Lord Kelvin's early home : being the recollections of his sister the late Mrs. Elizabeth King / together with some family letters and a supplementary chapter by the editor, Elizabeth Thomson King ; with illustrations from Mrs. King's own drawings and those of her daughters.

  • King, Elizabeth, 1818-1896.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Lord Kelvin's early home : being the recollections of his sister the late Mrs. Elizabeth King / together with some family letters and a supplementary chapter by the editor, Elizabeth Thomson King ; with illustrations from Mrs. King's own drawings and those of her daughters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It was our mother’s habit to devote some hours every morning to the instruction of her children, and I, as the eldest, was her first pupil. I could read as long as I can remember, and was accustomed from very early days to stand at her toilet-table and read a psalm to her while she dressed her hair. She had the most beautiful hair, and I remember how it shone like a golden water- fall, and curled round her hand as she passed the comb through it ; and how she tried to suppress any wayward ringlet which would assert itself about her forehead. For the fashion in those days was to wear smooth artificial “ fronts ” covering the natural hair, and my mother’s friends used to remonstrate with her and urge her to get one ; until at last she yielded, and it was a vexation to me every morning to see the pretty golden locks carefully tucked away and hidden under the of their youngest brother’s family about this time, which is rather amusing, and corroborates these recollections: “Brother James and his family are well. Have five very fine children, two girls and three boys. They are handsome and kind, and fond of their friends ; and, what is more, are wonderfully apt in learning ; but I don’t think it strange, as both father and mother are drilling them. Their mother has a good education, and Elizabeth speaks French well.”]