A HUNDRED YEARS IN THE 

 HIGHLANDS 



CHAPTER I 

 PAEENTAGE 



I WAS born on the 13tli of May, 1842, at the Chateau 

 de Talhouet, not far from the little town of Quimperle, 

 in the Morbihan, Brittany. It seems I was destined from 

 the very beginning to pass through life in the atmosphere 

 of the Gulf Stream and among the Celts, for my dear 

 mother told me the servants in the chateau all spoke 

 Breton among themselves, and were like west-coast 

 Highlanders in every way, except that they had the 

 fear of wolves added to that of ghosts and goblins when 

 they had to go out at night and pass through the Forest 

 de Barbebleue which surrounded the chateau. 



As I left France when I was only just a year old, I 

 cannot tell much about our life in Brittany, except that 

 the family consisted of my father. Sir Francis Mackenzie, 

 fifth baronet and twelfth laird of Gairloch; my mother, 

 Mary Hanbury, or Mackenzie; and my two half-brothers 

 — Kenneth, who became the sixth baronet and thir- 

 teenth laird, and Francis, who was just a year younger, 

 the boys being respectively ten and nine years of age. 

 There were in the household a young French tutor and 



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