1. See Notes A and D in Appendix.

2. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder owned Relugas (formerly called Tulli Duvie) by right of his marriage with its heiress, Miss Cumming.

3. Truly, it is flesh!

4. In the very popular Memoirs of a Highland Lady (Miss Grant of Rothiemurchus), there are on pp. 284–5 and 387 some statements and misstatements, which should be read by the light of pp. 163–4—namely the author’s own reference to Sir William’s fleeting attraction to herself in his early days.

No shadow ever marred the perfect love and happiness of this noble couple. The wonderfully gifted and beautiful woman was justly idolised by her husband and very large family, as well as by a wide outer circle, rich and poor.

5. In the magnificent Church of the old Knights of St. John in Malta, there is a beautiful monument to his memory.

6. So many misstatements have been unscrupulously published concerning these beauties, that I may be forgiven for quoting a few paragraphs from an excellent article on “The beautiful Misses Gunning,” which appeared in the Cornhill Magazine for 1867.

“The Gunnings were a branch of an old English family, which had settled in Ireland in the reign of James I., their estate being Castle Coote, in Roscommon.

“In 1731, Mr. Gunning married the Honourable Bridget Bourke, daughter of Lord Mayo—‘a lady of most elegant figure.’ In the two following years were born their daughters Maria and Elizabeth. At this time they were living at Hemingford Gray, in Huntingdonshire, but on the death of Mr. Gunning’s father, the family was transplanted to the wilds of Connaught, where two other beautiful daughters and a son were born. One of these daughters died as a child. Kitty married Mr. Travers in Ireland. The son distinguished himself in the American war, and became a General and K.C.B.

“In 1748, the family removed to Dublin, and (at the ages of fifteen and sixteen) the beauties appeared at the Vice-Regal Court, Lord Harrington being Lord Lieutenant.

“In 1750, they removed to London, and were presented at Court. Thenceforward they carried society by storm. Horace Walpole declared of ‘those goddesses’ that ‘they make more noise than any of their predecessors since the days of Helen of Troy.’ They could not walk in the parks on account of the crowds that surrounded them in sheer admiration. When travelling through the country, crowds lined the roads to gaze at them, and hundreds of people stayed up all night round the inns where they halted, on the chance of getting a peep at them in the morning. Imagine a shoemaker realising three guineas in one day by the exhibition, at a penny a head, of one of their shoes!

“In February 1752, Elizabeth married the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon. When she next appeared at Court, the excitement was so great that the highest ladies in the land climbed on chairs and tables to look at her. Her marriage with this proud but dissipated duke was not very happy. He died in 1758.

“At five-and-twenty she was handsomer than ever. The Duke of Bridgewater was among her suitors, and it was after her refusal that he devoted himself to the making of the Bridgewater Canal and other useful public works.

“In March 1759, she married Lord John Campbell, afterwards Duke of Argyll. After her second marriage she almost entirely disappeared from the fashionable world.

“In 1760, she was created Baroness Hamilton of Hambeldon, in Leicestershire. She was then in attendance upon Queen Charlotte. She died in 1790, aged fifty-seven.”

7. My happy memories of Machrihanish Bay were recorded in my first book, In the Hebrides, published by Chatto and Windus.

8. Quoted in the aforesaid book, page 299.

9. The double surname resulting from the union of these two estates was assumed only by my grandfather, and his son Sir William, consequently it belongs exclusively to my father’s direct descendants.

The only survivors of the last generation who bear it are myself and my brother Colonel William Gordon-Cumming, now living at Forres House. Of my other brothers, only three married, namely, Sir Alexander, Henry, and Frank; their only two daughters married respectively Lord Middleton and the Honourable Claude Portman. They, however, left nine sons, who are the fathers of my four little grand-nephews, and of ten little grand-nieces, four in Scotland, five in New Zealand, and one in Texas. These are the only members of the family who in 1904 own our name.

I mention this because we are so frequently asked, “What relation to you is So-and-so Gordon Cumming?” mentioning one of the many bearers of the name, unknown to us.

