CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 17 



chemical problems, or in devising new chemical apparatus at 

 which he was particularly expert being very neat handed. 



When, owing to deaths in our family, I was obliged to give 

 up my farm in the Highlands, in order to carry on our wood 

 distilling business in various parts of the country, I remember 

 with gratitude how much he helped me by his advice and chemical 

 knowledge. He suggested several improvements in our plant, 

 which proved of considerable advantage." 



It was when staying at Bonhill that Ramsay came to 

 know Loch-Lomond side so well, and picked up many 

 stories with which he used to regale his friends. It was 

 an old gardener at Bonhill who complained that an old 

 gate was fair off its "equileebrum and sair corroborated." 



About 1901, he was asked by Miss Duncan Jameson, 

 now Mrs. John Baird Smith, to write something in her 

 album. He wrote lines after the fashion of Longfellow's 

 Hiawatha, of which the following is a sufficient sample : 



" Of your ' weird,' ' quaint,' * splendid ' friendship, 

 Which has lasted generations, 

 Ever since your greatgrandfather, 

 And my father's father sauntered, 

 On the green banks of the Leven, 

 Talking over current prices 



Of the pyrolignous acid, 

 And the products of the beech-tree, 

 Of the oak and of the alder 

 Heated up to fiery redness 

 In the ovens of Camlachie. 

 May the pinions of that friendship 

 Never moult a single feather, 

 But continue through the ages 



Unto countless generations." 



