FUN AND JESTING 57 



The St Andrews of those days was a city quite other than the fashionable 

 watering place of to-day. The society, though small, was intellectual, and 

 though intellectual yet devoted to the jests which are dictated by humour : 

 the merry parties of the small colony were more than willing to enjoy 

 at the seaside that freedom which is curtailed in the larger cities. The 

 Professor was, from the nature of the man, the leader in everything which 

 tended to humour and gaiety. It is difficult to imagine any man of years 

 who day by day seemed so devoted to what, for lack of a more dignified 

 term, must be called " fun " ; one felt sure that he found jokes in his 

 algebraical symbols, and jests even in his quaternions. It is the dinner 

 hour and the Professor proposes to the company that a round may be 

 played with phosphorescent balls. When proper arrangements have been 

 made the party assemble at the first teeing ground. To this match come 

 the Professor and his lady, Huxley, keen on the humour of the thing, 

 Professor Crum Brown and another friend. The idea is a success ; the 

 balls glisten in the grass and advertise their situation ; the players make 

 strokes which surprise their opponents and apprise themselves of hitherto 

 unknown powers. All goes well till the burn is passed, and Professor 

 Crum Brown's hand is found to be aflame ; with difficulty his burning 

 glove is unbuttoned and the saddened group return to the Professor's 

 rooms, where Huxley dresses the wounds. The pains of the phosphorescent 

 hand having been mitigated by the tender care of the great scientist, it is 

 not difficult to picture the fun which our Professor would derive from the 

 night's adventure. In a nature so strong we cannot but expect to meet 

 an accidental note which gives the theme originality. The Professor was 

 a man of very strong, and as it seemed to some of us, almost unreasonable 

 antipathies ; endowed as he was with a humour which, had he given it 

 vent, could have been magnificently satirical, he dealt by argument with 

 those he did not favour, allowing the joy and humour of his nature to 

 play only on his friends, and more particularly on his own family and his 

 more intimate circle. Of a morning his opening words had relation to a 

 small incident of home life ; he would tell of something that had given 

 him a chance of chaffing Freddie or Alec, or playing a practical joke on 

 some member of the family : one such story must suffice to exemplify. 

 The Taits had a house in Gibson Place overlooking the Links on one 

 side and the old station road on the other. The front door was generally 

 open and an umbrella stand which stood by it seemed to the Professor 

 T. 8 