This seems to have arisen from the fact, that when my brother Roualeyn returned from his wonderful South African hunting expeditions, many members of Clan Cumming christened a son Gordon in his honour.

When these grew up, and the use of double names without any reference to property became the fashion, the families of these “namesakes” assumed the father’s Christian name as a surname.

Imitation is said to be the truest flattery, but it has its inconveniences, and in the case of names is liable to produce confusion.

10. See Appendix, Note H.

11. I do not know whether to class as affectation, or sheer vulgarity, a very offensive innovation which I have heard in some Scottish churches, whose choirs have been carefully taught to pronounce Jerusalem as Jerry-you-salem!

12. These quarries have long since been closed.

13. Five Years of a Hunter’s Life in South Africa. By R. Gordon-Cumming. Published by John Murray.

14. Wild Men and Wild Beasts. By Colonel W. G. Gordon-Cumming. Published by David Douglas.

15. The window of the room in which fifteen of my father’s children were born, and from which we saw first my mother, then my father, pass away. My sister Alice was born in London.

16. Her eldest son, Penrose, was at that time in Canada with his regiment, the 71st Highlanders. He wrote from Montreal, 27th May 1842: “I feel as if crushed to the earth. She was too young and beautiful, and too necessary to her family to be taken from them.... Oh may we, her children, profit by every advice and the example she showed us daily.... There never was a mother who loved her children more than she, or who thought of the absent ones with such affection, as her own letters show.”

17. St. Michael’s Chapel was erected in 1705 on the site of the ancient vicarage kirk of Ogston. The present small chapel, with a fine Gothic window at each end, was built simply as a mortuary chapel for the family of Gordonstoun.

18. See Note B in Appendix.

19. See Note C in Appendix.

20. “The lands of Ettles and fyshing, called the Coissey,” were granted to Thomas Innes of Pethrick by Patrick, Bishop of Moray, in a charter dated at Elgin and Drainie, the 8th and 18th May 1561, and signed by the bishop and twelve of the canons of Elgin cathedral, their seals being also appended. In 1638 these lands and fishings were sold to Sir Robert Gordon by the grandson of the said Thomas Innes.

21. Fisher’s basket.

22. Ancestor of the present Duke of Fife.

23. Forbears, i.e. ancestors.

24. Easter Day.

25. Curia vitæ et membrorum furca et fossa.

26. The library, which numbered about three thousand volumes, was sold in Edinburgh in the year 1801 for a small sum, but some years later the vendor—Mr. Constable—bought it back for £1000 and a pipe of port wine. It was finally dispersed in 1814 by J. G. Cockburn, when it realised £1530. But from the catalogue of that sale it is obvious that books of most curious interest had all been withdrawn.

27. Market.

28. See Appendix, Note E.

29. Kirn, a few, a handful. Perthshire and Morayshire.

30. I believe that many more owners of gardens would of their abundance send flowers to friends and hospitals in cities, were it not from the imaginary necessity of providing boxes. To such may I give some simple suggestions? Carefully select flowers scarcely half-blown. Remove all superfluous green from their stalks. Tie them in bunches with a long strip of wet newspaper about three inches wide, tied round the ends, that they may drink on the journey. Leave them all in water for at least an hour before packing.

Spread on the floor a sheet of brown paper, and on that a stout newspaper. Then sprays of green things to protect the flowers and gladden the recipient. If you have long ferns, and iris buds, a stick of the same length is good protection. Then lay in your bunches of flowers and roll all up securely in the newspapers, and then in the brown paper, when your parcel will resemble a well-packed salmon, and will travel by parcel-post for a very moderate sum.

If you leave this to your gardener to do, he will probably supply as green useless prunings of Portugal and common laurels and unlovable mahonia, sadly tantalising to the recipient.

