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Table of Contents

The aim and hope with which this book emerges, is, that anyone taking a look at its contents, even in a random way, may find at least something to amuse or interest.

When Mr Edward Arnold (of Messrs Edward Arnold & Company) was good enough to suggest that I should try my prentice hand at a publication of this kind, he alluded to Dean Ramsay’s celebrated book as a sort of type and model. An attempt to follow that example would be ambitious indeed: but my ambition in relation to that work, in addition to various quotations therefrom, has mainly consisted in recording some incidents and utterances which, judging by analogy, the Dean would presumably have used if they had occurred during his lifetime.

There is one feature of the jottings contained in these pages, which may perhaps be regarded as too prominent, namely, the local element, which is frequently introduced. On the other hand, it may be claimed that when an item is of the reminiscent character, the local colouring is a natural and indeed a desirable accompaniment.

And, of course, if this unpretentious venture were a work of fiction, local surroundings, real or imaginary, would necessarily have been introduced.

It should be added that I have never kept a diary, and, therefore, in recording various episodes and sayings, I have depended mainly on memory, and this, of course, involves the liability to err; but I must put in a caveat regarding the allusion—by way of illustration—to certain current tales, different versions of which have been evolved; for in such cases I have taken care to obtain as nearly as possible, the original form of the story.

There are some other lines of procedure and method which I have endeavoured to follow in this composition; but these need not be here specified; and indeed they will perhaps be observed by any who find themselves disposed to read the book throughout, and to whom I offer, in advance, my respectful thanks.

Aberdeen and Temair.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My thanks are due to Messrs T. Fisher Unwin Ltd. for permission to use two stories from Quotable Anecdotes, and to Messrs Methuen & Co. Ltd. for the lines on the title-page from A Diary for the Thankful-hearted, compiled by Miss Mary Hodgkin.