60 A HUNDKED YEARS 



course of her life had never been to a public school; 

 and if I were asked who was all round the most intel- 

 ligent and best educated man I ever came across, I 

 should say it was my uncle John Mackenzie. He also 

 was never at a public school. 



One of the charms of the good old times in the High- 

 lands was the strong family affection shown to relatives, 

 even if not very near kin. My grandfather, Sir Hector, 

 had two younger half-brothers, General John Mackenzie 

 and Captain Kenneth Mackenzie. The General was 

 known as *' Fighting Jack,'" and had distinguished 

 himself in the Peninsular War and fought also at the 

 Cape, India, Sicily and Malta, while the Captain was in 

 all the great battles of his time in India. When they 

 were disbanded after the great war they were naturally 

 drawn to the homes of their youth, and my grandfather 

 gave the younger one, Captain Kenneth, the farm of 

 Kerry sdale, A Chathair bheag (the Little Throne or 

 Seat), which then included part of what is now the 

 Gairloch deer-forest. There he built a house and reared 

 a large family of children and grandchildren, and thus 

 he resided within about a mile of the Tigh Dige for, I 

 think, about seventy years. General John passed a 

 good part of his life at Eiverford, and at Balavil Farm, 

 close to the east-coast family mansion of Conon. In 

 these modern times I often hear the horrid and unnatural 

 assertion that it is disagreeable having one's relatives 

 all round one. So much for the twentieth century ! 



How I loved my two old grand-uncles ! They were 

 such pattern gentlemen of the old school. The General 

 always accosted me in Gaelic when I was taken to see 

 him in Inverness, where he latterly lived, and would ask 



