gb0551ms-33-117

Transcription

[Page] 117
[continued from page 116]

Though his daughters and I knew from the
report of a specialist (Dr. [Doctor] Gilchrist) called in
for consultation, that he never could re:
:cover, some weeks before he died, that
view of his condition never seemed to dawn
on him, which was a merciful circumstance.
I went out to St. Cuthberts for a couple
of week-ends when he was so ill, to spend a
short time with him and relieve my nieces
Christian and Barbara. He was in
many ways an unusual man, endowed
with many gifts and distinguished by
wide culture. Our Mother had a lovely
voice and used to sing to us much as
children and Jim had inherited that
gift, especially as a boy, when he sang
the solos in the Fettes Anthems on Sunday
evenings & concerts and was credited in
possessing the finest treble voice any boy
had ever possessed at Fettes. My Mother
always declared that the authorities at school
had made him sing too much, for, after
his voice cracked, the fine quality was
gone. But he inherited other musical gifts
beside a fine voice. Though no talented
musician, he could play the piano

sufficiently well to entertain himself, and
at one time he played both flute & cello toler:
:ably well He possessed one curious and, at
times, embarrassing [t.] musical habit, that of voicing
operatic recitatives wherever he went; quite
unconsciously. I well remember when Mary
& I got separated from him in a Museum
in Innsbruck, we being on the ground floor -
we had only to stand and listen and we
were soon guided to the Gallery he was in
by his operatic endeavours! Our father,
though one could hardly term him an Antiquary,
yet possessed, a great interest in the subject
and when he had a day in Edinburgh
rarely failed to spend some time of it
in conversation with Dr. [Doctor] Joseph Anderson.
then the distinguished Curator of the National
Museum of Antiquities, at that time occupy:
:ing the foremost of the two galleries on the
Mound. As we boys had often, rather un:
:willingly, to take part in such visits, we
grew up with an elementary knowledge of
the Cases of modern archaeology, which, in
consequence, we never required to learn, we had
in fact absorbed it among the museum cases in
those early days of our lives.
[continued on page 118]

  Transcribers who have contributed to this page.

Jane F Jamieson