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A thousand glorious actions
that might claim
Triumphant laurels and immortal fame,
Confused in crowds of glorious actions lie,
And troops of heroes undistinguished die.
Addison.
But what on earth can long abide in state,
Or who can him assure of happy day?
Sith morning fair may bring foul evening late,
And least mishap the most bliss alter may?
For thousand perils lie in close await
About us daily, to work our decay,
'That none, except the God of heaven him guide,
May them avoid, or remedy provide.
Spenser.
The next few years of the
philosopher’s life present some changes and vicissitudes, and many troubles,
but were pervaded as usual with the element of assiduous work. Chiefly
through his energy and unwearied perseverance a memorable prophecy uttered
by Lord Bacon, that for the better development of intelligence and learning
there would be established “circuits or visits to divers principal cities of
the kingdom,” began to have its fulfilment. The decline of science, and the
small encouragement given to scientific men in England, had excited much
attention and discussion. Previous to 1826 Sir John Leslie and Professor
Playfair had expressed strong opinions ; between that year and 1831, Sir
Humphrey Davy, Lord Brougham, Sir John Herschel, Mr. Babbage, Dr. Daubeny,
and other men of science, had successively written on the subject, while Mr.
Douglas of Cavers, in his Prospects of Britain, devotes an admirable chapter
to the “ Decline of Science and the means of its Revival.” Brewster proposed
to the world—in a review in the Quarterly of Mr. Babbage’s work, Reflections
on the Decline of Science in England, and on some of its Causes—a plan for
the remedy of this evil, which he described in the following language : —“
An Association of our nobility, clergy, gentry, and philosophers, can alone
draw the attention of the Sovereign and the nation to this blot upon its
fame. Our aristocracy will not decline to resume their proud station as the
patrons of genius; and our Boyles and Cavendishes, and Montagues and
Howards, will not renounce their place^in the scientific annals of England.
The prelates of our National Church will not refuse to promote that
knowledge which is the foundation of pure religion, and those noble
inquiries which elevate the mind and prepare it for its immortal destination
! If this effort fail, we must wait for the revival of better feelings, and
deplore our national misfortune in the language of the wise man: ‘I
returned, and saw under the sun, that there is neither yet bread to the
wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor. yet favour to men of
skill.'" In the course of a few succeeding months Brewster5s plan of a
“British Association for the Advancement of Science55 met with general
acceptance, and was soon thoroughly matured, the first meeting taking place
at York, in September 1831. The arrangements were much like those of
succeeding years. It lasted for a week, during which morning meetings were
held, at which scientific papers were read and oral communications
discussed, upon the branches of science comprised within the different
sections ; more popular lectures and exhibitions of interesting objects
being generally reserved for the evening. This meeting was a decided
success. Fresh vigour and interest in science, mutual sympathy and quickened
intelligence, certainly arose from its animated discussions and its free
exchanges of thought and discovery. The families in the neighbourhood of
York took a great interest in the scientific assembly, and the
Archiepiscopal Palace at Bishopthorpe was thrown open to its members.
Dr. Brewster thus writes to his wife :—
“Bishopthorpe, Sept. 30, 1831.
“I sit down at one o’clock in the morning to write you a legible letter,
which I fear the one I wrote you yesterday could scarcely be called. I came
here to-day to dinner, and was most kindly received by the Archbishop, who
made me feel at once that I was at home, lie and the whole of the party here
returned to York to hear Mr. Scoresby5s lecture on his new magnetical
discoveries. The assemblage of beauty, fashion, and philosophy was really
splendid, and after eleven o5elock we returned to the Palace. To-morrow we
again go to York after breakfast, and after spending the whole day in the
arrangement for a ‘General British Association for the Advancement of
Science/ and in hearing many scientific papers, we return to dinner as we
have done to-day.
“The success of the meeting has infinitely surpassed all our most sanguine
expectations. No fewer than 325 members have enrolled their names, and a
zeal for science has been excited which will not soon subside. The next
meeting is to be held at Oxford, in June, at the time of the commemoration,
and in the Eadcliffe Library or the Theatre. . . . The Archbishop, after
reading a letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury, remarked to me that it
was not yet known how the Lords were to act.1 He added that the Archbishop
of Canterbury had not made up his own mind, and that he held his proxy, so
that it is clear that the Archbishops have not decided against it. Lord
Morpeth5s letter stated that several of the Lords were not to vote at all,
and it seemed to be the opinion that the Reform Bill would be carried by the
neutrality of those who might be expected to oppose it. What a charming and
princely spot this is, as much from its ancient and splendid apartments as
from the richness and variety of the grounds! The Archbishop has invited
fifty or sixty of the philosophers to dine here to-morrow, among whom are
Sir T. Brisbane, Thos. Allan, and the rest of our Scotch party. . . . Mr.
