Page 120 - Life of Gertrude Bell

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Mesopotamia

Everything now was bent towards archaeology and the East. She
no longer thought in terms of ‘going abroad’ so much as of
visiting her home and friends between carefully planned journeys
which focused and absorbed all the resources of her mind and
body. Nevertheless such interludes in her travels gave her
immense pleasure. She always looked forward to seeing her
family, especially now that both her sisters were married and
Molly had children of her own. ‘I don’t think I ever saw anything
more adorable than Moll’s children,’ she wrote while visiting
Charles and Molly Trevelyan at their home at Cambo in North­
umberland. She also maintained her links with friends and more
distant relatives who constituted a not inconsiderable portion of
Who’s Who. She entertained a great deal while she was at Rounton
during the relatively quiet years of 1907 and 1908. The procession
of visitors included writers, artists, diplomats, explorers and
politicians, several of whom were to become closely involved
with her own journeys and political activities in the East. Her
visitors in the later months of 1907 included the Lascelles and the
Russells, George Lloyd, Percy Loraine, Sir Edwin and Lady
Egerton, G. W. Prothero, Sir Ernest Shackleton and the young
Captain Frank Balfour of whom she was to see much in the years
ahead. In October of that year she began a course of instruction
in the techniques of travel and exploration at the Royal Geo­
graphical Society in London, concentrating on survey methods
and map projection under Mr Reeves of the Map Room.
The only notable event of 1908 was a holiday spent among the
hills and mountains of north Walesalong with Chirol, Frank
Balfour and others. By this time Gertrude was a brilliant conversa­
tionalist and raconteur, her extensive travels and her wide reading