10 SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY 



carefully refrained from spoiling their only child. He 

 was a great deal with them, heard them talk, and in- 

 sensibly copied them so that as a little boy he used 

 rather grown up words and ways of speaking. He 

 played quietly with his toys and carried on his child's 

 life alongside of theirs, thinking his own thoughts and 

 only coming out of his dreams when actually spoken to. 

 His mother did all she could to surround him with other 

 children, and the young MacVicars, Langs and Turn- 

 bulls, all friends of the second and third generation, were 

 frequent visitors. Other very early boy friends were the 

 twin McClures whose mother was Grace Buchanan, 

 Mrs. Ramsay's first pupil the two Urquharts and Willie 

 Buchanan, who afterwards became his brother-in-law. 

 These friendships never lapsed, and though both the 

 McClures are dead their sons are still friends of the family. 

 From notes supplied by Miss Flora Mac Vicar and 

 Mrs. McNicol, early friends of the family, we know that 

 young Ramsay had a very happy childhood and youth, 

 though in some respects the circumstances surrounding 

 his life were different from those of other boys. His 

 father and mother were both intelligent and affectionate 

 parents, and as Barrie says, in his Margaret Ogilvie, " so 

 much of what is great in Scotland has sprung from the 

 closeness of the family ties." He had not much liking 

 for the games on which boys usually spend so much 

 time. His youthful amusements had a thread of inves- 

 tigation running through them, and in such pursuits as 

 rigging out toyboats or building bricks he always had 