Vernon Har-court, the soul of our meeting, and one of the most amiable and
learned of men, is the eldest son of the Archbishop.”
The York meeting did not pass off, however, without a slight cloud, which
threatened to injure the main object of the Association. Lord Milton, the
President, in his opening speech, to the surprise of his audience, made
himself understood as objecting “to all direct encouragement of science by
the State,” characterising such a mode of advancing it as “un-English.” Mr.
Vernon Harcourt, however, the Vice-President, replied in the following
corrective words :—
“I should undoubtedly be very sorry to see any system of encouragement
adopted by which the men of science in England should become servile
pensioners of the Ministry ; and no less sorry am I to see them under the
present system, when exerting the rarest intellectual faculties in the
scientific service of the State, chained down in a needy dependence on a too
penurious Government. ... As things stand at present, the deeper, drier, and
more exalted a man’s studies are, the drier, lower, and more sparing must be
his diet. ... I cannot see any reason why, with proper precaution, men of
science should, not be helped to study for the public good, as well as
statesmen to act for it. It cannot be wondered at that our philosophers
should be unwilling to hear it proclaimed ex cathedra, from the midst of
themselves, that there is something illegitimate in the direct encouragement
of science, though they are ready enough to own that there is something in
it very ‘un-English? ”
It is often said that a meeting of the British Association is merely a
pleasant conversational week, which, when over, leaves no practical effect
on society. Several purely scientific objects have, however, been carried
out. Useful and encouraging reports on the state of different branches of
science have been yearly drawn up and circulated. Sums of money from the
Association funds have enabled committees and individuals to pursue
scientific researches which they could not otherwise have done, and it has
successfully recommended to Government from time to time worthy scientific
purposes and expeditions, which required grants of money beyond its own
means. It cannot be doubted also that rewards of science were much more
freely bestowed after this popular agitation. Up to the year 1830, not one
title had been conferred upon men of science, but between that time and 1850
twenty philosophers and authors received knighthood; thirty scientific and
literary persons received new pensions, and seven members of the British
Association, all of high scientific reputation, were appointed to lucrative
and honourable posts. It was not only in the origin and objects of the
British Association that Brewster strove to advance the long-neglected
interests of science. The different footing and the higher position that men
of science had occupied in France since the days of Colbert, who with true
wisdom brought the light of science to advance and to illuminate the
practical work of administration, was ever present to Brewster’s mind in
humiliating contrast; for many years he scarcely ever wrote a review, book,
or pamphlet without introducing the subject with persistent ingenuity, and
in most forcible language. He was always a consistent though moderate
Liberal, but he considered the interests of science as no party question;
and so fearless and plain-spoken indeed were his attacks, that he was looked
upon by both political parties more coldly than might otherwise have been
the case. Still he accomplished much that he hoped for. Such burning words
as the following could not fail to have effect on the public and official
mind :—
“But it is on higher than utilitarian grounds that we would plead the
national endowment of science and literature. In ancient times, when
knowledge had a limited range, and was but slightly connected with the wants
of life, the sage stood even on a higher level than the hero and the
lawgiver; and history has preserved his name in her imperishable record when
theirs has disappeared from its page. Archimedes lives in the memory of
thousands who have forgotten the tyrant of Syracuse and the Roman consul who
subdued it. The halo which encircled Galileo under the tortures of the
Inquisition extinguishes in its blaze even the names of his tormentors; and
Newton’s glory will throw a lustre over the name of England when time has
paled the light reflected from her warriors. The renown of military
achievements appeals but to the country which they benefit and adorn. It
lives but in the obelisk of granite, and illuminates but the vernacular
page. Subjugated nations turn from the proud monument that degrades them,
and the vanquished warrior spurns the record of his humiliation or his
shame. Even the traveller makes a deduction from military glory when he
surveys the red track of desolation and of war; and the tears which the
widow and the orphan shed, obliterate the inscription which is written in
blood.
