160 SIMSON. 



of society ; and from the simplicity of his manners and 

 the kindliness of his disposition, as well as from his 

 very universal information, he was ever a most wel- 

 come member of the circles which he frequented. He 

 lived in his college chambers to the last, but received 

 his friends occasionally at a neighbouring tavern, 

 where a room was always kept at his disposal. He 

 attended a club near the college, and in good weather 

 its members dined every Saturday at Anderston, a 

 suburb of Glasgow. In these meetings his chair was 

 always reserved for him, being left vacant when he 

 happened to be absent. It is also said to have been 

 his habit to sit covered. He was fond of playing for 

 an hour or two in the evening at whist, and of calcu- 

 lating chances, at which he generally failed ; but he 

 was on the whole a good player, though he was not 

 very patient of his partner's blunders, nor always bore 

 a bad hand of such partner with philosophic meek- 

 ness. He was fond of music, and sometimes would 

 sing a Greek ode to a modern air. Professor Eobison 

 says he twice heard him sing in this manner " a Latin 

 hymn to the Divine Geometer," and adds, that the 

 tears stood in his eyes as he gave it with devotional 

 rapture. His voice was fine, says the Professor, and 

 his ear most accurate. That he did not always inter- 

 rupt his geometrical meditations in the hours of relax- 

 ation is very plain, not only from the singular anec- 

 dote already related of his discovery of porisms, but 

 from the date of " Anderston " attached to some of his 

 solutions, indicating that they had occurred to him 

 while attending the Saturday meetings of the club in 

 that suburb. In all his habits he was punctual and 

 regular, even measuring the exercise which he took 

 by the number of paces he walked. Anecdotes are 

 related of him when interrupted by some one on his 

 accustomed walk, and after hearing what was said, 

 continuing at the number he had just before marked, 

 and surprising his acquaintance by speaking the next 



