Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/371

 NOTES BY THE WAY.

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��Other close friends at this time were " dear " Thomas Faed (who was a fellow-student, and executed a chalk drawing of Ebs- worth in profile), Orchardson, MacWhirter, Peter Graham, Thomas Graham, Frank Cruikshank ("a rare colourist "), and " Cameron " MacTaggart. The last two remained in Auld Reekie, " not follow- ing the rest to success in London."

While at Glasgow, Ebsworth became a Mason. His certificate bears date " Edinburgh this 3rd day of July in the year of our Lord 1852, and of Light 5852." He was for two years " senior warden of my Lodge, Sir Walter Scott's No. 36 on the Grand Roll. I used to meet Whyte Melville, the novelist ; he was a high office-bearer in Fife under the Duke of Athol." Ebsworth was at this time writing incessantly for The Dumfries Herald, then under the editorship of Thomas Aird.

Ebsworth from pupil became one of the masters at the Glasgow School, and remained there until 1853, when he resigned in order that he might study art on the Continent. On leaving he was presented with a silver watch, which bears the following inscription : " Presented to J. W. Ebsworth, Esq., as a mark of esteem and respect, for his affability as a gentleman, and distinguished abilities as a teacher, by a number of the male and female students of the Glasgow School of Design, Glasgow, 1853."

In July he started off on his tour on foot through Italy and the heart of Europe. It was an " unfaltering determination that carried me, unaccompanied, but never lonely, over so many thou- sands of miles in 1853 and 1854." While at Prague, after drawing the Hradschin Palace and the Bridge Tower, which had been the scene of previous revolutionary conflict, he was arrested and threatened with shooting ; the authorities were, however, content to have him escorted out of the city. Ebsworth has left a vast number of journals relating to this tour.

On returning to England, he resided in Edinburgh until October, 1860, when he went to Cambridge, where at St. John's College he " dwelt, literally as in the headline, on the library stair- case with all the books." While at Cambridge Ebsworth saw a great deal of Ellicott, whom he always loved and whose works were among the latest he read. Ellicott on his part had a deep personal regard for him.

Charles Kingsley was at this time delivering his historical lectures on the United States of America, and " he gave me a first class at the exam, which I voluntarily attended. I learned to love him personally, and several times saw his beautiful daughter ; but I never swerved from my opinion, or deliberate conviction, that his greatest blunder in life (and the Vicar of Eversley made many of them in his public utterances), was his unlucky

��Ebsworth becomes a Freemason.

��Ebsworth

leaves Glasgow.

��Goes on tour through Europe.

��Goes to Cambridge.

��Ellicott. Kingsley.

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