CHAP. IV.] ADOLESCENCE 1844 TO 1847. 73 



his first direct impression of English Cathedral Archi- 

 tecture. 



The taste thus formed was strengthened by a visit 

 to Melrose in the following summer. 



Saw the House of Abbotsford and antiquities in it, and 

 go to Melrose. Got there about 2, and settle to remain all 

 night. Spend the day and also the evening about the 

 Abbey. Jane Cay and James drawing. Diary, 1846, 

 Sept. 10. 



On returning to Edinburgh for the winter, Mr. 

 Clerk Maxwell seems to have been roused by the 

 expectation which his son's first school distinction had 

 awakened amongst his kindred and acquaintance. 

 He became more assiduous than ever in his attend- 

 ance at meetings of the Edinburgh Society of Arts 

 and Eoyal Society, and took James with him repeatedly 

 to both. And so it happened that early in his 

 fifteenth year the boy dipped his feet in the current 

 of scientific inquiry, where he was to prove himself so 

 strong a swimmer. In our walks round Arthur's 

 Seat, etc., he had always something new to tell. For 

 example, in February 1846, he called my attention to 

 the glacier - markings on the rocks, and discoursed 

 volubly on this subject, which was then quite recent, 

 and known to comparatively few. 



A prominent member of the Society of Arts at 

 this time was Mr. D. E. Hay, the decorative painter, 

 whose attempt to reduce beauty in form and colour to 

 mathematical principles 1 had attracted considerable 



1 " First Principles of Symmetrical Beauty," ]by D. R. Hay, Black- 

 woods, 1846. 



