14 SIR WILLIAM RAMSAY 



packed hard with gunpowder, would not go off, and was, 

 with much indignation, thrown into the kitchen fire with 

 results that were rather startling but fortunately did no 

 harm beyond a hole in an opposite neighbour's dining- 

 room wall. 



As Mr. Ramsay could not take long summer holidays, 

 Mrs. Ramsay used to take her son to visit her relations 

 and friends for a great part of his vacations. As these 

 were scattered over a great part of Scotland, young 

 Ramsay had, from a very early age, a wide knowledge 

 of his native land. Mrs. Ramsay's only surviving 

 brother, who had been an army doctor, had settled at 

 Strathmiglo in Fife. He seems to have been rather 

 eccentric and something of a woman hater. He paid 

 his professional visits on horseback and taught his 

 young nephew to ride, also the rudiments of golf. At 

 Strathmiglo he had the good luck to have the com- 

 panionship of the " children of the manse," the family 

 of the Rev. Dr. Macara, with whom he spent much of 

 his time. This friendship was never allowed to drop, 

 and the last year of his life he was closely associated 

 with Sir Charles Macara, the eldest of the "Macara 

 boys," in his crusade against the importation of cotton 

 into Germany. Other holidays were spent with his 

 mother's only sister Mrs. Jolly, the wife of the minister 

 of Bowden, in the border country. Their nearest 

 neighbours were the Bruntons, and there at a very early 

 age he made the acquaintance of " Tommy Lauder 

 Brunton." The exact form of introduction is not 



