N THE
GREAT PLAIN OF MONGOLIA 54

2. MAP ILLUSTRATING JAMES GILMOUR'S LABOURS IN EASTERN
MONGOLIA 179

For readers of _James Gilmour of Mongolia_ not familiar with _Among
the Mongols_, a new Edition of that Work has been prepared and
published, price Two Shillings and Sixpence.

JAMES GILMOUR OF MONGOLIA

CHAPTER I

EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION

James Gilmour, of Mongolia, the son of James Gilmour and Elizabeth
Pettigrew his wife, was born at Cathkin on Monday, June 12, 1843. He was
the third in a family of six sons, all but one of whom grew up to
manhood. His father was in very comfortable circumstances, and
consequently James Gilmour never had the struggle with poverty through
which so many of his great countrymen have had to pass. Cathkin, an
estate of half a dozen farms in the parish of Carmunnock, is only five
miles from Glasgow, and was owned by Humphrey Ewing Maclae, a retired
India merchant, who resided in the substantial mansion-house on the
estate. There were also the houses of a few residents, and a smithy and
wright's workshops, for the convenience of the surrounding district.
James Gilmour's father was the occupant of the wright's shop, as his
father had been before him.

His brother John, one of three who have survived him, has furnished the
following interesting sketch of the family life in which James Gilmour
was trained, and to which he owed so much of the charm and power which
he manifested in later years:--

'Our grandfather, Matthew Gilmour, combined the trades of mason and
wright, working himself at both as occasion required; and our father,
James Gilmour, continued the combination in his time in a modified
degree, gradually discarding the mason trade and developing the
wright's. Grandmother (father's mother) was a woman of authority, skill,
and practical usefulness among the little community in which she
resided. In cases requiring medical treatment, she was always in
request; and in order to obtain the lymph pure for the vaccination of
children she would take it herself direct from the cow. She was also a
neat and skilful needlewoman.

'Matthew Gilmour and his wife were people of strict integrity and
Christian living. They walked regularly every Sunday the five miles to
the Congregational Church in Glasgow, though there were several places
of worship within two