Three generations

io2 BREAD-WINNER AND HOUSE-MOTHER
a great advantage by enabling my father to be on the
spot for a month or six weeks, when he joined his
wife and children, leaving the Cupar Law Courts for
the moment in the hands of his partner.
A still further advantage offered itself. The heavy
expenses incurred by the surface damages, which were
caused by the sinking of pits, the erection of machinery,
the maintaining of a coal-hill, etc., compelled my father
to take a lease of the farm which contained the minerals
he desired to exploit. It constituted him a farmer in
a small way, as well as a coal-master.
There was no farm-house on the farm, only an old
mansion-house, which had been condemned to be
pulled down in 1793, fifty years before. However, it
was found perfectly susceptible of repair, and its
space, with a little furnishing, was an ample provision
for sea-bathing lodgings. In addition a trustworthy
servant was put into it to act as caretaker at other
times, so that my father could stay there instead of
repairing to the village inn during his weekly visits
of inspection.
By an odd coincidence the coal-seam, farm, and the
mansion-house, were part of the property of the young
son of the ex-soldier and uncouth baronet, Sir Michael,
for whom my father and the senior partner in his firm
were agents.
It was not till Grange Colliery gave a fair promise
of being remunerative that my father made up his
mind to give up his partnership in the legal firm,
leave Cupar altogether, and come with his family to
make a permanent home at the old house in the near
neighbourhood of the pits.
The weather-beaten white house, with its pillared
entrance and its flower-garden, stood on the top of