32 LIFE AND EXPERIENCES CHAP. 



study of science as fortunately it does now, and I told 

 him so, and that my hope was to study in Germany. 



The judge was an original man, and his family 

 were all like brothers and sisters to us. For some 

 years he rented a beautiful place in Sussex, near 

 Horsham, called the Nunnery, where we were often 

 invited to stay, and the charming times that we passed 

 there will always remain among the brightest memories 

 of my life. It was in the drawing-room at Hyde Park 

 Square that I first met my wife, then a girl about 

 seventeen years of age. 



Whilst Charles Crompton was an undergraduate at 

 Trinity I frequently visited him. On one occasion 

 he invited to meet me a young Scotchman who had, 

 so he said, scientific proclivities. This young man 

 addressed me in very broad Scotch as follows : " Come 

 and see my devil ; I've got a devil." So I went. 

 The floor of his room was covered with sheets of 

 white paper ; upon these were drawn a most compli- 

 cated series of curves ; from the ceiling was hung a 

 doubly suspended pendulum, the " bob " of which was 

 a heavy weight ending in a point. On placing the 

 point on one of these curves and releasing the weight, 

 the point followed exactly these singular curves run- 

 ning all over the floor in a grotesque manner. This 

 was my first introduction to Clerk Maxwell and his 

 "devil." 



Another talented member of our family, who like 

 my father died prematurely, was my cousin William 

 Caldwell Roscoe. When I first came to London he 

 and his youngest brother Frank, who was in an office in 

 the City, lived in South Crescent, near Gower Street. 

 I often used to see them. William was a delightful 

 companion, and of all the grandchildren was the one 

 who possessed most literary power, as his essays and 



