CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 21 



with him. He lent it to me about this time. We used to work 

 with mouth blow-pipes and Bunsen gas-burners which we made 

 ourselves, and in this way he became exceedingly expert in 

 working with glass. I think he found this practice very useful 

 in after-life. We made nearly all the apparatus we used except 

 flasks, retorts and beakers. 



After this session we were very close friends, and I think 

 every summer after that I visited his people, besides meeting 

 very often at our houses and walking together on the Saturdays. 

 I did very little chemistry with him after the summer of 1867, 

 but he continued his home work in the following year, 67/68, 

 while he was attending the Latin and Greek classes. He had 

 no liking for either Latin or Greek and was not much interested 

 in his College work. Perhaps he spent too much time over his 

 scientific pursuits. At that time it was not chemistry alone, 

 for he was also much interested in geology, and in our walks 

 he was constantly pointing out interesting things such as ice 

 marks on the boulders at Arran and evidences of change of level 

 in the ground. 



He did not begin to study chemistry systematically till about 

 October 1869, when he went to Mr. Tatlock's laboratory in the 

 afternoons, after his College classes for the day were over, and 

 began to work under him. I do not know how long he continued 

 there, but I think he must have kept up this kind of practical 

 work till he left College. In addition to his College classes and 

 chemistry he took lessons in music under Dr. Peace, and also 

 in French and German, the German being under Dr. Schlomka. 



It was in 1869 that he first went to Shetland to stay with his 

 cousin Mr. Jolly at Walls, and while he was there we first began 

 to correspond, and kept up our correspondence more or less from 

 that time till the end. On the following winter, 69/70, my 

 eyesight failed and for nearly a year I was unable to read. During 

 that time he was exceedingly kind to me in coming to read to 

 me and also in arranging for walks in the country. He must 



