James Nasmyth: Engineer; an autobiography Part 30

It was within five minutes' walk of the Foundry, and I was scarcely ever out of reach of the Fireside, where we were both so happy.

It had been sanctified by our united love for thirteen years.

It was surrounded by a nice garden, planted with trees and shrubs.

Though close to the Bridgewater Ca.n.a.l, and a busy manufacturing population was not far off, the cottage was perfectly quiet.

It was in this garden, when I was arranging the telescope at night, that I had been detected by the pa.s.sing boatman as "The Patricroft Ghost"

When we were about to leave Patricroft, the Countess of Ellesmere, who, as well as the Earl, had always been our attached friends, wrote to my wife as follows: "I can well understand Mr. Nasmyth's satisfaction at the emanc.i.p.ation he looks forward to in December next.

But I hope you do not expect us to share it! for what is so much natural pleasure to you is a sad loss and privation to us.

I really don't know how we shall get on at Worsley without you.

You have nevertheless my most sincere and hearty good wishes that the change may be as grateful to you both as anything in this world can be."

Yet we had to tear ourselves away from this abode of peace and happiness. I had given notice to my partner*

[footnote...

The "Partner" here referred to, was my excellent friend Henry Garnett, Esq., of Wyre Side, near Lancaster. He had been my sleeping partner or "Co." for nearly twenty years, and the most perfect harmony always existed between us.

that it was my intention to retire from business at the end of 1856.

The necessary arrangements were accordingly made for carrying on the business after my retirement. All was pleasantly and satisfactorily settled several months before I finally left; and the character and prosperity of the Bridgewater Foundry have been continued to the present day.

But where was I to turn to for a settled home? Many years before I had seen a charming picture by my brother Patrick of "A Cottage in Kent"

It took such a hold of my memory and imagination that I never ceased to entertain the longing and ambition to possess such a cottage as a cosy place of refuge for the rest of my life. Accordingly, about six months before my final retirement, I accompanied my wife in a visit to the south. In the first place we made a careful selection from the advertis.e.m.e.nts in the Times of "desirable residences" in Kent.

One in particular appeared very tempting. We set out to view it.

It seemed to embody all the conditions that we had pictured in our imagination as necessary to fulfil the idea of our "Cottage in Kent."

It had been the property of F. R. Lee, the Royal Academician.

With a few alterations and additions it would entirely answer our purpose. So we bought the property.

I may mention that when I retired from business, and took out of it the fortune that had acc.u.mulated during my twenty-two years of a.s.siduous attention and labour, I invested the bulk of it in Three per cent Consols. The rate of interest was not high, but it was nevertheless secure. High interest, as every one knows, means riskful security.

I desired to have no anxiety about the source of my income, such as might hinder my enjoying the rest of my days in the active leisure which I desired. I had for some time before my retirement been investing in consols, which my dear wife termed "the true antibilious stock," and I have ever since had good reason to be satisfied with that safe and tranquillising investment. All who value the health-conserving influence of the absence of financial worry will agree with me that this antibilious stock is about the best.

The "Cottage in Kent" was beautiful, especially in its rural surroundings. The view from it was charming, and embodied all the attractive elements of happy-looking English scenery. The n.o.ble old forest trees of Penshurst Park were close alongside, and the grand old historic mansion of Penshurst Place was within a quarter of a mile's distance from our house. There were many other beautiful parks and country residences in our neighbourhood; the railway station, which was within thirty-five minutes' pleasant walk, enabling us to be within reach of London, with its innumerable attractions, in little more than an hour and a quarter. Six acres of garden-ground at first surrounded our cottage, but these were afterwards expanded to sixteen; and the whole was made beautiful by the planting of trees and shrubs over the grounds. In all this my wife and myself took the greatest delight.

[Image] Hammerfield, Penshurst.

From my hereditary regard for hammers--two broken hammer-shafts being the crest of our family for hundreds of years--I named the place Hammerfield; and so it remains to this day. The improvements and additions to the house and the grounds were considerable. A greenhouse was built, 120 feet long by 32 feet wide. Roomy apartments were added to the house. The trees and shrubs planted about the grounds were carefully selected. The coniferae cla.s.s were my special favourites.

