At the house of his friend Mrs. Blackburn, who plays
the part of a Highland lady as to the manner born, he learned the
delightful custom of kitchen dances, which became the rule at his
own house and brought him into yet nearer contact with his
neighbours. And thus at forty-two, he began to learn the reel; a
study, to which he brought his usual smiling earnestness; and the
steps, diagrammatically represented by his own hand, are before me
as I write.
It was in 1879 that a new feature was added to the Highland life:
a steam launch, called the PURGLE, the Styrian corruption of
Walpurga, after a friend to be hereafter mentioned. 'The steam
launch goes,' Fleeming wrote. 'I wish you had been present to
describe two scenes of which she has been the occasion already:
one during which the population of Ullapool, to a baby, was
harnessed to her hurrahing - and the other in which the same
population sat with its legs over a little pier, watching Frewen
and Bernie getting up steam for the first time.
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