CHAP. XII.] HOME INTERESTS. 371 



very difficult to carry on any independent work when 

 he was present, but his suggestions for future work 

 far more than compensated for the time thus spent. 



On one occasion, after removing a large amount of 

 calcareous deposit which had accumulated in a curiously 

 oolitic form in a boiler, Maxwell sent it to the Pro- 

 fessor of Geology with a request that he would identify 

 the formation. This he did at once, vindicating his 

 science from the aspersion which his brother professor 

 would playfully have cast on it. 



Maxwell still found occasional recreation in riding 

 at Cambridge as well as more frequently at Glenlair, 

 where he resided as much as he could consistently 

 with his professional duties. 1 He always arranged to 

 leave Cambridge at the end of the Easter term in time 

 to officiate at the midsummer communion in the kirk 

 at Parton, where he was an elder. His liberality in 

 his own neighbourhood was very great. Besides 

 the endowment of the church, and building of the 

 manse at Corsock, he had planned a large contribu- 

 tion to the cause of primary education. When the 

 School Board was instituted in the district, Maxwell 

 was very anxious to keep up the school established 

 in the reign of George III. at Merkland, in the imme- 

 diate neighbourhood of the village of Kirkpatrick- 

 Durham, in addition to the Board school at Corsock, 

 five miles away. When this offer was refused, he set 

 apart a site and had plans made for a school to be 



1 He kept up the old habit of regulating the clocks at Glenlair by 

 the sun, which, when on the meridian, threw the shadow of a stick 

 upon a notch cut in the stone outside the door. 