Here is a list of desirable out-of-door green things that will live. Sprays of beech-tree not too young; small trails of ivy. Most ferns, especially Felix-mas, provided old fronds are selected, free from seed; but not the lovely Lastrea Dilatata or Lastrea Felix Femina, which invariably die. Sprigs of Rosa Rugosa, boxwood, Solomon’s seal, carrot-leaves, periwinkle, a few bits of glossy rhododendron, all varieties of Aber-vitæ, sprays of Diodera. Most precious of all are bits of Retinospora Plumosa and Thuyopsis Dolobrata, which will live for months.

For home use, where water is at once available, I would add sprays of wild raspberry, and leaves of wild cow-parsley, strawberry and potentilla leaves, bishop’s weed, leaves of large lupins, of columbine, of blue delphinium, of Dialitra Spectabilis, of pyrethrium; and daintiest of all is the fumitory (Fumaria officinalis), which gardeners ruthlessly hoe up as a worthless weed, unless specially bidden to spare some for pet vases.

Perhaps many friends who have no gardens could, if they realised the above simple method of packing, send parcels of real Scotch heather (ling, NOT purple bell heather, which dies at once). Also yellow cornflowers, and Scottish bluebells: the latter carry very well, and all the buds will bloom. All they crave is a minute’s attention to their morning “toilette,” just to nip off the dead bells. But in remote districts, mercy to the walking postman must limit his parcels.

31. Appendix, Note F.

32. In Parker Gillmore’s letters on “The Game of South Africa” I find this passage:—“In many parts of this remote portion of Africa, I have come across natives who knew well the mighty Nimrod, Gordon-Cumming—some even that have hunted with him—and one and all agreed that he was the bravest and most daring white man they ever knew. To them I have recounted the principal episodes which he narrates in his work, and which have been condemned by many of his countrymen as utterly improbable, nay, impossible, but one and all, without a single dissenting voice, attested to their truth.

“Sicomey, the father of Khama, now King of Bamangwato, told me of deeds performed by Gordon-Cumming, which, if possible, outrivalled those he has recounted in his work, and I have often thought that these were withheld from the British public for the reason that he had not authentic witnesses to produce who could endorse his statements.”

33. Shoes.

34. “Shrieking in that style.”

35. For the benefit of possible sufferers, I may mention that if I ever do have a suggestion of rheumatism, I at once attribute it to unsuspected indigestion, and for a short while adopt Dr. Salisbury’s system of diet, which consists in refraining from all foods most liable to fermentation, i.e. all vegetables, milk, sugar, fish, alcohol in any form, and limiting the “menu” to three good meals daily of very finely minced and well-cooked beef, with no accompaniment except some crisp toast, and if necessary a little strong meat-soup or black coffee.

But the less fluid with meals the better, as it weakens the gastric juices, and fluid is supplied by a good drink of hot water four times a day, i.e. on first awakening, in the middle of the forenoon and afternoon, and the last thing at night, always about an hour and a half before or after eating. This supplies a bath for the internal machinery, and acts on the same principle as washing the plate you have used at one meal before it is required for the next meal.

N. B.—Always ask for a small jug of boiling water, a bottle of cold water, and a cup, that you may prepare your drink to suit your own taste, otherwise you are apt to get a tumbler of scalding water all ready poured out. By mixing for yourself and sipping slowly you can probably manage to swallow a double allowance, and soon learn to enjoy it. Some people think that a pinch of salt makes it more palatable. I may mention that I know of hundreds of people once martyrs to the many phases of indigestion, dyspepsia, and their effects (called by many names, but all due to the same cause), who attribute their restoration to health to this simple course of dieting, as taught in this country by the late Mrs. Elma Stuart (daughter of a Cumming of Logie).

36. The principal home of the Earls of Seafield.

37. Published by David Douglas, Edinburgh.

38. This historic house has recently been purchased by Colonel Cooper, who on August 19, 1903, presented it, with forty-five acres of land, henceforth to be known as Cooper Park, to the city of Elgin. The boundary-wall, which separated the grounds from the ruins of the beautiful cathedral, has been removed, and the house itself adapted to the purposes of a public library, as also for the exhibition of a loan collection of pictures, curios, etc.

