I remember Ross quite vividly -  particularly his telling me (when I must  
have been about eight years old) that he had slid down Vesuvius on his  
trousers, wearing a hole in the seat. 
 
Helen Forbes sported a diamond solitaire that 'could have knocked your eyes  
out.'  The local allegation was that she had been engaged to Lord  
Kitchener, who had given it to her.  Kitchener as you may recall was the  
British Commander in Chief during WWI, and it is said that it was because  
of his drowning on the sinking of HMS Hampshire that Britain was not  
defeated in the early years of that war.  Or, to put it bluntly Kitchener  
was considered the 'Colonel Blimp of WWI.' 
 
My father once told me that he had read for Ross the MS. of SEVENTY YEARS  
OF IT and had suggested to Ross, who gave all the vital measurements of his  
many parts, that some of them could be safely omitted. 
 
Ross as I remember him was a marvelous story teller, and I, as a kid, was  
all ears.  Commons, by way of contrast, was hard to follow, and I, as a  
kid, was awed but never asked any questions. 
 
                        Sincerely yours, 
 
                                        Mark Perlman