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with any outstanding good looks, but possessed fine taste, and in spite of her numerous children, had a neat, well-proportioned figure with the small waist so fashionable in her day.
    Nelly appeared, flashed a quick shy smile, said a few words and vanished.
    The family had all been to church. The girls were busily engaged in setting the table and assisting with the preparations for the lunch, as was their custom every Sunday. At this point my grandfather stood up and suggested that Gherman accompany him to the conservatory and inspect what my grandmother described with a fleeting sly smile as his latest toy.
    Curious, my father followed him into the garden and into the conservatory.
    Standing in the middle of the floor on a tripod was a powerful telescope.
    My grandfather invited Gherman to scan the opposite shore. Having no experience of telescopes, my father was amazed to see the line of vision brought so close. He was able to discern the smallest details, even down to the flowers decorating the hat of a young woman. He watched her smiling face as she talked to a man reclining beside her on the bank. Their game was abruptly interrupted by the loud clanging from the house of a gong announcing that the lunch was ready. The whole family were assembled in the dining-room. It would never have occurred to any of them to sit down before the head of the house took his place at the top of the table.
    Gherman was introduced to the two other sisters Ч Mary, a pretty round-faced girl with a reticent manner, and Vicky, the youngest, a happy extrovert.
    The maid brought in a steaming tureen and placed it on the table. At the other end of the table, my grandfather, resting his head on the palm of his hand, in a manner that never varied through his whole life, said the grace. My grandmother began to ladle out the soup.
    This was the first occasion the Cameron family entertained a young man.
    The conversation, with the exception of the head of the house, was a bit constrained, but as the meal progressed and the plates with the carved Sunday joint were being passed round, all gradually relaxed.
    Grandfather was a man who could talk on many subjects. Well read, with a keen, shrewd mind, he had at times almost an uncanny insight into what was going on around him and in the outside world. The question of the Russian-Japanese war was brought up again. At the end of January 1904, the Japanese fleet had treacherously attacked the Russians in Port Arthur.
    Russia was doing badly, and my grandfather deplored her weakness. Then, suddenly turning to my father, he said, “Just the same, mark my words, laddie. One day, not in my time, but perhaps in yours, Russia will become a force the whole world will be obliged to notice. Yes,” he added grimly, “that will include us as well.” These strangely prophetic words, spoken at a time of BritainТs greatest power and prosperity, my mother was to recall many years later.
    Talking about himself, he told my father that he was the youngest child of a big family and was brought up by his aunt, a Mrs Dick, who was known as “Grandma Dick”. His mother had died at the time of his birth and this childless aunt had taken him to her home in Broughty Ferry. He was completely cut off from his brothers and sisters during his childhood.
    This aunt, who was quite well off, having no children of her own, had lavished all her love and devotion on her nephew and when she died left him all her estate. That set him off on the road as a prosperous property owner and house factor.
    Having spent all his life in Broughty Ferry, my grandfather had witnessed the fast-changing scenes of that period. As a schoolboy, he had travelled in an open carriage in the first train, to the Dundee Grammar School, as the present High School was named in those days. As a young man he had watched the building of the famous Tay Bridge and had seen the triumphant journey of the first train to cross what was reputed to be the longest bridge in