Memorials of John Geddes

memorials of 3obn Gedde*.
The other and final visit to Edinburgh was in 1870.
It took place under sadder auspices, inasmuch as he was
then in the oculist's hand for cataract. Unfortunately, the
operation on the eye that was selected, through no fault of
the oculist, was not successful, and as it was thought hardly
wise in the weak state of his health to attempt an opera-
tion on the other eye, he had to return home a prisoner by
the fireside for the most part* during the ten remaining
years allotted to him. Yet he never entirely lost the
feeling of " light," and could tell night from day. To the
last, when taken to his favourite eminence overlooking the
Deveron, and known as the "Drum," he was sensible of the
"shimmer" or gleam of the sun in a bright day playing upon
the waters, and there he could enjoy at the same time the
kindred pleasure of hearing the ripple of the water making
music on the ledge of rocks over which the stream there
takes a plunge.
In the great shadow that thus enshrouded him, it was
now that his old stores of reading and folk-lore came to the
* The chief exception was the journey, above referred to, to Aberdeen,
when George Reid, afterwards Sir George, got him to give two sittings for the
Triplica representing him in three different moods. Taken after the operation
for cataract, the picture gives the feeling of blindness, but otherwise yields a
varied expression, one of the likenesses being jovial in its tone, another sombre,
while the third gives his normal equilibrium of thoughtful, contented humour.
The whole is contained in one canvas, and is the latest memento of the old man.
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