CHAP. II.] GLENLAIR CHILDHOOD. 41 



naturedly guiding the constructive efforts of a still 

 younger boy. 1 



As the months went on after Mrs. Maxwell's death, 

 the question of education began to press. The experi- 

 ment of a tutor at home, which had been tried in the 

 autumn preceding that event, was continued until 

 November 1841, but by that time had been pro- 

 nounced unsuccessful. The boy was reported slow at 

 learning, and Miss Cay after a while discovered that 

 the tutor was rough. He was probably a raw lad, 

 who having been drilled by harsh methods had no 

 conception of any other, and had failed to present the 

 Latin grammar in such a way as to interest his pupil. 

 He had, in short, tried to coerce Clerk Maxwell. Not 

 a promising attempt ! Meanwhile the boy was getting 

 to be more venturesome, and needed to be not driven, 

 but led. And it may be conceded for the tutor's be- 

 hoof that, when once taken the wrong way, his power 

 of provocation must have been, from a certain point 

 of view, "prodigious." A childhood without some 

 naughtiness would be unnatural. One evening at 

 Grlenlair, just as the maid-servant was coming in with 

 the tea-tray, Jamsie blew out the light in the narrow 

 passage, and lay down across the doorway. 



There is one of Mrs. Blackburn's drawings, which 

 throws a curious light on the situation at this junc- 



1 The scene is at St. Mary's Isle, and the younger boy is Lord 

 Charles Scott, then four years old (September 1843). Mr. A. Mac- 

 millan, the publisher, in particular, has a vivid recollection of Max- 

 well's ingenious ways of entertaining children, exhibiting his colour- 

 top, showing them how to make paper boomerangs, etc. 



