A friend of Kathleen's became a great friend of mine. Rosemary Welstead is a most interesting friend, completely unusual, who genuinely prefers animals to humans and always has four or five sheepdogs and four or five cats as her household. Her house is an old, tiny cottage, built of boulders. Still more interesting is the Dusk to Dawn house in the garden, with its stones still standing.
One delightful holiday that came every year was Rosemary's arrival with her large van, her friend (Miss Phil Wyley), and 4 (later 5) dogs. Rosemary, Phil and the dogs squeezed into the two-bed spare room for the night. The next day, with Kathleen, we all went off in the van to a cottage very much in the Highlands that Rosemary had rented for a week. It was as lovely/lonely as could be – in Argyll, right up to the North Coast. In this most happy place, we saw more of Scotland than any of my Scottish friends, getting as far off as Sutherland. We saw nearly the whole of the west coast, at a very small expense, as we three friends shared the cost.
In between these trips, I walked up all the Bens within reach of a walk and a bus. Ben Vorlich was the most satisfactory, but there were Ben Ledi, Ben Vane and Ben Lawers, which meant a week of hunting wild flowers.
ROSEMARY
Rosemary Marion C. Welstead, some 24 years younger than EV, was a great friend during the later years and outlived EV by only two years. EV was known for being at ease among people of all ages.
KATHLEEN PRINGLE
Daughter of Eliot Charles Pringle & Flora Elizabeth Doman. This cousin's daughter would forever remain a very dear friend to EV, sharing a lifetime of weekly correspondence and annual holidays. Like Rosemary, Kathleen was younger than EV (by seven years) but only outlived her by two years. Both of EV's friends died in 1988.
ILLUSTRATIONS
1) Eleanor Jauncey and Rosemary Welstead
2) Kathleen Pringle (c. 1980)
Text and images may not be
used without written permission.
Click for Contact Information