HIS INTRODUCTION TO HIS "ALTER EGO? 135 



sion on their property in the country, where they spent the 

 summer months, and a town house in Aberdeen, to which 

 they removed at the beginning of winter, to enjoy the 

 festivities then fashionable in this London of the north-east 

 of Scotland. Mr. Peter Farquharson, of Whitehouse, was a 

 quiet, plain, unpretending man, whose father, an Aberdeen 

 lawyer, had bought the property and built the present 

 house, a little to the west of the ancient site. He made 

 little stir in local or public affairs. Mrs. Farquharson, his 

 wife, was of a different type, with pronounced character, 

 great ability, immense vigour, and impetuous temperament, 

 whose fame still survives in the county. She was imperious 

 in style, and difficult to serve, sometimes changing her 

 domestics several times a year, but withal kindly and 

 good-hearted, if not generous. When she did take a fancy 

 to a good servant, she became his staunch friend when he 

 required one. Under her rigorous rule, domestic govern- 

 ment was, to say the least of it, peculiar, and service was 

 trying. 



To Whitehouse, in the year 1834, there came, to look 

 after the garden, a smart, good-looking young man of 

 twenty-one, who had just completed his apprenticeship at 

 Cluny Castle near Monymusk, and now entered on his first 

 independent situation. The new gardener was called Charles 

 Black. It was a trying place to start life in, but Charles was 

 no common lad, and would succeed where most would fail. 

 Although so young, he speedily proved himself a superior 

 workman whose fame, in this respect, still survives in 

 the district a faithful servant, and a kindly, peace-loving 

 high-toned man. He gained the good will, if not the 

 respect and friendship, of his imperious mistress, and 