39. Amongst other old Highland customs which Lady Ann kept up at Castle Grant was dining in the great hall with “the salt” in the middle of the long table, and the diners placed above or below the salt according to their social standing.

40. Until the Reform Bill was passed, the burghs of Banff, Cullen, Elgin, Inverury and Kintore, were represented by one Member of Parliament, the town council of each burgh selecting a delegate to represent the community at the election, which took place at each town in rotation.

41. Lady Jane afterwards married General Sir Edward Forestier-Walker.

42. Hugh Willoughby Jermyn was subsequently Bishop of Colombo, in Ceylon, where for two delightful years his house was my headquarters, till total breakdown of health compelled his return to Britain, where in 1876 he was appointed to succeed our cousin, Alexander Forbes, as Bishop of Brechin. In 1886, on the death of Bishop Eden at Inverness, he was unanimously elected Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. He entered into rest, September 17th, 1903, aged eighty-three.

His life for the last fifty years had been one long struggle of a brave, determined spirit for victory over a very frail body, which sorely hampered him.

Doubtless that ever brave, bright nature was in some mysterious manner being “made perfect through suffering,” but there we touch on one of the mysteries for the solution of which we must be content to wait.

43. Strange to say, ere one brief year had elapsed, his brother Roualeyn’s noble hunting-trophies were conveyed to London, there to be likewise sold by auction at a strangely ill-attended sale. Thus were scattered to the winds the treasures of two of the most successful hunters of dangerous wild beasts. Almost all Roualeyn’s trophies were purchased by Barnum, and, sad to say, were burnt in his great fire.

44. The grim grey fort has now been swept away, and on its site stands the large Roman Catholic Monastery and Church of St. Benedict.

45. Meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis).

46. See Appendix, Note G.

47. A few weeks later Sandy was enrolled as a police-constable in Liverpool, where for a brief period he worked well, then caught a fever and died.

48. He was generally acknowledged to be the most graceful reel-dancer, and to throw the lightest fly in salmon fishing, of any man in Scotland.

49. Lady Middleton.

50. I have just learnt that the sale of this pathetic little story by Hesba Stretton has reached the amazing figure of 1,747,000 copies.

51. He served in the 71st Highlanders, and the 4th Light Dragoons, and took a prominent part in the volunteer movement from its beginning.

52. Bishop of Moray and Ross. For many years Primus of the Episcopal Church in Scotland.

53. Major Frederick Gordon-Cumming of the Cheshire Regiment was shot dead while on convoy-duty against the Chins, a hill-tribe in Burmah, 23rd March 1890. Peace had actually been signed, and he was marching back to Fort White, when he was mortally wounded by a hill-man lying concealed among the rocks.

54. The Rev. S. Minton was one of the first who had courage to declare his own belief in CONDITIONAL IMMORTALITY. See Appendix, Note F.

55. Though I cannot give accurate details of Willoughby history, it is interesting to me, now that my headquarters are near some of the Willoughby D’Eresby estates (Drummond Castle and Glen Artney deer-forest), to know that at some period this great family divided itself and its numerous estates, one branch being now represented by the Earl of Ancaster, the other by Lord Middleton.

Although by far the most interesting Middleton property is the magnificent and quite unique old Wollaton Hall, near Nottingham, the family have lived chiefly at Birdsall as being the most convenient hunting-centre, the expensive honour of being M.F.H. being virtually hereditary. Lord Middleton’s hounds, kennels, hunters, stud-farm, and home-farm are all objects of keen interest in the hunting and agricultural world, the latter being especially interested in his splendid shire horses.

