2110-2-8-14

ARDWALL, GATEHOUSE ON FLEET. N.B.

July 22nd 1913.

My dear John,

I arrived last night by the late train from Kirkcudbright, found the biography, and devoured it before I went to sleep. I never had more delightful reading, what an army of pleasant memories it calls up, there is not one dull or halting sentence in it, it flows and ripples easily and pleasantly from start to finish. You have caught the best aspect of my

father, and made the best possible picture. I am doubly delighted for I confess that I was against the memoir when it was first mooted. I doubted if it would be possible to present a true portrait of the man, with his native forcibleness & humour which would not savour of too much freedom & caricature to those who did not know him intimately. I am very glad to acknowl edge that I was wrong, and that the many friends who wanted a memoir written by you were right, for you have managed to acheive the

right thing, and have given us a memoir free from the namby-pamb iness which generally characterises such works, and at the same time void of anything which would appear to the general public lacking in respect. It must have been peculiarly difficult to arrive at this result, and for having given us such a perfect sketch we are under yet another of the many deep obligations we owe to you & to Mrs John.

The intimate and correct touch you display in dealing with his

methods & career in law & politics surprised & delighted me peculiarly. You must have taken very great pains with the details, but the great merit is the grasp & insight which you display and which could only come from an instinctive appreciation of the man.

The memoir will indeed be the most precious family portrait in Scotland, and will be an in -valuable heirloom at Ardwall. I am clear that, if you think there is no disrespect in it, the memoir should be published for the pub

lic. These sort of works must, of course, always be written for an inner circle: But with my father the circle was so large, that a worthy memoir of him, with your name on it, and in your most attractive vein, will be a book which very many people would wish to have. The book is too good for merely private circulation, and to look at the thing selfishly I am sure my poor mother