One Generation to Another

 

My grandfather, Alexander Mair Hall, was a mining engineer in the collieries of Midlothian, Scotland. He is fondly remembered for both his wit and advice which he sprinkled liberally wherever he went. But it seems he held a great secret; one so awe-inspiring, it is written below, and you are about to learn of it.

My grandfather died in 1995, but his papers languished undisturbed in four boxes in an attic until my own parent’s demise. Inside the boxes I found a mixture of bound writings, almost a hundred years old, muddled in such a fashion it took me months to bring any kind of order to them. I recognized the handwriting as my grandfathers, and in one short passage it brought a secret to light. These works were not originals, but copied from work dating into the mid 1800’s.

It seems my grandfather, Alexander Mair Hall, had inherited his own grandfather’s work, Alexander Mair MacNeill, albeit in a terrible state. In an effort to preserve his legacy, he had meticulously copied it for future generations.

It is with both reverence and trepidation that I publish them in this volume. I include the only passage of my grandfather’s own words; a short dedication of his grandfather MacNeill’s work.

Ian Hall, 2015.

 

To my family, to whom this work will someday fall…

I found my grand papa’s writings as the Great War began, and as my brothers fought in Flanders, I used my teenage years to copy the stories as best as I could, for the condition of the original paper almost crumbled to powder as I touched it. Four years later, as I welcome one brother home, the work is complete, and my job done.

Alexander Mair Hall, January, 1919