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About the same time I heard the word "treviss" in a different connection. On the day of the Braemar gathering I accepted an invitation to dinner in the hotel. The party was a large one, and among the guests were a good many farmers. One of them, seated opposite to me, after doing ample justice to boiled mutton and beefsteak-pie, proceeded to help himself to apple-tart before his meat-plate was removed. I suggested that the waiter would soon be round to give him a fresh cover, to which he replied, "Oh, I tak a' my meat aff ae plate; there's nae trevisses in my stomach."

CHAPTER XXI.

PROFESSOR BLACKIE

REGARD OF

CALDERWOOD'S

HIS VERSATILITY, VITALITY, AND DISCONVENTION - DINNERS AT BLACKIE'S AND THE HELLENIC CLUB PRESENTATION ON BIRTHDAY-HIS INGENUOUSNESS-MASSON CHRISTISON MACLEOD

HIS EIGHTIETH

NORMAN

HIS

BREADTH, FORCE, HUMANITY, AND HUMOUR-THE LATE
LORD INVERCLYDE.

DURING the three years, 1867 to 1870, when I was joint classical examiner for degrees in Edinburgh University, and from 1888 to 1895 as a member of the Hellenic Society, of which Professor Blackie was president, I saw a great deal of him both officially and socially. Like all who came into contact with him, I was struck by his marvellous versatility and vitality, his large-hearted tolerance, his wide sympathy, his alertness in everything literary, and his præfervidum ingenium in the advocacy of all that he believed true and right. Combined, however, with these high qualities one could not fail to observe a complete disregard of convention, a

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youthful and almost boyish-may I say?—rowdyism, which detracted somewhat from dignity of bearing, and an eccentricity which sometimes bordered closely on buffoonery, perhaps originally assumed, but ultimately natural. Those who knew him best and liked him most will readily admit there was a considerable amount of vanity in his composition, but it was inoffensive and by no means aggressive. Nor was this feature. in his character difficult to be accounted for. Welcomed wherever he went, a most popular platform speaker, enjoying the friendship of men eminent in almost every field of literature, receiving constant proofs that he was regarded as no ordinary man, it is not matter for wonder that he should come to think of himself as others thought of him. How few men in such circumstances could have escaped being vain? in how many would not the vanity have been offensive? In him it was not.

For a man with strong opinions on most subjects, he was singularly free from malice and pettiness in his intercourse with those who differed from him. This transparent good-nature and sweetness of temper enabled him to make, without offence, personal remarks on which men of different type could not have ventured, or which,

if made, would have been sharply resented. At a dinner-party in his own house Sir Lyon (afterwards Lord) Playfair, Professor Calderwood, and myself were seated on his right hand. As the decanters went round Professor Calderwood, who was a consistent but not at all an aggressive abstainer, passed them on without helping himself. Sir Lyon seeing this asked him if he would not take a glass of wine. "No," said Blackie, taking the reply out of his mouth, "he does not take wine himself, but," addressing Calderwood, "you must not refuse it to your friends." This remark was prospective, because next night we were to dine with Calderwood, who was promoter of degrees that year. Next night Blackie reached Calderwood's house immediately before me. After disposing of his hat and plaid he turned round, and, seeing me, remembered the conversation of the previous night, and, clasping me in his arms, sang out in tones that rang through the house, "Nunc est bibendum, nunc est potandum!" and on entering the drawingroom rapturously embraced Sir Alexander Grant and repeated the exclamation.

As to the strain of vanity observable in him, I remember meeting him one day on a short railway journey almost immediately after Mr

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Gladstone's famous speech in connection with Mr Bradlaugh's admission to Parliament. I remarked that it was a great feat for a man of Gladstone's age to make such a long and able speech. "Oh," he replied, "age has nothing to do with it. The part of a man that's strongest lasts longest if the muscles are strongest, they last longest; if the brain is strongest, it lasts longest. I could not climb Ben Nevis as nimbly as I could thirty years ago, but my head is as clear as ever it was, and I could speak for an hour and a half or more without any feeling of fatigue." To this I replied half seriously, half in joke, "Ah, yes! but there are not many Gladstones and Blackies in the world." It was not unnatural to expect him to deprecate being compared with such a giant as Gladstone. He did not, but complacently accepted, as legitimate and serious, a comparison from one point of view quite legitimate, but not more than half serious.

A good example of the ever-varying moods of the "old man eloquent," and of his almost boyish vitality combined, was given at a meeting of the Hellenic Club, when he was presented with a silver cup by the members as a memorial of his eightieth birthday. Care was taken that he should have no knowledge of the proposed pres