Robert was not without the pleasure of social intercourse either during his stay at Edinburg. Among the letters of introduction which he took with him was one to Robert Bald, the mining engineer, which proved of much service to him. "I remember Mr. Bald very well," he said on one occasion, when recounting his reminiscences of his Edinburg college life. "He introduced me to Dr. Hope, Dr. Murray, and several of the distinguished men of the North. Bald was the Buddle of Scotland. He knew my father from having visited the pits at Killingworth, with the object of describing the system of working them in his article intended for the 'Edinburg Encyclopædia.' A strange adventure befell that article before it appeared in print. Bald was living at Alloa when he wrote it, and when finished he sent it to Edinburg by the hands of young Maxton, his nephew, whom he enjoined to take special care of it, and deliver it safely into the hands of the editor. The young man took passage for New Haven by one of the little steamers which then plied on the Forth; but on the voyage down the Firth she struck upon a rock nearly opposite Queen's Ferry, and soon sank. When the accident happened, Maxton's whole concern was about his uncle's article. He durst not return to Alloa if he lost it, and he must not go on to Edinburg without it. So he desperately clung to the chimney chains with the paper parcel under his arm, while most of the other passengers were washed away and drowned. And there he continued to cling until rescued by some boatmen, parcel and all, after which he made his way to Edinburg, and the article duly appeared." Returning to the subject of his life in Edinburg, Robert continued: "Besides taking me with him to the meetings of the Royal and other societies, Mr. Bald introduced me to a very agreeable family, relatives of his own, at whose house I spent many pleasant evenings. It was there I met Jeannie M----. She was a bonnie lass, and I, being young and susceptible, fairly fell in love with her. But, like most very early attachments, mine proved evanescent. Years passed, and I had all but forgotten Jeannie, when one day I received a letter from her, from which it appeared that she was in great distress through the ruin of her relatives. I sent her a sum of money, and continued to do so for several years; but the last remittance not being acknowledged, I directed my friend Sanderson to make inquiries. I afterward found that the money had reached her at Portobello just as she was dying, and so, poor thing, she had been unable to acknowledge it."