“How different are our associations with the tablet of marble or the
monument of bronze which emblazon the deeds of the philanthropist and the
sage! Their paler sunbeam irradiates a wider sphere, and excites a warmer
sympathy. No trophies of war are hung in their temple, and no assailing foe
desecrates its shrine. In the anthem from that choir, the cry of human
suffering never mingles, and in the procession of the intellectual hero
ignorance and crime are alone yoked to his car. The achievements of genius,
could the wings of light convey them, would be prized in the other worlds of
our system—in the other systems of the universe. They are the bequest which
man offers to his race, a gift to universal humanity,—at first to
civilisation, at last to barbarism.
“Are these the sentiments of the statesmen of England, or have they ever
struck a sympathetic chord in the hearts of her people? The hero, and the
lawyer, and the minion of corruption, and the truckler to power, have
hitherto reaped the rewards of official labour, and usurped the honours
which flow from the British Crown. England alone taxes inventors as if they
were the enemies of the State; and, till lately, she has disowned her sages
and her philosophers, and denied them even the posthumous monument which she
used to grant to the poets whom she starved. It is a remarkable event in the
history of science, that in 1829, in one year, England should have lost
Wollaston, Young, and Davy, three of the most distinguished men that ever
adorned the contemporaneous annals of any country. All of them had been
Foreign Associates of the Institute of France, all of them Secretaries to
the Royal Society, all of them were national benefactors, all of them were
carried off by a premature death, all of them died without issue, and all of
them have been allowed to moulder in their tombs without any monumental
tribute from a grateful country. It is not merely to honour the dead or to
gratify the vanity of friends that we crave a becoming memorial from the
sympathies of an intellectual community. It is that the living may lay it to
heart, that the pure flame of virtue may be kindled in the breasts of our
youth, and that our children may learn from the time-crushed obelisk and the
crumbling statue that the genius of their fathers will survive even the
massive granite and the perennial brass.
“If we have appealed in vain to the sentiment of national honour, to which
statesmen are supposed to be alive, we would now urge the higher claims of
justice and of feeling. If you are the minister of the Crown, the dispenser
of its honours, and the almoner of its bounty, are you not bound by the
trust which you hold to place the genius of knowledge on the same level with
the genius of legislation and of war, to raise it to the offices which it
can fill, and reward it with the honours which it has achieved? If the
inventor swells the national treasury, adds to the national resources,
strengthens the national defences, and saves the national life, is he not
entitled to the same position as those who speak or who fight in the
nation’s cause? If mercy is the brightest jewel in the royal diadem, justice
is the next; not the justice that condemns, but the justice that recognises
national benefits, and rewards national benefactors. If the charge against
England, that ‘she is a nation of shopkeepers,’ is justified, as has been
alleged, by her disregard of intellectual pre-eminence, we would counsel the
ministerial head of the firm to use just weights and keep accurate
measures.”
When, after his death, it was stated “that the improved position of men of
science in our times is chiefly due to Sir David Brewster”— it was not more
than the truth. It may be mentioned here that one of the last business acts
of his life was to petition the Premier of the Conservative Government of
1867 in behalf of the widow and children of an early deceased man of
science. To those who knew all the circumstances of Brewster’s long conflict
in behalf of his peers, it was deeply gratifying that the last act of Lord
Derby’s Ministry was a prompt and favourable response, although it never
reached the ear that was cold in death before it was received.
The success of the British Association was always dear to Brewster; he
attended most of its meetings, at one of which he made his last public
appearance, and in connection with the Baconian principle of the “circuits
or visits to the principal cities of the kingdom,” I may mention that it is
affirmed, and is probably the case, that a casual remark of his on the
subject suggested the Evangelical Alliance, which met for the first time at
Liverpool in 1845, and has continued its “circuit” ever since. His name is
on the original provisional committee of its promoters.
In 1831, the King (William IV.) sent the Hanoverian Order of the Guelph to
Dr. Brewster, Mr. Harris Nicolas, and several other eminent men. After their
acceptance in society as titled knights, it was discovered that the order
conferred no title; and an offer of ordinary knighthood speedily followed—a
slender distinction, which Brewster was very indifferent about, and as the
fees amounted to .£109, which found their way into the pockets of the
inferior servants of the Court, he positively declined it. It was still
pressed upon him, however, and he was informed that the question of fees
would be waived. He therefore consented to go to London, and with his
friend, Mr. Nicolas, went to the levee, with the customary words “To be
knighted” upon their cards. On presenting them, however, the lord in waiting
exclaimed that he knew nothing of it—a previous intimation to him having
been forgotten. An awkward moment ensued, but my father said quietly, “Let
us move on,” which was answered by the King’s exclamation, “No! no! I know,
I know!” Having no sword, he borrowed the Duke of Devonshire’s, and with
that performed the usual ceremony. The fees were never demanded. An anecdote
was told at the time of some Waterloo officers who, when the bills were sent
in for their hardly earned honours, took the accounts to the next levee, and
left them on the King’s table.
