Memories

APPENDIX. NOTE A. THE WOLF OF BADENOCH 379 B. THE LOWLANDS OF MORAY 381 C. A LEGEND OF VANISHED WATERS 403 D. ELGIN CATHEDRAL AND THE CHURCH OF ST GILES 427 E. ANNE SEYMOUR CONW...

Many a time I have been asked by friends who have found pleasure in reading my notes of travel in divers countries to write a record of my early home-life and of various matters...

“In the silence of my chamber, When the night is still and deep, And the drowsy heave of ocean Mutters in its charmèd sleep, Oft I hear the angel voices That have thrilled me lo...

On other evenings there was the home-bringing of various game, furred and feathered, or of bonnie speckled trout from the Altyre burn, the Loch of Blairs, or Loch Romach (the la...

“And parted thus they lie, who played Beneath the same green tree; Whose voices mingled as they prayed Around one parent knee. They that with smiles lit up the hall And cheered...

And now to turn to that beloved old grey home which Cosmo Innes described as “the ghostly old palace of Gordonstoun.” Ghostly it well might be, could its very numerous builders...

My first recollection of country-house visiting was when I was six years old, and my father and my sister Ida took me with them to stay at Gordon Castle (the Duke of Richmond’s...

Eighteen hundred and fifty-four was destined to bring us face to face with some of life’s sternest realities. Little did we foresee these, as the opening months of the year sped...

A few weeks later we were thoroughly settled at Harehope, and as the summer advanced we enjoyed long drives to all points of chief interest in the neighbourhood, such as Holy St...

The George Grants being now comfortably settled at Easter Elchies, on the banks of the Spey, early in January 1859 I joined them there at what proved to be their happy home for...

I will pass over the many interests of the next five years, varied as they were. They seem so small in comparison with the great realities which we were called to face in 1865–6...

On 1st January 1867 the family assembled at Cantray, a few miles from Nairn, for the marriage of my youngest half-sister, Emilia, aged eighteen, to Warden Sergison of the 4th Hu...

February 1870.—In the next few months I paid a multitude of visits to kinsfolk and friends in London and many counties—from Dover, Canterbury, Rochester, and Cuckfield in the so...

From the moment of my return to Britain, every one seemed to consider it a matter of course that I should continue the travels which had hitherto proved so pleasant, so at every...

The arrival of British or other men-of-war always brought some little stir, and some accession to our somewhat limited society, as of course the officers called at Government Ho...

I have so often found pathetic sketching-grounds in neglected old churchyards and cemeteries, and moreover have so long felt that the subject of how to dispose of the dead so as...

Amongst the most interesting of my early experiences in Japan were visits to two varieties of theatres, first to a mythological drama called the Nô, in connection with a militar...

Few things interested me more than the numerous shrines on mountains, in the forests, or on the sea-shore, loaded with the votive offerings of poor peasants. Such was the shrine...

I must refrain from further memories of delightful Japan, except to tell of one expedition which was the crowning joy of my six months in the group. This was my pilgrimage to th...

MY DEAR FAMILY—My last letter to you was begun on the summit of Fujiyama. Now this, my very last letter from Japan, is to tell you about a very remarkable festival, which really...

“So long THY Power hath blest me, sure it still Will lead me on O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till The night is gone, And with the morn those angel faces smile Which...