56. Afterwards Sir William Gregory.

57. In July 1904 he was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Newfoundland.

58. See In the Himalayas, C. F. Gordon-Cumming (published by Chatto and Windus).

59. See In the Hebrides, C. F. Gordon-Cumming (published by Chatto and Windus).

60. Ezekiel i. 16, 20, 21; x. 2, 10, 13, 16, 17, 19; xi. 22.

61. See Appendix, Note I.

62. Any one interested in Japanese rosaries can see some very remarkable specimens in the collection of Japanese treasures presented to the British Museum by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, K.C.B.

63. Wistaria sinensis.

64. Very remarkable is the place assigned to the fox in the medicine folklore both of Britain and Japan. The Early English prescription for disease of the joints was to take a living fox and seethe him till the bones alone be left, and then bathe repeatedly in this foxy essence. “Wonderfully it healeth!” says the old chronicler. The fox’s liver possessed special curative powers, and indeed each portion of the fox—his gall, the fat of his loin, his lung sodden, etc.—each had special virtues, while those who suffered from foot-addle, i.e. gout, were recommended to wear shoes lined with vixen hide.

65. See Wanderings in China, by C. F. Gordon-Cumming, chapter xii.

66. See Appendix, Note J.

67. See Appendix K.

68. The Prince Imperial was born in 1879.

69. My nephew, A. Gordon-Cumming.

70. Published by Blackwood.

71. See Appendix, Note L.

72. Her life-story has been sketched by her sister in Recollections of a Happy Life.

73. I cannot refrain from quoting a comment by Dr. Alexander, Archbishop of Armagh, on Agnosticism: “Agnostic, ah! a very high-sounding word. It’s Greek, you know. It is not quite so fine when you render it in Latin—Ignoramus!”

74. From Corn and Poppies, by Cosmo Monkhouse, published by Elkin Matthews.

75. The Champion Medal and Breeder’s Medal for the best beast in the Smithfield Show, 1881, were awarded to Sir W. G. Gordon-Cumming, of Altyre and Gordonstoun, who for many successive years carried off first prizes, his factor, Mr. Robert Walker, being one of the most successful cattle-breeders in Britain.

76. “Loons”—lads.

77. We hear of forty guineas being paid for a handsome periwig, which, moreover, entailed continual care and expense to keep it in curl and beauty.

78. This singular payment of a portion of an animal seems to have been common. I find that the rental of the Bishop’s Mills (or as they are described “The Bischopis Mylne,” near Elgin Cathedral), in A.D. 1565, included, amongst other items, three fowls, four dozen of capons, three sheep, three lambs, one pig, and three quarters of a mart (or bullock)!

79. Rhind’s Sketches of Moray, 1839.

80. The inhabitants of Lossiemouth tell with pride that their railway across the lake to Elgin was the first line completed in the north! It was opened for traffic in 1852. The coast-line of rail from London to Inverness, viâ Aberdeen, was opened in 1858. The Highland line viâ Perth was opened in 1863.

81. Lobster-chests.

82. Probably of Hugh de Moravia, Lord of Duffus.

83. Annals of Elgin. By Robert Young.

84. While thus referring to one unintentional source of evil, I would venture to plead against another, by which grave harm is too often done, namely, the thoughtless repeating of rather irreverent stories connected with favourite hymns and verses of Scripture. A slight touch of wit, or mere absurdity, causes such to stick to the memory of the hearer, never to be eradicated, destroying the sanctity of what has hitherto been a purely sacred association. I grieve to say that too often the clergy are themselves the sowers of these evil tares.

85. The Tulasi (or basil) is deemed very sacred, because Sita, the wife of Rama, once assumed the form of this humble shrub.

86. Elæocarpus Ganitrus.

87. Monodon monoceros.

88. In my Wanderings in China, chapter viii., amongst other very “strange medicines,” I have described how the hot blood of a newly decapitated criminal is secured as a valuable cure for a disease supposed to be consumption.

89. See the Collection of Useful Remedies, by John Moncrief of Tippermalluch; a person of extraordinary skill and knowledge in the Art of Physick. Printed in the Cowgate of Edinburgh in A.D. 1712.

90. See In the Hebrides. C. F. Gordon-Cumming. London: Chatto and Windus.