Fraser Smith
The story is about a family who are on holiday with their father in Scotland. This is the first time that their father has joined his three children on their summer holiday and they are staying, as they have before with their Grandparents who own a large highland estate.The children have friends who are the daughters of another estate owner on the other side of the Loch which they look out on. Witch Island is the mysterious dark island that lies between the two estates in the middle of the Loch and where the children have their summer adventures.
I left Grammar School at age 16 having largely wasted my education and worked firstly for an agricultural merchant as a clerk and anylist. I had wanted to study medicine at school but coming from a council estate and working class background in the 1950s that was just a dream. Whilst at school I had the great fortune to have the late Ian Serralier as my English teacher, a man who went on to write such childrens classics as The Silver Sword and someone who saw some potential in me as a poet. He later encouraged me to write poetry for the school magazine and gave me an appreciation of the written word which stayed with me.
By various routes in my career I became a surveyor specialising in roofing construction and after being Manging Director of three organisations I have now retired but remain chairman of my own company. I have five grandchildren and after following up my interest in medicine when I had the time, I am also now a qualified and practicing Homeopath.
It is now time to indulge my other love and dream and that is writing stories.
“This is most definitely the last case that we can take Ben”; “There really is not another inch of space left in the car”. Ben Flint grinned at his father, “Their not my bags dad Its Sophie as usual taking too many clothes”. “Sophie Flint pushed passed her brother and laughed, “Well some of us prefer not to look like Gypsies you know”, she said. “ That’s the lot dad anyway”; “I think we are ready to go now”. “ I will go round to next door and get Rob, he’s just making sure that his Guinea Pig is going to be looked after, you know what he’s like he thinks more of that animal than he does of us”.
Steven Flint smiled and thought how much like her mother she sounded and how proud her mother would have been. Sadly their mother had died after an accident when the children were very young and Steven had since brought them up on his own with the help of their housekeeper Janice Wren.
The Family lived in the country near a small market town in Buckinghamshire. Dr. Steven Flint and his small family were well known in the area and Steven worked at the local Hospital where he had buried himself in his work after his wife had died. At first he thought that he would have to leave the area because his memories were too painful, but the children were happy at their school and their friends were in the area and so they had stayed. Steven had needed to find a housekeeper to look after them all and had luckily found Janice Wren.
Janice had fitted in from the day she had first come to the house. A round rosy cheeked, jolly lady she had taken to the children as if they were her own and they adored her. Janice or Jenny as the family called her had only one relative, a sister who lived in Wales. Every year she would wave goodbye to the family, hugging them all in turn, including Steven and with tears running down her cheeks, she would go off to Wales to holiday with her sister. She felt it her duty to visit her sister but at the same time she hated leaving them and always left them in floods of tears, much to their amusement.
Steven backed the car out of the driveway and tooted the horn to hurry the children along. Ben quickly jumped in to the front seat beside his father and Sophie appeared from the neighbour’s house with Robert shuffling along behind her. The two of them had to squeeze into the back seat with bags around their feet and Sophie was quick to complain that as the only female she should have the front seat with her father. Ben just chuckled and said that he was going to navigate for his father and that would be far too difficult for his sister. “You can ride in the front later Sophie”, said their father, we have a long way to go and your Grandparents will be worried if we are late”.
The big estate car purred off and they headed north towards Scotland where the Grandparents lived on their country estate on the West Coast of the highlands. This had become their regular holiday destination but this year for the first time their father who had arranged to take a six-week break was joining the children.
Twelve year old Ben was looking forward to sailing on the Loch with his father and being able show his father how much he had learned about sailing from his grandfather. Eleven year old Sophie was looking forward to reading her books and helping the cook in the great kitchen of the house whilst nine year old Robert could not wait to roam in the woods and the heather amongst the wildlife. Their father was just looking to relax, play some golf and perhaps do some shooting and fishing on the estate where his wife had grown up and where the children had found so much happiness with their grandparents.