About this time his busy pen produced a Treatise on Optics, published in
Lardner’s Encyclopaedia; he wrote his first short and popular “Life of Sir
Isaac Newton,” published in Murray’s Family Library ; and he also wrote a
very popular work, vrhick was published in the same series, “Letters on
Natural Magic,” suggested by and dedicated to Sir Walter Scott, and forming
a useful corrective companion to his volume entitled Lemonology and
Witchcraft. Scientific explanation of curious facts, which had hitherto been
turned to the uses of superstition, was ever after a favourite subject, and
a constant cause of correspondence. All sorts of optical illusions were
communicated to him by letter from every quarter, which he patiently
considered and answered. Out of these communications and his own
observations he collected material for a second volume of Natural Magic,
which unfortunately other work always impeded, and it remains unwritten. A
review long afterwards, in the North British, of the work on the Occult
Sciences by M. Eusebe Salverte, forms a very interesting compendium of his
views on this subject.
In this year an accident happened which nearly robbed Sir David of that
wonderful and valuable eyesight which lasted to the end of his fourscore and
six years. I well remember being waked from sleep in the middle of the night
by a loud outcry, and the sight of my father, with outstretched arms,
blinded and disfigured, rushing to plunge his head into the first basin of
water he could reach. While pursuing his midnight experiments, a chemical
substance had exploded right into his face. For many weeks he lay helpless,
with bandaged eyes and disabled hands, a severe trial for his active
temperament; but, from the following letter, he seems to have cast off the
consequences, with that wonderful power of restoration which belonged
peculiarly to his constitution.
Some years before he had received a series of remarkably intelligent letters
from Rome, with only the signature A, seeking information upon the most
abstruse subjects of science. Much struck by these letters, written by a
very young man, but full of mature intelligence, Brewster answered them
fully and unreservedly, out of the stores of his own treasure-house of
scientific knowledge. The anonymous signature continued for some time, and
the incognito was not dropped till the writer’s return to Scotland, when it
transpired that he was Mr. James Forbes, a younger son of Sir William
Forbes, Bart., of Pitsligo. He became a most intimate and frequent
correspondent and visitor at Allerly, and thus wrote to Lady Brewster:—
“Greenhill, 8th Jan. 1832.
“My dear Madam,—Your first kind letter was most welcome to me. From it and
the one which Mr. Robison received the other day, I was delighted to find
that Dr. Brewster is well enough to resume his experiments. I entreat you to
prevent his overworking his eyes, and not to suffer those ‘hissing gases’ to
which you allude. He must find some other way of performing his experiments.
I hope the yellow acid which I begged Dr. Reid to send answered the purpose.
We have great reason to be thankful that the accident was not so very much
worse, as it might easily have been. A statement of it has reached the
newspapers, which is, however, very correct, and I am asked on all hands for
the latest news. As Professor Necker of Geneva says, ‘the Doctor’s eyes are
not his own property, but belong to the world.’ Graham’s Island has actually
disappeared, and so suddenly that I should not be surprised if it made a
re-ascension. Dr. Davy wrote me that he thought it was based on clay-slate,
which renders this more probable. There are excellent accounts of Sir
Walter’s health and comfort at Malta. Sir W. writes that he means to make a
poem on Graham’s Island, to the tune of ‘Molly, put the kettle on!’
“I am daily looking with interest for Babbage’s letter which you mention.
Trusting to Dr. Brewster’s improvement, I have addressed the accompanying
letter to him, though I need hardly say it is equally open to you.—Believe
me, with great regard, my dear Madam, yours most sincerely, James D.
Forbes.”
Although unable to resist his dearly beloved experiments, the state of my
father’s eyes probably required caution in writing, for we do not find so
much literary work as usual at this time ; though he seems to have taken a
most active part in plans for the improvement of the neighbourhood—the
building of a suspension bridge across the Tweed—the arrangements for Sir
Walter Scott’s monument, and similar occupations and interests.
