4 GEORGE JOHN ROMANES 1867- 



partiality, but the younger members of the family pre- 

 ferred the English church, and were confirmed in it. 

 Religion was a potent influence with the boy in quite 

 early years, and there grew up in him a purpose of 

 taking Holy Orders, a purpose which met with no en- 

 couragement from either of his parents. 



If of intellectual achievement he gave as yet no 

 promise, at least there were the signs of a singularly 

 pure and unselfish nature which seemed to grow 

 and develope with the growing years. All through 

 his life he was peculiarly tender, gentle, and unselfish, 

 and his younger sister describes a little scene of how, 

 while a children's party was going on downstairs, 

 George found her upstairs alone and miserable, suffer- 

 ing from some odd childish misery of nerves, unable 

 to go down, and yet hating to be alone ; how he at 

 once soothed and petted her, sat by her the whole 

 evening, telling her stories and successfully driving 

 away her unhappiness. The most characteristic bit 

 appears at the end. This sort of unselfish conduct was 

 so usual, that his little sister really forgot to thank 

 him, nor did it occur to her till long after that there was 

 anything unusual in his willingness to sacrifice a 

 whole evening's amusement to what most boys would 

 have regarded as mere fancifulness, only deserving a 

 due amount of severe teasing. 



During these years the Romanes family spent 

 their summers at Dunskaith, on the shores of the 

 Cromarty Firth. Here George Romanes had his first 

 lessons in sport at the hands of Dr. Brydon, the well- 

 known survivor of the fatal retreat from Cabul, 1842. 1 



1 Dr. Brydon resided on a small but beautiful property overlooking 

 the Cromarty Firth, and, after his death, Dr. Eomanes rented the place 

 from its owners, who were distant cousins of Mrs. Romanes, in order that 

 • George might have some shooting.' 



