I sailed shortly after for New York and received there one day a cable from Mr. Shaw stating that the Laird would accept forty-five thousand pounds.  Should he close?  I wired:  “Yes, provided it is under Ross’s conditions”; and on Christmas Eve, I received Shaw’s reply:  “Hail, Laird of Pittencrieff!” So I was the happy possessor of the grandest title on earth in my estimation.  The King—­well, he was only the King.  He didn’t own King Malcolm’s tower nor St. Margaret’s shrine, nor Pittencrieff Glen.  Not he, poor man.  I did, and I shall be glad to condescendingly show the King those treasures should he ever visit Dunfermline.

As the possessor of the Park and the Glen I had a chance to find out what, if anything, money could do for the good of the masses of a community, if placed in the hands of a body of public-spirited citizens.  Dr. Ross was taken into my confidence so far as Pittencrieff Park was concerned, and with his advice certain men intended for a body of trustees were agreed upon and invited to Skibo to organize.  They imagined it was in regard to transferring the Park to the town; not even to Dr. Ross was any other subject mentioned.  When they heard that half a million sterling in bonds, bearing five per cent interest, was also to go to them for the benefit of Dunfermline, they were surprised.[60]

[Footnote 60:  Additional gifts, made later, brought this gift up to $3,750,000.]

It is twelve years since the Glen was handed over to the trustees and certainly no public park was ever dearer to a people.  The children’s yearly gala day, the flower shows and the daily use of the Park by the people are surprising.  The Glen now attracts people from neighboring towns.  In numerous ways the trustees have succeeded finely in the direction indicated in the trust deed, namely: 

To bring into the monotonous lives of the toiling masses of Dunfermline, more “of sweetness and light,” to give to them—­especially the young—­some charm, some happiness, some elevating conditions of life which residence elsewhere would have denied, that the child of my native town, looking back in after years, however far from home it may have roamed, will feel that simply by virtue of being such, life has been made happier and better.  If this be the fruit of your labors, you will have succeeded; if not, you will have failed.

To this paragraph I owe the friendship of Earl Grey, formerly Governor-General of Canada.  He wrote Dr. Ross: 

“I must know the man who wrote that document in the ‘Times’ this morning.”

We met in London and became instantly sympathetic.  He is a great soul who passes instantly into the heart and stays there.  Lord Grey is also to-day a member (trustee) of the ten-million-dollar fund for the United Kingdom.[61]