462 PERSONALIA : 1898-1906 



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My boys are all in statu quo, which a witty aunt of mine 

 used to say should be translated ' always worse and worse.' 

 Happily this does not apply to my children. Willy, the 

 eldest, is a merchant, deeply engaged in East African affairs. 

 He made me a birthday present of a most beautiful walking 

 stick of one piece of ivory nearly a yard long, with a heavy 

 gold handle. I am at my wits' end to know what to do with 

 it. I cannot buy a safe for it as I had to do for my diamond 

 mounted star and collar of the G.C.S.I. Such honours are 

 real burdens. 



I have not yet read the Duke of Argyll's l Life,' having 

 quite an incubus of books to get through before taking it up. 

 I 'am glad to see it is so highly spoken of. I well remember 

 the Duke's sending to my father the cone of a Scotch pine 

 which he saw dropped from the mouth of a corbie or raven, 

 and which curiously enough was infected by a fungus never 

 previously found in Britain ! It is still I suppose exhibited 

 in the Kew Museum of Economic Botany. 



I am ashamed to ask you to accept my tardy congratula- 

 tions on our birthday. 1 I can truly say that I have never 

 ceased to love the memory of you, and can still feel your little 

 arms round my neck as I carried you * pick-a-back ' up the 

 deep road at Helensburgh, and I rejoice in the memory. 

 Hyacinth who shares my joys sends best love. 



1 Mrs. Paisley 's birthday was really on the same day, June 30 (though not 

 the same year; she was the younger). 



