ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON 73 



possible. Tait who had been attending some Committee meeting returned ere 

 long, and went to the usual corner to take possession of the stick. He paused 

 doubtfully for a moment, then advanced, took the stick in his hand, and felt 

 its weight and surface with considerable uncertainty. He looked at it again, 

 glanced round the room, and then walked off towards the door. Back he 

 came again almost immediately, glanced more carefully into various corners, 

 swung the unfamiliar weapon to and fro, and at length, deciding that it was 

 not what it seemed to be, put it back in the corner, and walked briskly home. 

 Nothing was possible now save a full confession ; and Tait accepted the gift 

 in token of forgiveness. 



Stevenson's father was Thomas Stevenson, the well-known lighthouse 

 engineer. He hoped that his son would carry on the family traditions, and 

 expressly desired Tait to let him work with optical apparatus. But the future 

 essayist and writer of romances had not the smallest elementary knowledge of 

 the laws of reflexion and refraction. The immediate purposes of the Physical 

 Laboratory were lost on him ; although no doubt what little training he 

 allowed himself to undergo bore some fruit when a few years later he 

 read a paper before the Royal Society of Edinburgh comparing rainfall and 

 temperatures of the air within and without a wood. It was published in 

 the Proceedings : literary critics have, however, left it severely alone. 



Nevertheless, Stevenson's familiarity with the Physical Department led 

 in after years to the writing of a charming picture of James Lindsay, the 

 mechanical assistant already referred to. In 1886 when the University students 

 held their great Union Bazaar, Stevenson contributed "Some College 

 Memories" to the New Amphion, a beautiful volume (321110.) printed in 

 exquisite old-fashioned style by T. and A. Constable after designs and plans 

 by W. B. Blaikie of that firm. After giving a quaint picture of himself in 

 the third person, Stevenson continues, 



" But while he is (in more senses than one) the first person, he is by no means 

 the only one I regret, or whom the students of to-day, if they knew what they had 

 lost, would regret also. They have still Tait to be sure long may they have him ! 

 and they have Tait's class-room, cupola and all ; but think of what a different place 

 it was when this youth of mine (at least on roll days) would be present on the 

 benches, and at the near end of the platform, Lindsay senior was airing his robust 

 old age. It is possible my successors may have never even heard of Old Lindsay ; 

 but when he went, a link snapped with the last century. He had something of a 

 rustic air, sturdy and fresh and plain ; he spoke with a ripe east-country accent, which 

 I used to admire ; his reminiscences were all of journeys on foot or highways busy 

 with post-chaises a Scotland before steam ; he had seen the coal fire on the Isle of 



T. 10 



