapped when the King and Queen came on the On Sunday we went to the Zoo. which is situated in Phoenix Pa>l. and is considered th# best park in the British Isles. X is the centre of Dublin and covers something like two to three hundred acres. They say it is beautiful in summer time. Wc drove round the Valley of the Liffey (Dublin’s Maitai) had to turn back at 1500 ft because of snow drifts. Wc went for a climb to j the top of one of their mountains. It | is 2.000 ft and we drove within 500 ft of ! the top! My uncle showed me round j Trinity College. It is a colossal place, i Surely it must be one of the biggest in-

j stitutions in the world. I haven’t seen ] Edinbu”~h yet. The return journey j was very rough, but it was a wonderI ful holiday and I must go back some ! day. j Whilst in Ireland it struck me as j rather queer that for no reason at all j they have different coinage from the J English, just to be different I presume, j The police are extremely casual. If 7 it begins to rain, a cop on point duty may put on his coat and buzz off. At one corner a policeman stepped out And i. held up the traffic in four directions, tu - let some pedestrians cross. Then he :1 walked off, leaving a perfect traffic 0 jam b°hind him, Ireland cannot comt pare with England. i We have been to Scotland. It is too f magnificent for words. The Woodland.! I Loch and Hill—lnverness-shire. The j t wooded slopes and trees so straight and 1 r high, of Loch Affric, where some v.ery i . pleasant camping was done, and never j . shall I forget Glencoe, or Loch Ness, j i We saw so much that I have but a j ; vague idea of some of the places. On j ; our way south I was overjoyed with | > Blair Castle, and Blair Atholl. the an-1 i cestral home of the Duke of Atholl. The i ; present duke lives in a smaller place l I 1 about 15 miles from the Castle, which is! : full of intimate family things. It was | amazing to see the dining room, ball : room, drawing room and bedrooms, j 1 with their magnificent old furniture. ! The china in the china room was ex- j i quisite Sevre, Derby, Dresden, etc. 1 : Some of the loveliest pieces had belonged to the Empress Josephine. I i can't think how all these treasures were transported to such an out of the way place. There was much Chinese embroidery, pottery, and ivory. I think the Athol Is must have been always excellent people and great lovers of their homes. All the tapestry of the chairs j and curtains had been made by various j ladies of the family. Itj was quite j

equal to any of the French tapestries we have seen at Windsor or Hampton. Also, there is still living Lady Evelyn Murray (sister of the present Duke) whose embroidery we saw. She still makes the most exquisite lace. In one room with curios, we saw a piece of granite, on the polished surface of which was cut, Otago N.Z. 1865. I would like to know how it got there. The guide was so interested when we told him we knew Otago. He accept-1 ed us as barbarians who knew nothing and was much more attentive about details of history, etc. The guides were delightful people, bonnets and

; tartan trousers. (By the way, thanks for the little tartan book you sent, it was very helpful). There was lots of 1 tartan being worn in Inverness. All the children wore kilts and jerseys with ! stockings to match. We did this marvellous trip in the late summer and think it quite the bAt way to visit this magnificent land teeming with beauty. ; w onders and national pride. I have had a most wonderful flight. ! My instructor sent me up to do 30 minutes’ solo aerobatics, so I climbed ' through the clouds to about 7.000 ft. | Never have I seen such unbelievable' scenery. All these bubbling cumulus clouds, overflowing wdth life. I saw one beauty, so set off to get above it. | noting my course as I climbed, but ! seemed to come no nearer. I must j catch that cloud, so on I went. At last I caught it and climbed right through its middle, not being able to sec the wing tips. Then I came out into blue sky above it—dived vertically into it, out into the blue again—upside ! down, back into the cloud. On the i other side I found a great gully and the next cloud fringed with silver, I came down through a romi ictely circular hole. Then I began to fiy sanely j again but found I was over some part 1 | of England I did not know, so had to indulge in a spot of meteorology. After flying for 30 minutes the beacon at my base blinked straight ahead, which was a very welcome sight as it was getting ' very dark. My instructor, however. W'as extremely wrath, but he couldn’t make me sorry—because fooling about in those clouds is just one chance in a million and it would have been worth it, even if I had to sit on a disintegrating fuselage in the Channel shouting to a passing ferry boat. I have also been s doing some blind flying which is great ( fun flying on the instruments alone. We have a Tiger given us on Sunday c afternoons and w f e can do W'hat w'e like, j i