I arranged them so that their natural variety of tints should form the most pleasing contrasts. In this respect I introduced the beech-tree with the happiest effect. It is bright green in spring, and in the autumn it retains its beautiful ruddy-tinted leaves until the end of winter, when they are again replaced by the new growth.

The warm tint of the beech contrasts beautifully with the bright green of the coniferae, especially of the Lawsoniania and the Dougla.s.si-- the latter being one of the finest accessions to our list of conifers.

It is graceful in form, and perfectly hardy. I also interspersed with these several birch-trees, whose slender and graceful habit of growth forms so fine a contrast to the dense foliage of the conifers.

To thus paint, as it were, with trees, is a high source of pleasure in gardening. Among my various enjoyments this has been about the greatest.

During the time that the alterations and enlargements were in progress we rented a house for six months at Sydenham, close to the beautiful grounds of the Crystal Palace. This was a most happy episode in our lives, for, besides the great attractions of the place, both inside and out, there were the admirable orchestral daily concerts, at which we were constant attendants. We had the pleasure of listening to the n.o.ble compositions of the great masters of music, the perfectly trained band being led by Herr Manns, who throws so much of his fine natural taste and enthusiastic spirit into the productions as to give them every possible charm.

From a very early period of my life I have derived the highest enjoyment from listening to music, especially to melody, which is to me the most pleasing form of composition. When I have the opportunity of listening to such kind of music, it yields me enjoyment that transcends all others. It suggests ideas, and brings vividly before the mind's eye scenes that move the imagination. This is, to me, the highest order of excellence in musical composition. I used long ago, and still continue, to whistle a bit, especially when engaged in some pleasant occupation. I can draw from my mental repository a vast number of airs and certain bits of compositions that I had once heard. I possess that important qualification for a musician--"a good ear;" and I always worked most successfully at a mechanical drawing when I was engaged in whistling some favourite air. The dual occupation of the brain had always the best results in the quick development of the constructive faculty. And even in circ.u.mstances where whistling is not allowed I can think airs, and enjoy them almost as much as when they are distinctly audible. This power of the brain, I am fain to believe, indicates the natural existence of the true musical faculty. But I had been so busy during the course of my life that I had never any opportunity of learning the practical use of any musical instrument.

And here I must leave this interesting subject.

So soon as I was in due possession of my house, I had speedily transported thither all my art treasures--my telescopes, my home stock of tools, the instruments of my own construction, made from the very beginning of my career as a mechanic, and a.s.sociated with the most interesting and active parts of my life. I lovingly treasured them, and gave them an honoured place in the workshop which I added to my residence. There they are now, and I often spend a busy and delightful hour in handling my tools. It is curious how the mere sight of such objects brings back to the memory bygone incidents and recollections.

Friends long dead seem to start up while looking at them. You almost feel as if you could converse with the departed. I do not know of anything so touchingly powerful in vividly bringing back the treasured incidents and memories of one's life as the sight of such humble objects. Every one has, no doubt, a treasured store of such material records of a well-remembered portion of his past life. These strike, as it were, the keynote to thoughts that bring back in vivid form the most cherished remembrances of our lives. On many occasions I have seen at sale rooms long treasured h.o.a.rds of such objects thrown together in a heap as mere rubbish. And yet these had been to some the sources of many pleasant thoughts and recollections, But the last final break-up has come, and the personal belongings of some departed kind heart are scattered far and wide. These touching relics of a long life, which had almost become part of himself, are "knocked down" to the lowest cla.s.s of bidders. It is a sad sight to witness the uncared for dispersion of such objects--objects that had been lovingly stored up as the most valued of personal treasures. I could have wished that, as was the practice in remote antiquity, such touching relics were buried with the dead, as their most fitting repository. Then they might have left some record, instead of being desecrated by the harpies who wait at sales for such "job lots."

Behold us, then, settled down at Hammerfield for life. We had plenty to do. My workshop was fully equipped. My hobbies were there, and I could work them to my heart's content. The walls of our various rooms were soon hung with pictures, and other works of art, suggestive of many pleasant a.s.sociations of former days. Our library book-case was crowded with old friends, in the shape of books that had been read and re-read many times, until they had become almost part of ourselves.

Old Lancashire friends made their way to us when "up in town,"

and expressed themselves delighted with our pleasant house and its beautiful surroundings.

