My father was one of five weavers who founded the earliest library in
the town by opening their own books to their neighbors. Dunfermline
named the building I gave "Carnegie Library." The architect asked for
my coat of arms. I informed him I had none, but suggested that above
the door there might be carved a rising sun shedding its rays with the
motto: "Let there be light." This he adopted.
We had come up to Dunfermline with a coaching party. When walking
through England in the year 1867 with George Lauder and Harry Phipps I
had formed the idea of coaching from Brighton to Inverness with a
party of my dearest friends. The time had come for the long-promised
trip, and in the spring of 1881 we sailed from New York, a party of
eleven, to enjoy one of the happiest excursions of my life. It was one
of the holidays from business that kept me young and happy--worth all
the medicine in the world.
All the notes I made of the coaching trip were a few lines a day in
twopenny pass-books bought before we started. As with "Round the
World," I thought that I might some day write a magazine article, or
give some account of my excursion for those who accompanied me; but
one wintry day I decided that it was scarcely worth while to go down
to the New York office, three miles distant, and the question was how
I should occupy the spare time.
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