72 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. [CHAP. IV. 



able for the growing boy. The Diary shows that he 

 was continually at his aunt's house, No. 6 Great Stuart 

 Street, and she is associated with some of my earliest 

 recollections of him. She sought to bring him out 

 amongst her friends, to soften his singularities, and to 

 make him more like other youths of his age. And he 

 would help her with patterns, arrangement of colours, 

 etc., as well as with her flowers. One of his earliest 

 applications of geometry was to set right the perspec- 

 tive of a view of the interior of Eoslin Chapel on which 

 she was engaged. 



Mr. Clerk Maxwell was a frequent visitor at the 

 Academy at this time. His broad, benevolent face 

 and paternal air, as of a gentler Dandie Dinmont, 

 beaming with kindness for the companions of his son, 

 is vividly remembered by those who were our school- 

 fellows in 1844-5. 



The summer vacation of 1845 was spent almost 

 wholly at Glenlair. James passed a day now and 

 then at Upper Corsock with the Fletcher boys, l and 

 sometimes accompanied his father when he went out 

 shooting ; but he must have had abundance of time 

 for reading and for following his own devices. The 

 country gentlemen were particularly absorbed that year 

 in political excitement, and Mr. Clerk Maxwell was 

 often called away. The only event worth mentioning 

 was a "jaunt," evidently suggested by Miss Cay, to 

 Newcastle, Durham, and Carlisle, which gave Maxwell 



1 Sons of Colonel Fletcher of Upper Corsock. 



