CAMBRIDGE. 1848-54 



It was a curious fate which brought to Peterhouse in 1848 the two 

 young mathematicians, P. G. Tait and W. J. Steele, the one from Scotland, 

 the other from Ireland by way of Glasgow 1 . They "coached" with the 

 famous private mathematical tutor of those days, also a Peterhouse man, 

 William Hopkins, another of whose pupils a few years earlier was William 

 Thomson, afterwards Tail's lifelong friend. Tait and Steele at once became 

 marked out as future high wranglers ; but one would hardly have dared to 

 prophesy that they would come out respectively first and second in the Tripos. 



Tail's method of preparing for the great contest is preserved in his 

 own hand-writing on three quarto sheets afterwards pasted into the 

 Scrap Book. From Dec. 16, 1851, to Jan. 5, 1852, each day (Sundays 

 excepted) is marked off for revision of definite subjects of study, morning 

 and evening. When the work is accomplished, the subject is scored out 

 and the time taken marked in the margin. Four hours are the most he 

 gives at one sitting, and on no day does his time of study exceed 6\ hours, 

 usually much less. Opposite Jan. 6, Tuesday, is printed by hand the 

 words " Senate House." Then comes an irrelevant note of a lunar 

 eclipse which occurred on Jan. 7, and below this appears in large letters 

 right across the sheet the word " Porgatorio." The three days of 

 Purgatory past, the time schedule begins again on Jan. 8 (evening) 

 with "Brief Respite from Torment"; and during the succeeding eight 

 working days the morning and evening tasks are again portioned out. 

 But the work is more serious now. Tait never gives less than 5^ hours 

 a day, and on one occasion reaches 7^ hours. Beneath the last date 

 "January 19, Monday and subsequent" he prints across the page in huge 

 capital letters "L'ENFER!" The guiding principle seems to have been 

 not greatly to exceed in sustained work during any one day the time 

 allotted for the examination. 



1 In Kelvin's early paper on the Absolute Thermometric Scale (Cambridge Phil. Trans., 

 June 1848, Phil. Mag., Oct. 1848) William Steele is mentioned as having assisted in 

 comparing the proposed scale with that of the air thermometer (see Math, and Phys. Papers, 

 Vol. I, p. 105). 