His circumstances were extremely embarrassed at this time. Having no private
means, no regular profession, no remuneration from his inventions, his
greatest literary undertaking having proved a complete failure in a
pecuniary sense, and with three sons to send out into the world, his spirits
often sank at his prospects. His unfailing friend and college companion,
Lord Brougham, offered him a living in the English Church at this time, and
he seems seriously to have entertained thoughts of accepting it. He
corresponded with the Archbishop of Canterbury on the subject, and the
Bishop of Cloyne offered to ordain him, as technical difficulties which
existed in England did not apply to Irish ordination. The proposal, however,
he ultimately declined, although on what grounds I do not know. In 1833 a
door seemed to open out of his difficulties. The Chair of Natural Philosophy
in the University of Edinburgh became vacant by the death of Sir John
Leslie. He offered himself as a candidate, and success would have appeared
certain, as all the other candidates withdrew, leaving him without a
competitor, except Mr. James Forbes. The contest, however, went on, and was
not settled by scientific precedence or European fame; it became a question
of family interest and political party, which, after a severe struggle,
ended in Mr. Forbes’s appointment. This was perhaps the most severe
disappointment of Brewster’s life. Although not caused by any zeal for
science on the part of the Town Council of those days, it is satisfactory to
remember that the future eminence of the young Professor fully justified the
appointment, and more than fulfilled the promise of his youth, while in a
few years the broken friendship was cemented, and, both personally and by
correspondence, became closer than ever. Their careers curiously touched, as
Professor Forbes, with Brewster’s warmest co-operation, succeeded him in the
Principalship of St. Andrews, and although many years younger, only survived
him a few months.
In the same year he moved with his family to Belleville, the scene of much
early enjoyment. By the death of his brother-in-law, his wife’s sister was
now the proprietor, and wished for her relatives to cheer her solitary home.
The guidance of a heavenly hand we find thankfully recognised in a brief
sentence in a letter to his wife:— “You see, my dearest Juliet, how the
Almighty provides for us when man cannot and will not, and how our
confidence in Him can never be misplaced.” His three years’ residence at
Belleville was a distinct and separate episode of his life, and while
presenting new experience in many ways, was extremely characteristic. The
reform of abuses, which was a passion of his life, came into full play. An
extensive, but unremunerative, Highland property, for many years too
indulgently superintended, and now under female sway, presented a fair field
of reform, and he threw himself into it with all the ardour of his
disposition. Farms let to unworthy tenants were speedily purified and filled
by better and soberer men ; careless officials were sent to the right-about;
and a new reign of order and business habits inaugurated, under which trees
were planted, waste ground reclaimed, and a water-course planned and
executed. Various abuses in the neighbourhood were also examined into, but
of course not without some of the unpopularity which reformers ever
encounter, and of which he always had a full share. Sir David, however,
awakened a warm and abiding attachment amongst the majority of the Highland
tenantry, who anticipated with delight the time, which never came, when he
might be their landlord in very deed. They were proud of his scientific
fame, which indeed spread far and near. I remember four working men coming a
considerable distance from Strathspey, with the petition that they might see
the stars through his telescope, while on another occasion a poor man
brought his cow a weary long journey over the hills, that the great optician
might examine her eyes, and prescribe for her deficiencies of sight; and
all, as was ever his wont, were received courteously, and had their
questions not only answered, but answered so clearly and patiently, that the
subjects were made perfectly intelligible and interesting. He took great
interest in the election for the county when his friend Mr. Charles Grant
(Lord Glenelg) was returned as Liberal member; one old man whom he had
canvassed, and whose knowledge of “Sassenach” was limited, was particularly
cordial in his promise of his vote, but when he arrived at the hustings it
was with the firm determination to vote for “Sir David,” and nobody else,
which he stuck to manfully. In order to qualify himself as a voter, my
father had purchased a little cottage in the village of Lynchat, which was
occupied one happy summer by his Peeblesshire friends, Mr. and Mrs.
Montgomery and their family. With the exception of the Cluny Macphersons at
Cluny Castle—then, as now, a centre of cordial hospitality—and one or two
resident families, there was little society in winter, but every summer
brought an influx of “shooters” and gay “Southrons.” The brilliant coterie
of Jane Duchess of Gordon, and the milder influences of Lady Huntly, had
passed from Kinrara, but it was rented by Sir George Sitwell and his family.
