EDINBURGH. 1837-48 



Peter Guthrie Tait was born at Dalkeith on 28 April, 1831. He was 

 educated in his very early years at the Dalkeith Grammar School. On his 

 father's death his mother came to Edinburgh with her young family of two 

 girls and one boy; and after a year or two at Circus Place School, Tait 

 entered the Academy at the age of ten. He and his sisters finally lived 

 with their uncle, John Ronaldson, in an old-fashioned roomy house called 

 Somerset Cottage, which is still occupied by the Misses Tait. Mr Ronaldson 

 was a banker by profession, but was keenly interested in many scientific 

 pursuits. He would take his nephew geological rambles in the long summer 

 days, and study the planets and stars through his telescopes during the dark 

 winter nights ; or he would dabble in the mysteries of photography which had 

 just been invented by Daguerre and Talbot. There is little doubt that the 

 receptive mind of the young lad must have been greatly influenced by his 

 uncle's predilection for scientific study. A small room on the left of the 

 hall as one enters Somerset Cottage contains to this day the stand and 

 tube of a Newtonian reflector, and a good serviceable refractor of two-inch 

 aperture. The room has been long used by Miss Tait for storing her 

 canvasses and artistic materials ; but the scientific contents of the apartment 

 have never been disturbed since 1854, when P. G. Tait definitely made his 

 home in Belfast. On his return to Edinburgh in 1860 his interests were 

 in other directions than observational astronomy, and the old telescopes 

 and theodolite were left in undisturbed possession. Nevertheless, his early 

 appreciation of astronomical instruments declared itself from time to time 

 when he purchased a beautiful speculum or a complete reflector for the 

 Natural Philosophy Museum. In his Scrap Book Tait preserved a neatly 

 constructed chart of date 1844, showing graphically the positions of Jupiter's 

 satellites on successive nights from Sept. 18 to Sept. 31. These "Observa- 

 tions on Jupiter" were made by himself when he was a little over thirteen 

 years of age. Probably they were interrupted by bad weather. 



The environment amid which Tait spent his schooldays is well described 

 in the Chronicles of the Gumming Club, a remarkable book printed for 

 private circulation in 1887. Written by the late Lt.-Col. Alexander 



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