CHAP. II.] GLENLAIR CHILDHOOD. 35 



once effective and refined -looking. Thus equipped, 

 he went across country anywhere and everywhere, 

 with an eye for all he saw, and pluck enough to meet 

 any emergency. One who knew him as a child, and 

 who is fond of animals, says that he was extraordinarily 

 " game/' His endurance, both physical and mental, 

 was always most remarkable. 



He was sometimes taken to share in the simple 

 daylight festivities of the neighbourhood (perhaps also 

 to the New Year's gathering at Largnane, where the 

 gifts were dispensed by a Fairy from her grotto), and 

 it is still remembered, how at an archery picnic, 1 when 

 an elaborate pie from Glenlair was being opened by 

 the member of another house, the sturdy scion of 

 Middlebie, who had not yet learned the meaning of 

 Erinos, 2 and had doubtless been at the making and 

 baking, bounded over the cloth just laid upon the 

 turf, and laid his hand upon the dish, crying eagerly, 

 " That's oor's ! " " That's oor pie ! " 



His resources on wet days were first, reading 

 voraciously every book in the house, except what his 

 mother kept out of his reach; and secondly, drawing, 

 which was begun at a very early age. Not that he 

 ever showed the highest order of artistic talent (though 

 his young performances are full of spirit) ; but he 

 had great accuracy of eye, and any singular arrange- 



1 About 1838. This was graced by the presence of three persons 

 then in the fulness of life, who were not destined to outlive the next 

 fifteen years Mrs. Clerk Maxwell, Miss Dyce, called the Pentland 

 Daisy (Mrs. Kobert Cay), and Isabella Wedderburn (Mrs. Mackenzie). 



2 "Epavos, i.e. a feast to which all contribute, and which all share. 

 See below, chap. xii. 