The continuous planting of the shrubs and trees gave us great pleasure.

Those already planted had grown luxuriantly, fed by the fertile soil and the pure air. Indeed, in course of time they required the judicious use of the axe in order to allow the fittest to survive and grow at their own free will. Trees contrive to manage their own affairs without the necessity of much labour or interference.

The "survival of the fittest" prevails here as elsewhere. It is always a pleasure to watch them. There are many ordinary old-fashioned roadside flowering plants which I esteem for their vigorous beauty, and I enjoy seeing them a.s.sume the careless grace of Nature.

The greenhouse is also a source of pleasure, especially to my dear wife. It is full of flowers of all kinds, of which she is devotedly fond. They supply her with subjects for her brush or her needle.

She both paints them and works them by her needle in beautiful forms and groups. This is one of her many favourite hobbies. All this is suitable to our fireside employments, and makes the days and the evenings pa.s.s pleasantly away.

CHAPTER 21. Active leisure.

When James Watt retired from business towards the close of his useful and admirable life, he spoke to his friends of occupying himself with "ingenious trifles," and of turning "some of his idle thoughts" upon the invention of an arithmetical machine and a machine for copying sculpture. These and other useful works occupied his attention for many years.

It was the same with myself. I had good health (which Watt had not) and abundant energy. When I retired from business I was only forty-eight years old, which may be considered the prime of life.

But I had plenty of hobbies, perhaps the chief of which was Astronomy.

No sooner had I settled at Hammerfield than I had my telescopes brought out and mounted. The fine clear skies with which we were favoured, furnished me with abundant opportunities for the use of my instruments.

I began again my investigations on the Sun and the Moon, and made some original discoveries, of which more anon.

Early in the year 1858 I received a pressing invitation from the Council of the Edinburgh Philosophical Society to give a lecture before their members on the Structure of the Lunar Surface. As the subject was a favourite one with me, and as I had continued my investigations and increased my store of drawings since I had last appeared before an Edinburgh audience, I cheerfully complied with their request.

I accordingly gave my lecture before a crowded meeting in the Queen Street Lecture Hall.

The audience appeared to be so earnestly interested by the subject that I offered to appear before them on two successive evenings and give any viva voce explanations about the drawings which those present might desire. This deviation from the formality of a regular lecture was attended with the happiest results. Edinburgh always supplies a highly-intelligent audience, and the cleverest and brightest were ready with their questions. I was thus enabled to elucidate the lecture and to expand many of the most interesting points connected with the moon's surface, such as might formerly have appeared obscure. These questioning lectures gave the highest satisfaction. They satisfied myself as well as the audience, who went away filled with the most graphic information I could give them on the subject.

But not the least interesting part of my visit to Edinburgh on this occasion was the renewed intercourse which I enjoyed with many of my old friends. Among these were my venerable friend Professor Pillans, Charles Maclaren (editor of the Scotsman), and Robert Chambers.

We had a long dander together through the Old Town, our talk being in broad Scotch. Pillans was one of the fine old Edinburgh Liberals, who stuck to his principles through good report and through evil.

In his position as Rector of the High School, he had given rare evidence of his excellence as a cla.s.sical scholar. He was afterwards promoted to be a Professor in the University. He had as his pupils some of the most excellent men of my time. Amongst his intimate friends were Sydney Smith, Brougham, Jeffrey, c.o.c.kburn--men who gave so special a character to the Edinburgh society of that time.

We had a delightful stroll through some of the most remarkable parts of the Old Town, with Robert Chambers as our guide. We next mounted Arthur's Seat to observe some of the manifestations of volcanic action, which had given such a remarkable structure to the mountain.

On this subject, Charles Maclaren was one of the best living expounders.

He was an admirable geologist, and had closely observed the features of volcanic action round his native city. Robert Chambers then took us to see the glacial grooved rocks on another part of the mountain.

On this subject he was a master. It was a vast treat to me to see those distinct evidences of actions so remotely separated in point of geological time--in respect to which even a million of years is a humble approximate unit*

[footnote...

