_Facing page_ KING EDWARD VII. AND THE CZAR, 1909 16 TWO PHOTOGRAPHS OF KING EDWARD VII. AND SIR JOHN FISHER ON BOARD H.M.S. “DREADNOUGHT” ON HER FIRST CRUISE 33 PHOTOGRAPH, TAKEN AND SENT TO SIR JOHN FISHER BY THE EMPRESS MARIE OF RUSSIA, OF A GROUP ON BOARD H.M.S. “STANDARD,” 1909 48 A GROUP ON BOARD H.M.S. “STANDARD,” 1909 65 A GROUP ON BOARD H.M.S. “STANDARD,” 1909 80 A GROUP AT LANGHAM HOUSE. PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AND SENT TO SIR JOHN FISHER BY THE EMPRESS MARIE OF RUSSIA 97 SIR JOHN FISHER GOING ON BOARD THE ROYAL YACHT 112 SIR JOHN FISHER AND SIR COLIN KEPPEL (CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL YACHT) 129 “THE DAUNTLESS THREE,” PORTSMOUTH, 1903 160 SOME SHELLS FOR 18-INCH GUNS 177 LORD FISHER’S PROPOSED SHIP, H.M.S. “INCOMPARABLE,” SHOWN ALONGSIDE H.M.S. “DREADNOUGHT” 208 THE SUBMARINE MONITOR M 1 240 RECORDS CHAPTER I EARLY YEARS Of all the curious fables I’ve ever come across I quite think the idea that my mother was a Cingalese Princess of exalted rank is the oddest! One can’t see the foundation of it! “The baseless fabric of a vision!” My godfather, Major Thurlow (of the 90th Foot), was the “best man” at my mother’s wedding, and very full of her beauty then--she was very young--possibly it was the “Beauté du diable!” She had just emerged from the City of London, where she was born and had spent her life! One grandfather had been an officer under Nelson at Trafalgar, and the other a Lord Mayor! He was Boydell, the very celebrated engraver. He left his fortune to my grandmother, but an alien speculator (a scoundrel) robbed her of it. My mother’s father had, I believe, some vineyards in Portugal, of which the wine pleased William the Fourth, who, I was told, came to his counting house at 149, New Bond Street, to taste it! Next door Emma, Lady Hamilton, used to clean the door steps! She was housemaid there. I don’t think the Fishers at all enjoyed my father (who was a Captain in the 78th Highlanders) marrying into the Lambes! The “City” was abhorred in those days, and the Fishers thought of the tombs of the Fishers in Packington Church, Warwickshire, going back to the dark ages! I, myself, possess the portrait of Sir Clement Fisher, who married Jane Lane, who assisted Charles the Second to escape by disguising his Majesty as her groom and riding behind him on a pillion to Bristol.