CHAP. II.] GLENLALR CHILDHOOD. 43 



Glenlair House, 

 [Friday], 29th October 1841. 



DEAR PAPA We are all well. On Tuesday we J sailed 

 in the tub, and the same yesterday, and we are improving, 

 and I can make it go without spinning ; 2 but on Wednesday 

 they were washing, and we could not sail, and we went to 

 the potatoes. Yesterday they took up the Prince Eegents, 



and they were a good crop. Mr. and I went to 



Maggy's, but she was away at Brooklands, and so I came 

 back and sailed myself, for Nanny said Johnny was not to 

 go in, and Bobby was away. Fanny was there, and was 

 frightened for me, because she thought I was drowning, and 

 the ducks were very tame, and let me go quite close to 

 them. Maggy is coming to-day to see the tubbing. I have 

 got no more to say, but remain, your affectionate son, 



JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. 



The episode of the tutor was not a happy one. I 

 would omit the fact, as well as the name, were I not 

 convinced that this first experience of harsh treatment 

 had effects which long remained, not in any bitter- 

 ness, though to be smitten on the head with a ruler 

 and have one's ears pulled till they bled might 

 naturally have operated in that direction, but in a 

 certain hesitation of manner and obliquity of reply, 

 which Maxwell was long in getting over, if, indeed, he 

 ever quite got over them. 



1 From the context " we " seems to include " Bobby," one of the 

 young " vassals." 



2 To enable him to " trim the vessel," he had put a block of wood 

 in the centre. Sitting on this, and tucking his legs on either side, he 

 could paddle about steadily and securely. Mrs. Blackburn tells me 

 that years afterwards at Euthven, in Forfarshire, being desirous of in- 

 specting a water-hen's nest on a deep pond, where there was no boat, 

 she adopted the same method, and made the voyage both ways alone 

 without the slightest uneasiness. 



