CHAPTER XV 



HOME LIFE AND TRAVELS 



IN concluding my story I may now say a few words 

 about my home life in Manchester and London. 

 When I first settled in Manchester I occupied the 

 house in which my predecessor, Professor Frankland, 

 had resided, and here I lived happily with my mother, 

 who was always " on hospitable thoughts intent," until 

 my marriage in 1863. For the four previous years I 

 passed my vacations at work in Heidelberg, but I found 

 time to visit my sister and her husband, who generally 

 spent their summer at the English Lakes. 



In the autumn of 1 86 1, having acted as one of the local 

 secretaries of the British Association in Manchester, 

 and tired out by the worry coming so soon after my 

 sessional work, I was glad to accept the invitation of 

 Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Potter to visit them at their 

 house, Kinnaird, in Perthshire. I had already made 

 the acquaintance of this family, who lived at Dinting 

 Lodge, near Manchester, at the large calico-print 

 works of which Mr. Potter, who had been elected 

 a Fellow of the Royal Society as a representative of 

 scientific industry, was the proprietor. My special 

 interest lay with their youngest daughter, to whom in 

 process of time, I am thankful to say, I became 

 engaged, and on the 4th of July, 1863, we were 



