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. All the while, he was pursuing the
course of his electrical studies, making fresh inventions, taking
up the phonograph, filled with theories of graphic representation;
reading, writing, publishing, founding sanitary associations,
interested in technical education, investigating the laws of metre,
drawing, acting, directing private theatricals, going a long way to
see an actor - a long way to see a picture; in the very bubble of
the tideway of contemporary interests. And all the while he was
busied about his father and mother, his wife, and in particular his
sons; anxiously watching, anxiously guiding these, and plunging
with his whole fund of youthfulness into their sports and
interests.
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