Edward Ellice, M.P., was at Inver-eshie, and at the Doune of Kothiemurchus,
instead of its proprietors,— the Grants, who were intimate friends of the
Brewsters and Macpher-sons,—the late Duchess of Bedford, with her gay circle
of fashion, of statesmen, artists, and lions of all kinds, produced a
constant social stir, in which Sir David was frequently called to bear his
part, and he retained many lively recollections and anecdotes of the strange
scenes and practical jokes of that “ fast” circle. Upon one occasion, he and
Lord Brougham, when Lord Chancellor, were visiting at the Doune. Lord
Brougham, being indisposed, retired early to rest one evening. An hour or
two afterwards the question was raised whether Lord Chancellors carried the
Great Seal with them in social visiting. The Duchess declared her intention
of ascertaining the fact, and ordered a cake of soft dough to be made. A
procession of lords, ladies, and gentlemen was then formed, Sir David
carrying a pair of silver candlesticks, and the Duchess bearing a silver
salver, on which was placed the dough. The invalid Lord was roused from his
first sleep by this strange procession, and a peremptory demand that he
should get up and exhibit the Great Seal; he whispered ruefully to Sir David
that the first half of this request he could not possibly comply with, but
asked him to bring a certain strange-looking box ; when this was done, he
gravely sat up,—impressed the seal upon the cake of dough, —the procession
retired in order, and the Lord Chancellor returned to his pillow.
He was much interested in all the old tales and legends of the country, and
took much pains in excavating a strange hollow, of which many clannish
stories were told, but which turned out to be a Piet’s house. The parallel
roads of Glenroy, long believed to be the hunting roads of the old kings of
Scotland, with the various geological solutions of the ancient mystery, were
objects of vivid interest. The weird stories of the glen and forest of Gaick,
and the traditions of “Old Borlam,” a Highland laird, with certain
Robin-Hood views as to the rights of meum and tuum, who had formerly
possessed Belleville, were repeated by him with lively interest;—the cave
from which Borlam and his men used to watch for travellers on the old
Highland road was always pointed out to visitors,—and he used to give as an
example of the primitive state of society in the north, which would scarcely
be credited in the south, that he had himself been in society, during his
earlier Badenoch life, with Mrs. Mackintosh of Borlam, the brigand’s widow,
a stately and witty old lady. One day she had called at Belleville, and took
up Lochandhu, a novel just published by Sir Thomas Dick Lauder; “Ay, ay,"
said she, “and what may this be about?" to the consternation of the
Belleville ladies, her husband’s capture and robbery of Sir Hector Munro of
Navar, and her own assistance in this, his last exploit, by picking out the
initials on the stolen linen, being graphically detailed therein ! On
another occasion Sir David had met her at a ball at Kinrara (in 1819), when
Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg was quite delighted with her quaint racy
conversation. When her “ carriage” was announced, one of the Prince’s
aides-de-camp stepped forward and offered his arm. She hesitated a moment,
and then said, with an air of resignation, “Well, well, I suppose you’ll
have to see it/’ He returned in fits of laughter, for the old lady’s
carriage was a common cart, with a wisp of straw in the middle for a seat.
A sudden flood of the Spey, as was its wont, came up during one of the
summers of my father’s residence at Belleville, over the flat meadows in
front of the house, in which are the three small lochs called the Locliandhu,
from their strangely dark aspect even under sunny skies. This particular
flood scooped out a circular hole of great depth, which has remained ever
since filled with water. The contents of the ground had been thrown out, and
from their examination and other proofs he considered that there must have
been a greater number of successive forests buried there than anywhere else
in the known geological world. Exactly thirty years later, when visiting his
son at Belleville, the railway cuttings were going on, and he was keenly
interested in verifying his former statement.
The glories of the Grampian scenery contributed more than anything to the
enjoyment of his residence in Badenoch. The beauties of the Doune, Kinrara,
and Aviemore, Loch-an-Eilan, Loch Insh, Loch Laggan, Craigdhu, the Eorest of
Gaick, and the magnificent desolation of Glen Feshie, were all vividly
enjoyed by him with that innate sense of poetry and art which he so
pre-eminently possessed. His old friend, John Thomson, the minister of
Duddingston, but better known as a master in Scotish landscape, came to
visit him, and was of course taken to see Glen Feshie, with its wild corries
and moors, and the giants of the old pine forest. After a deep silence, my
father was startled by the exclamation, “Lord God Almighty!” and on looking
round he saw the strong man bowed down in a flood of tears, so much had the
wild grandeur of the scene and the sense of the One creative hand possessed
the soul of the artist. Glen Feshie afterwards formed the subject of one of
Thomson’s best pictures.
In 1836, Dr. Brewster and his family left the Highlands, finding a residence
there in many respects inconvenient, and after passing some months in
Edinburgh they again took up their abode at Allerly. |
