Untitled - Electric Scotland

38 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. n.
communicant member of the Presbyterian Church, but it
is possible that, though neither of them was yet, for
some reason, confirmed, he and Ramsay Campbell may
together have occasionally received the Holy Communion
in the Scottish Episcopal Church both in Edinburgh and
Glasgow. As soon as his residence at Balliol began, Tait
applied to his tutor, Mr. Moberly, as a candidate for con
firmation, and after such preparation as was deemed
necessary, he was confirmed by the Bishop of Oxford.
His last session at Glasgow came to an end in
May 1830, and the months which intervened before he
began residence at Oxford seem to have been spent with
his father, partly in the Highlands and partly in Edin
burgh, where, at his father s desire, he attended lectures
on Chemistry, Botany, and other subjects. The friend
ship between father and son had always been very close,
and Mr. Tait evidently gave the most minute and pains
taking attention to the details of his son s education, and
looked forward to his future with characteristic confidence.
In October 1830 he went up to Balliol, furnished by
his father with all the introductions which forethought
could secure. On the way a week was spent in London
with Leonard Horner, who was not only the kindest of
friends to each and every member of the family, but
whose talents and character secured him the intimacy of
some of the foremost literary mm of the day. The fol
lowing is the Archbishop s reminiscence, half a century
later, of his first introduction to London :-
" On board the steamer which carried us from Leith to London
was young Adair, returning from the moors with his father, Sir
Robert. We naturally made the sort of acquaintance one does
under such circumstances, and were together below when the
captain summoned us on deck with, Now, gentlemen, come
up, and you will see the finest sight in the world. We instantly
followed him, and certainly it was a magnificent spectacle which