"It is to our ever-dropping climate, with its hundred and fifty-two days of annual rain, that we owe our vegetable mould with its rich and beauteous mantle of sward and foliage. And next, stripping from off the landscape its sands and gravels, we see its underlying boulder-clays, dingy and gray, and here presenting their vast ice-borne stones, and there its iceberg pavements. And these clays in turn stripped away, the bare rocks appear, various in colour and uneven in surface, but everywhere grooved and polished, from the sea level and beneath it, to the height of more than a thousand feet, by evidently the same agent that careered along the pavements and transported the great stones.

HUGH MILLER'S Geological Features of Edinburgh and its Neighbourhood.

What a fine subject for a picture the group would have made! with the great volcanic summit of the mountain behind, the n.o.ble romantic city in the near distance, and the animated intelligent countenaces of the demonstrators, with the venerable Pillans eagerly listening--for the Professor was then in his eighty-eighth year. I had the happiness of receiving a visit from him at Hammerfield in the following year.

He was still hale and active; and although I was comparatively a boy to him, he was as bright and clear-headed as he had been forty years before.

In the course of the same year I accompanied my wife and my sister Charlotte on a visit to the Continent. It was their first sojourn in foreign parts. I was able, in some respects, to act as their guide.

Our visit to Paris was most agreeable. During the three weeks we were there, we visited the Louvre, the Luxembourg, Versailles, and the parts round about. We made many visits to the Hotel Cluny, and inspected its most interesting contents, as well as the Roman baths and that part of the building devoted to Roman antiquities. We were especially delighted with the apartments of the Archbishop of Paris, now hung with fine old tapestry and provided with authentic specimens of mediaeval furniture. The quaint old cabinets were beautiful studies; and many artists were at work painting them in oil. Everything was in harmony.

When the sun shone in through the windows in long beams of coloured light, illuminating portions of the antique furniture, the pictures were perfect. We were much interested also by the chapel in which Mary Queen of Scots was married to the Dauphin. It is still in complete preservation. The Gothic details of the chapel are quite a study; and the whole of these and the contents of this interesting Museum form a school of art of the best kind.

From Paris we paid a visit to Chartres, which contains one of the most magnificent cathedrals in France. Its dimensions are vast, its proportions are elegant, and its painted gla.s.s is unequalled.

Nothing can be more beautiful than its three rose-windows. But I am not writing a guide-book, and I must forbear. After a few days more at Paris we proceeded south, and visited Lyons, Avignon, and Nismes, on our way to Ma.r.s.eilles. I have already described Nismes in my previous visit to France. I revisited the Roman amphitheatre, the Maison Quarree, that perfect Roman temple, which, standing as it does in an open square, is seen to full advantage. We also went to see the magnificent Roman aqueduct at Pont du Gard. The sight of the n.o.ble structure well repays a visit. It consists of three tiers of arches. Its magnitude, the skilful fitting of its enormous blocks, makes a powerful impression on the mind. It has stood there, in that solitary wooded valley, for upwards of sixteen centuries; and it is still as well fitted for conveying its aqueduct of water as ever. I have seen nothing to compare with it, even at Rome. It throws all our architectural buildings into the shade. On our way back from Ma.r.s.eilles to Paris we visited Gren.o.ble and its surrounding beautiful Alpine scenery.

Then to Chambery, and afterwards to Chamounix, where we obtained a splendid view of Mont Blanc. We returned home by way of Geneva and Paris, vastly delighted with our most enjoyable journey.

I return to another of my hobbies. I had an earnest desire to acquire the art and mystery of practical photography. I bought the necessary apparatus, together with the chemicals; and before long I became an expert in the use of the positive and negative collodion process, including the printing from negatives, in all the details of that wonderful and delightful art. To any one who has some artistic taste, photography, both in its interesting processes and glorious results, becomes a most attractive and almost engrossing pursuit. It is a delightful means of educating the eye for artistic feeling, as well as of educating the hands in delicate manipulation. I know of nothing equal to photography as a means of advancing one's knowledge in these respects. I had long meditated a work "On the Moon," and it was for this purpose more especially that I was earnest in endeavouring to acquire the necessary practical skill. I was soon enabled to obtain photographic copies of the elaborate models of parts of the moon's, surface, which I had long before prepared. These copies were hailed by the highest authorities in this special department of astronomical research as the best examples of the moon's surface which had yet been produced.