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Reminiscences of Dollar, Tillicoultry, and Other Districts Adjoining the Ochils
Reminiscences of Dollar Tillicoultry and Other Districts Adjoining the Ochils Author:William Gibson General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1882 Original Publisher: Printed for private circulation Subjects: Dollar (Scotland) Tillicoultry (Scotland) Clackmannanshire (Scotland) Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you ... more »buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. CAPTAIN JOHN M'NAB AND HIS SPLENDID BEQUEST TO DOLLAR. In the year 1799 a message came one day to Mr. M'Arbara, the parish teacher of Dollar, that a gentleman wished to see him in the village inn at Gateside; and on repairing thither he found an entire stranger awaiting him, who didn't introduce himself, but who, in the course of a long conversation, asked all the information about Dollar that a parish teacher was so well qualified to give; and after getting this, bid Mr. M'Arbara good-bye, leaving him still in ignorance as to who his interrogator was. He gave him to understand, however, that the object of his inquiries was, that some one was going to benefit the parish in an educational point of view; and the'inhabitants of Dollar are certainly very much indebted to the shrewd old schoolmaster for representing matters in. such a light, that what this stranger contemplated would be a very great boon and blessing to Dollar, and would be highly prized by the parishioners. This visit would no doubt give rise to a good deal of talk in Dollar at the time, and great curiosity would be excited as to who this inquisitive gentleman was; but it was fully two years before the mystery was cleared up, and after the visit had been almost entirely forgotten. The first light that was thrown on the incident was the intimation that came toDollar in 1802, that a Captain John M'Nab had died in London, leaving a large sum of money for ' a charity or school for the poor of t...« less