The presence of his old classmate, Tait, was one of his early
attractions to the chair; and now that Fleeming is gone again, Tait
still remains, ruling and really teaching his great classes. Sir
Robert Christison was an old friend of his mother's; Sir Alexander
Grant, Kelland, and Sellar, were new acquaintances and highly
valued; and these too, all but the last, have been taken from their
friends and labours. Death has been busy in the Senatus. I will
speak elsewhere of Fleeming's demeanour to his students; and it
will be enough to add here that his relations with his colleagues
in general were pleasant to himself.
Edinburgh, then, with its society, its university work, its
delightful scenery, and its skating in the winter, was thenceforth
his base of operations. But he shot meanwhile erratic in many
directions: twice to America, as we have seen, on telegraph
voyages; continually to London on business; often to Paris; year
after year to the Highlands to shoot, to fish, to learn reels and
Gaelic, to make the acquaintance and fall in love with the
character of Highlanders; and once to Styria, to hunt chamois and
dance with peasant maidens.
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