164 MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN 



that his relations with his colleagues in general 

 were pleasant to himself. 

 Farrago Edinburgh, then, with its society, its university 



Vitce. 



work, its delightful scenery and its skating in the 

 winter, was thenceforth his base of operations. 

 But he shot meanwhile erratic in many directions : 

 twice to America, as we have seen, on telegraph 

 voyages ; continually to London on business ; 

 often to Paris ; year after year to the Highlands, 

 to shoot, to fish, to learn reels and Gaelic, to make 

 the acquaintance and fall in love with the char- 

 acter of Highlanders ; and once to Styria, to hunt 

 chamois and dance with peasant maidens. All 

 the while, he was pursuing the course of his 

 electrical studies, making fresh inventions, taking 

 up the phonograph, filled with theories of graphic 

 representation ; reading, writing, publishing, found- 

 ing sanitary associations, interested in technical 

 education, investigating the laws of metre, draw- 

 ing, acting, directing private theatricals, going 

 a long way to see an actor — a long way to see a 

 picture ; in the very bubble of the tideway of 

 contemporary interests. And all the while he was 

 busied about his father and mother, his wife, and 

 in particular his sons ; anxiously watching, anxiously 

 guiding these, and plunging with his whole fund of 

 youthfulness into their sports and interests. And 

 all the while he was himself maturing — not in 

 character or body, for these remained young — but 



