58 A HUNDRED YEARS 



and took a look at them, and lie ruined all our hopes by 

 quietly telling us they were young polecats !" 



In this manner the days and the years passed by very 

 happily. Nor was my education being neglected. I 

 was always being taught a little, first by my old nurse, 

 and afterwards by my mother's lady companion, who 

 taught me English and Gaelic. I also went to a Gaelic 

 Sunday-school class and thoroughly learnt my Gaelic 

 Shorter Catechism; and the French boy read French 

 with me under the direction of my mother. It was not 

 the fashion in our family for the boys to be sent to 

 school. My grandfather's plan was to have tutors, 

 who spent the summers and autumns with the boys at 

 Gairloch, and who went with them during the winter to 

 Edinburgh, where they attended classes. None of my 

 four uncles nor my father was ever at school, and it was 

 my father's special wish that his sons should be brought 

 up in the same manner. 



I do not think it could be possible for any two young 

 men to turn out greater successes than my two half- 

 brothers, the late Sir Kenneth S. Mackenzie and his 

 brother. Sir Kenneth was far and away the most 

 esteemed man in the county of Ross. He was appointed 

 Chairman of the Commissioners of Supply and Con- 

 vener of the County Council, was at the head of every- 

 thing that was good, and, like his grandfather, was 

 Lord-Lieutenant of the County. My second brother, 

 Francis, was quite as great a man, and equally beloved 

 and respected. I quite agree with my grandfather and 

 father that Eton and Harrow, Oxford and Cambridge, 



