AUTOGRAPH LETTER REGARDING CHRISTMAS DINNER.

From a collection of recently acquired genuine autograph letters : A 14-line ALS to Miss Fergusson, who has invited him for Christmas dinner - "since I came to England it has been my bad luck to generally be alone on this day." Moncrieff, Sir Alexander (18291906), army officer and engineer, born at 27 George Square, Edinburgh, on 17 April 1829, was the eldest son of Captain Matthew Moncrieff of Culfargie, of the Madras army, and Isabella (d. 1880), daughter of Archibald Campbell. His father was a descendant of Alexander Moncrieff: he retained the superiority and designation of Culfargie (in Perthshire), but the estate had been sold to Lord Wemyss, and he lived at Barnhill near Perth. Moncrieff was educated at Edinburgh and Aberdeen universities, and spent some time in a civil engineer's office, but did not settle down to a profession. He was commissioned lieutenant in the Forfarshire artillery (militia) on 16 April 1855, and obtained leave to go to the Crimea during the siege of Sevastopol. He was promoted captain on 16 September 1857, was transferred to the City of Edinburgh artillery on 9 November 1863, became major on 26 March 1872, and was made colonel of the 3rd brigade, Scottish division, Royal Artillery, on 20 February 1878. As he watched the bombardment of 6 June 1855, and the silencing of the Russian guns in the Mamelon by shots through the embrasures, Moncrieff's mind turned to the problem of raising and lowering guns, so that they might fire over the parapet and then descend under cover for loading. He conceived the idea of mounting guns on curved elevators, which would allow them to recoil backwards and downwards, the energy of recoil being used to raise a counterweight which would bring the gun up again to the firing position. This method had the further advantage that it lessened the strain on the platform by interposing a moving fulcrum between it and the gun. He carried out experiments at his own expense for several years, and a 7 ton gun mounted on his system was tried at Shoeburyness and favourably reported on in 1868. From 1867 to 1875 Moncrieff was attached to the Royal Arsenal, to work out the details of his disappearing carriage, adapt it to heavier and lighter guns, and devise means of laying and sighting guns so mounted. He received £10,000 for his invention and for any improvements on it. In 1869 he submitted designs for a hydropneumatic carriage, in which air was compressed by the recoil of the gun and formed a spring to raise it again. This was intended for naval use in the first instance, but it was adapted to siege and fortress guns, and eventually superseded the counterweight system. It met with opposition at first, as too complicated, and Moncrieff complained bitterly of the obstacles placed in his way. He had controversy also with officers of the Royal Engineers, who held that he claimed too much for his system, and was not entitled to dictate how and where it should be used. There was widespread agreement, however, as to the merit of his inventions, and in the 1880s and 1890sdespite their cost, complexity, and the relatively low rate of firehis disappearing mountings were used in the coastal defences of Britain and the colonies. He published in 1873 a pamphlet on the Moncrieff system, which he explained or defended in lectures at the Royal Institution (7 May 1869) and the United Service Institution, in the Proceedings of the Royal Artillery Institution for 1868, and the Royal Engineers' professional papers of 1870. He was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, was elected FRS in 1871, and was made CB in 1880 and KCB in 1890. He was also a supporter of the Oxford Military College (187696) at Cowley, and a member of its building committee. On 20 April 1875 Moncrieff married Harriet Mary (d. 17 Feb 1907), only daughter of James Rimington Wilson of Broomhead Hall, Yorkshire. They had five sons and two daughters. The eldest son, Malcolm Matthew (6th dragoon guards), and.…