. In fact
the Doctor wrote this sermon by special suggestion of the Earl of
Kintore.

Incidents great and small were such a large part of the eventful trip to
Europe that it is difficult to make those omissions which the
disinterested reader might wish. The Doctor, like ourselves, saw with
the same rose-coloured glasses that we did. We were very pleasantly
entertained in Edinburgh by Lord Kintore and others, but the most
interesting dinner party I think was when we were the guests of Sir
Herbert Simpson, brother of the celebrated Sir James Y. Simpson, the man
who discovered the uses of chloroform as an anaesthetic. We dined in the
very room where the discovery was first tested. When Dr. Simpson had
decided upon a final experiment of the effects of chloroform as an
anaesthetic, he invited three or four of his colleagues and friends to
share the test with him. They met in the very room where we dined with
Sir Herbert Simpson and his family. The story goes that when everything
had been prepared for the evening's work, Dr. Simpson informed "Sandy,"
an old servant, that he must not be disturbed under any circumstances,
telling him not to venture inside the door himself until 5 a.m. Then, if
no one had left the room, he was to enter. "Sandy" obeyed these
instructions to the letter, and came into the room at 5 in the morning.
He was very much shocked to find his master and the others under the
table in a stupor. "I never thought my master would come to this," said
Sandy. He was still in the employ of the family, being a very old man.

Dr. Talmage's engagements took him from Edinburgh to Liverpool, where he
preached. It was while there that we made a visit to Hawarden to see
Mrs. Gladstone. The Doctor had been to Hawarden before as the guest of
Mr. Gladstone, and was disappointed to find that Mrs. Gladstone was too
ill to be seen by anyone. We were entertained, however, by Mrs. Herbert
Gladstone. I remember how much the Doctor was moved when he saw in the
hall at Hawarden a bundle of walking sticks and three or four hats
hanging on the hat-rack, as Mr. Gladstone had left them when he died.

From Liverpool we went to Sheffield, where Dr. Talmage preached to an
immense congregation. It was in May, the time when all England is
flower-laden, when the air is as sweet as perfume and the whole
countryside is as fascinating as a garden. It was the coaching season,
too, and the Doctor entered into the spirit of these beautiful days ve