26 REMINISCENCES OF 



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

 velles de vos parents ? " u 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 



