COMPANIONSHIP INTERRUPTED. 3 1 



depth to be 33 fathoms — ascend all the hills, including 

 Scafell, making observations. They have guns and pistols, 

 of which they are very fond, having had one made for them 

 in Birmingham with a specially small bore. James is rash 

 with them, as the following extract shows : — " May 24, 

 Lake Windermere. — After breakfast our party were rowed 

 by James and myself to one of the islands. I then rowed 

 James a short distance away to let them hear a very 

 good echo which we had discovered. I was not observing 

 what James was doing, though I thought he was unusually 

 long in loading the pistol (a large old-fashioned cavalry 

 weapon, used by my father when he belonged to the Man- 

 chester Mounted Volunteers), when I was suddenly startled 

 by a tremendous report, and on looking round found that 

 the pistol had disappeared. The " knock " had been so 

 violent that the weapon had been wrested out of James' hand 

 and had fallen into the lake. He told me that he wished 

 to produce the loudest report possible, and had used three 

 charges of powder." 



It seems that James was anything but a desirable com- 

 panion with a gun, being very absent and playing with his 

 trigger, on one occasion shooting off his own eyebrows, and 

 affording his brother many narrow escapes. James finds 

 amusement in painting, having considerable skill. He is 

 also fond of pictures, giving, at this time, as much as ^50 

 for a cattle piece. The elder brother has great taste for and 

 proficiency in music. James also is fond of music, and has 

 some small proficiency on the piano. The British Associa- 

 tion meets in Manchester in 1842, and the Revd. Dr. and 

 Mrs. Scoresby are entertained at Broom Hill, and afterwards 

 the brothers return the visit to the parsonage at Bradford, 

 travelling by rail to Brighthouse, each riding on the roof of 



