1912 Missing the Titanic; Scottish Folk Tales; Mention of the Lusitania

1912 - At age 27, Clara Snow had tickets for the Titanic, due to leave New York on April 20.  Three weeks before sailing, she changed to a later ship and I don't know why.  The Titanic sank on its trip to New York, on April 12.  We have the letter from the Steamship Tour company explaining how to receive her refund.  It seems rather brave that she sailed only 2-3 weeks after the sinking of the Titanic.

Shipboard  May 4 – 14, 1912

Rather good passage with one storm and rather rainy at the end.  Wonder of wonders, I was not seasick.

Played shuffle board, which is stupid, and deck golf, which is nice.  Played the last with Mr. Watson, the staid bridge groom with a young bride.

Met Mrs. & Miss Atwater who knew Mrs. Mary Mumford Weiss in Washington.  Had several nice talks with her, when the wind was blowing and it was most wet.  She and her mother are interesting, wife & daughter of a college professor deceased.

Had two roommates.  One a hard-faced English woman who was very nice, but we were careful not to interfere with her.  The other was Miss Nelson, who was traveling with her sister and Mrs. Hunt.  They were very nice to me.  I sat at table with them when they were there.  The first night we had a lovely walk around the clipper.  The sea was calm and the lights of an Italian steamer showed plainly.  Miss Sarah (my roommate) was most awfully sick.  Miss Mary and I played games together and walked.

Then there were the Perrys from New York City.  Miss Mary a very good sweet woman.  Helen the daughter with more sense than most fourteen-year-olds.  Very pretty too.  Dear Fred the son nineteen or twenty who was most sick but quite good fun.  We watched the shore of the river together and laughed at our first English train & its funny whistle.  They came to London to join their father who is at work here.

Then Mrs. Abeel from New Jersey, a woman of social ability who was most interesting to me.  She told me she thought I was a person whose life would grow fuller as I grew older.  I am sure I hope so.  She has a small boy who tells history in original verse, & who always called me “Detroit.”  Also two very energetic girls. 

The trip up the channel was lovely, although we saw little the first day of land.  But it was light & warm & so gentle.

The next morning we saw the cliffs of England and Dover.  It was the most beautiful sight I have ever seen.  The blue of the water and sky & the red & white of the cliffs with the green beyond.

It was four before we reached Tillbury.  The tide was out & we went in on land in tenders.  Grace, Harry and William [Grace Beecher Moore and her husband and son] came out in it, & I was glad to see them.  Said farewell to S.S. Minnetonka & to the steward who was a typical Dickens character & always hurrying people up.

July 10.  Wednesday.  Packed & helped Grace with dinner.  Mrs. Perry came in and made a call.  Had a lovely birthday dinner.  The table was beautiful in lavender and sweet pea.  Lovely lavender & white cake with “Clara 1912” on it.  Left in a hurry with Gus to get train for Edinburgh.  He did the stunt very nicely and started me off in a 3^rd class carriage—ladies only.

July 11.  Thursday.  Had a very comfortable night rolled up in my steamer rug.  Changed at Edinburgh & at Perth & at Inverness.  Leachy Dunelly [?] offered to see me to a lavatory carriage .  Crossed the Forth Bridge & saw the Channel fleet – real this time, not lights.  The ride from Perth to Inverness was lovely. Crossed two passes & passed the highest point reached by railway in Gt. Britain, 1435 ft. – I think – The hills without a tree for miles and purple with heather & the occasional loch.  Had two girls in my charge from Inverness to B.B.  Lovely ride through to more hills, now mostly blue in the distance.  Louise met me at B.B. with Mr. Vass & a cart & we drove eight miles to Spinningdale, quaint village with a mill burned 100 years ago & some quaint people & cottages.  Walked over to Mr. Wall's study after supper.  He is supposed to be the most [illustrious annual?] painter alive today.

July 13.  Saturday.  Went down by the sea in the afternoon to read & Louise painted.  Came home by crossing the river on stepping stones & by walls cottage.

Heard great stories in the evening about the lady who arose from the dead when a tinker chopped off her finger for a ring & afterwards bore twins, both of whom were famous preachers.  & of the Case of the Red Dog out of which a dog comes every night, & which Louise herself always [?] something, and of the funerals where only men go & the coffin is always carried & of Mr. Vass who is so godly a man he can not clean stables.

July 15 Monday.  Took our lunch & book & Louise & I walked to Migdale Rock which was blown out of the earth & left a hole which is now Migdale Loch.  Passed the place where Mr. Vass himself saw a mermaid very beautiful with a findly tail who dived into the water when he passed.  The Loch is lovely and the rock on one side with the bell heather and the fine forest on the other & the blue bells in the distance.  Found the entrance to the Cave of the Hurly man, who lived there about sixty years ago & would come smashing into a house to grab porridge from the woman’s hand.

Mr. Vass said it was two stags fighting on the skyline of the rock & they say they fought all day long & the battle was tremendous.  Both were royal stags, 12 pointed horns.

July 16 Tuesday.  In the morning after having left all our losable articles at home we went by the way of the Reeveloch to the cairn of the Red Dog.  The Reevelach is a walk through bridges.  There are many beautiful waterfalls and the whole is lovely.  We passed the tin house built by Mr. Callegin & went through the woods to a road.  On one side of it is the open moor.  Beautiful hills of heather with one or two crofts in sight.  Beyond this the wild moors stretch with no sign of habitation.

The Cairn of the Red Dog is a curious place.  It is probably an old Pictish tomb.  It was a cabin & a few years ago was opened by the dignitaries.  There was found in opening a chamber about four by five & 3 high with a probable passage way.  Old weapon of stone was found within.  They have been unmoved and the tomb is open.  And they do say that it is guarded by a red dog, part fox & part wolf, who crosses the road every day at dusk and then guards the tomb by night.  The funny thing is that every time people go there they lose something.  This time Louise lost her side comb, mounted in gold.  They have lost only valuable things.

We came home through the woods looking for deer.  We saw lots of the unused crofts & their walled gardens, and in one place a row of pins set like in [?].

July 17 Wednesday.  We secured two Gadder [?] berths and started for Dornoch.  We had permission to drive through Carnegie if [?] at Lkibo Castle and do so.  Not so much though part of it was very pretty.

Then we went to Mrs. McCron for tea and saw the inside of a real Scottish house.  Then we went to see the Witch’s store where the last witch in Scotland was burned in 1722, and saw the “little village” which grew up of the crofters who were burned from their land to make a game preserve, & over the famous Dornock golf link, to the Earls cross where Sir Richard Murray having broken his sword in a fight with a landing Scandinavian chieftain, cut off the leg of a horse & slew the chief with that.

Monday, July 22.  Left for Inverness.  Drove down with Louise & Mr. Skinner, engineer of S.S. Lusitania, Dollie’s husband Andy Chrisholm.  [The Lusitania was sunk in 1915.] Actually saw a deer on the way down.