THE JUBILEE OF GLASGOW UNIVEKSITY 445 



June 29, 1901. 



My dear Mrs. Lyell, — It is indeed kind of you to 

 remember my birthday, and to send me the beautiful slippers, 

 worked by your own hand too. I do not deserve them — 

 having let your natal day pass over in ignorance of its 

 date. 



The Jubilee of Glasgow University was well carried out, 

 and I enjoyed it very much, though I could not undergo 

 all the festivities. Of the city itself I have no great loving 

 memory. My happy days in Scotland were spent in the 

 Highlands, and especially at Helensburgh on the Clyde ; 

 and these were delightfully recalled by a visit of a sweeter 

 character to Mrs. Paisley, nee Sabina Smith, one of the 7 

 daughters of Mr. S. of Jordan Hill ; and the only remaining 

 one. We were playmates as children in Helensburgh, where 

 Mr. Smith kept a yacht, and the revisiting the scenes of my 

 youth there was most pleasurable. The quondam village had 

 grown into a town, but the neighbourhood is little changed, 

 and is as beautiful as before, though the Firth of Clyde is 

 rendered hideous by the black smoke of steamers, of which 

 there are myriads, plying in every direction, and all vomiting 

 clouds that literally stretch right across the Firth from shore 

 to shore ! 



Edinburgh * is as attractive as ever, though enormously 

 extended on every side. What struck me as even more 

 remarkable than the dilatation of the city is the number 

 of magnificent buildings springing up everywhere in the very 

 heart of the old town. The Botanical Gardens are now in 

 the centre of a magnificent Arboretum commanding beautiful 

 views of the city, and adjoining an equally beautiful public 

 park. The collection of plants in the Gardens is enormously 

 increased and is kept in perfect order — all are well and legibly 

 named. The walks in the Arboretum are most skilfully 

 laid out, and beautifully kept, and the number of rare and 

 attractive herbarium plants in the Students' department 

 is really astonishing. There is a good Herbarium, Library 

 and Museum for instructional purposes and a class of 300 to 

 400 pupils annually ! who work in a Laboratory, supplied 

 with microscopes, and all that is needful for research in 



1 We had four very pleasant days in Edinburgh with Professor and Mrs. 

 Balfour, at the lovely Botanical Gardens.' (To Mrs. Paisley, July 11.) 



