26 REMINISCENCES OF 



few words to each of us, " Avez-vous bonnes nou- 

 velles de vos parents ? " " Have you good news of 

 your parents ? " The Grand Duchess spoke perfect 

 English. We were sometimes invited to dinner. 

 Among the guests was Sir James Ramsay of Bamff, 

 who had a curious trick of saying, '* Eh. quoi, what?" 

 On being invited by the Duke to take a glass of wine 

 (which was the fashion in those days), he replied, 

 " Eh, quoi, what } " 



Our German master. Dr. Weissenborne, was a 

 most eccentric man — a tall, pale man, with huge 

 spectacles, and a very strong smell of tobacco. He 

 usually carried a chameleon inside the breast of his 

 shirt, and he had a little Dachshund called Waldina. 

 His knowledge of the English language was not very 

 correct. On hearing of runaway matches to Gretna 

 Green, where the parties were married by the black- 

 smith, he said, " Is it necessary to be a blacksmith to 

 perform marriages in Scotland } " 



Norman M'Leod was much in love with a charm- 

 ing girl called Melanie Speigel. Many years after- 

 wards he was at Elie, and came to dine at Charleton. 

 I had never met him since our Weimar days. I took 

 his wife in to dinner. He said, " Tell her all about 

 Weimar — she knows about Melanie Speigel," 



The Duke used to ask us to the Jagd (to shoot 

 hares). They surrounded the district for two or 

 three miles with several hundred men, a gun and 

 a beater being placed alternately. We then marched 

 slowly in towards the centre. At the end of the Jagd 

 it was like a regiment firing volleys. The Duke was 