Ross and Hannah Cameron had inherited the huge estate from Ross’s uncle shortly after they were married and Ross had turned the estate into a popular sporting retreat for wealthy tourists who came to fish for salmon and to shoot on the estate. The once run down house which looked like a fairytale castle and the hillsides and woodland were now a well known attraction and Ross Cameron was a wealthy and popular Laird who had brought prosperity to the area.
“I wonder if there will be some of those American guests this year”, said Ben.
“That would be brilliant, you only have to say yes sir and no sir a few times and they give you five pound notes as if they are five pence coins”.” Oh yes said Sophie, I gave one of the ladies a bunch of wild flowers last year and she gave me that huge box of chocolates, do you remember Rob, you ate so many they made you sick”, “Yes well just you remember to be polite and don’t disgrace me you lot, they are very kind people and they don’t know what crafty brats you are.” “Yes ok Dad but you just wait and see, some of them are so funny they all seem to think that they have Scottish ancestors and they have weird names like Jasper Mac Sqirter the third and Clarence P Mac Haggis”. They all burst out laughing at Sophie’s descriptions and each had a go at making up funnier names until their sides ached from the laughter and they had tears in their eyes.
The big car purred onwards and the traffic became less as they reached the Scottish borders. They passed Glasgow and stopped for a picnic lunch just beyond Oban and then headed on up past Fortwilliam reaching their Grandfathers Glen Gannon Estate at around 7.30 in the evening.
Their arrival was greeted by two black Labrador dogs closely followed by a black and white terrier and the loud barking was soon replaced by wagging tails as the dogs recognised their young friends from the previous visit. Their grandfather was a short distance behind the dogs and the children were amused to see that he was dressed in his kilt. “Hello to you all “, he said and grabbed each of the children in turn giving them a huge bear hug.” Its wonderful to have you all here again and this time your father to, great that you can stay Steven”, he said grasping Stevens outstretched hand. ”We have a few tourists in the house this year, mostly from the states, their really nice people but they like everything to be traditional, hence the kilt, so Hannah and I thought you might prefer to stay in the Annexe where you can be more relaxed”. “That would be marvellous Ross”, Steven said,” But if we can help with the Guests in any way you have only to say”.
At that moment their Grandmother arrived at the doorway. She was also dressed in traditional Tartan and frills but had covered her clothes with her usual great apron and was wiping flour from her hands onto a tea towel. “Hello my dears”, she called, “ I was just baking some bridies for supper”, “ its so good to have you back again, come into the kitchen while Granddad and your father take your luggage in I’ll get you some scones and cream, you must be starving after that drive”.
The Glen Gannon estate borders Loch Gannon on the West Coast of Scotland and is of around three thousand acres of woodlands and open moorland. On its’ northern edge the estate is bordered by the river Crevet. Salmon fishing in the river and in Loch Gannon has always been shared jointly between the Loch Gannon Estate and the neighbouring Glen Tye Estate which is owned and managed by the Mac Rae family and the two families have been great friends and rivals for as long as anyone can remember. Like one or two other estates in the Highlands these two had co-operated with each other in more recent times. Apart from jointly marketing their timber and managing their forestry, they had set up a holiday business to cater for wealthy tourists and sportsmen from all over the country and of course from abroad.
The two estates largely surround Loch Gannon and most of the local people work on the Estates. A few fishermen rear Salmon near the mouth of the Loch and they divide their time between harvesting their fish and taking sea fishing parties on the Loch and out to the sea beyond.
Back at the house the children had been well fed although Ben felt that he could manage just one more scone and a good spoonful o strawberry jam much to his grandmother’s amusement. Sophie said that he was just an absolute pig whilst Rob just sighed with pleasure as he wiped the remains of his third scone and jam onto the cuff of his shirt
Across the courtyard, the converted stable block, which was now called the annexe was smartly furnished, very comfortable and had now become the practical home for Ross and Hannah Cameron. This gave them the independence from their paying guests who resided in the main house. There was ample accommodation for the family with Ben and Rob sharing a room. Sophie had her own room, which her grandparents had decorated and furnished for her. Their father was given a large room at the rear, which overlooked the Loch and was quiet and peaceful being at the other end of the building.
