While yet a child, he had been in the practice of cutting out representations of the objects that struck him on paper; afterwards he had attempted to portray them with chalk on floors and walls; and rising higher still in pictorial art, he at length betook himself to the use of the pencil. He did not, however, satisfy himself, like other young sketchers, with merely copying the pictures of others: instead of this, he would be satisfied with nothing short of the original object; and therefore he often roamed about the suburbs of Edinburgh, or among the fields, transferring into his note-book whatever most pleased his fancy. This was the form of language in which he found he could best express himself, and therefore it is not to be wondered at that he should cultivate it so carefully. At the age of fourteen he was sent to learn drawing by regular rule, under Mr. Patrick Gibson, and such was his progress, that in 1812 he was admitted a pupil of the Academy of Drawing, established for the encouragement of Scottish manufactures, where he had for his preceptor Mr. Graham, the teacher of Allan and Wilkie.
By this course of training the future profession of Walter Geikie was confirmed. He was to be an artist; and it remained to be seen in what department his excellence was to consist. It was not certainly in painting, for he soon discovered that his attempts in oil were decidedly inferior to those of others in warmth and harmony of colouring; and although his "Itinerant Fiddlers," "All Hallow Fair," and the "Grassmarket," now in the collection at Hopetoun House, were the best specimens of his painting in oil, they scarcely exceed the efforts of a mere fourth-rate artist. It was in sketching that he best succeeded, while the subjects of his preference were not the beautiful or the sublime, but the homely and the ludicrous. He would rather sketch a pig-sty than a palace, and an odd face had more attraction in his eyes than all the ideal beauty of the Venus de Medicis. It was upon this predilection that he acted. He hunted about in quest of singular visages, at which, with his ready pencil, he would take a flying shot as he passed along the street; and as such commodities are by no means scarce in Edinburgh, his collection was soon both rich and various. This kind of sportsmanship, however, was not without its dangers, for those who were best fitted for the artist's purposes were generally the least disposed to have their effigies perpetuated. One amusing incident of this kind is related by his biographer. Geikie had become desperately enamoured of the turned-up nose, rhinoceros upper lip, and pot-belly of a porter of the Grassmarket, and longed to appropriate them in such a way as not to impoverish their lawful owner. But the porter, who had seen his hungry look, and suspected his purpose, had continued to dodge him, until one day he found himself all but fixed upon the artist's paper. Enraged at the discovery, he stormed, swore, and threatened; but Geikie, who was in ecstasy with his rich attitudes, and could not hear the threats, continued the drawing, until he saw his model rushing upon him like a maddened bull in the arena. He took to his heels, but was so hotly pursued that he had to take refuge in a common stair; and the porter, thinking that his tormentor was housed, resolved to await his coming forth. Geikie, in the meantime, who was watching every movement through a dingy window in the stair, contrived to finish his sketch, and crown it with the last touch. But how to get out when his work was finished! This seemed beyond the power of strategy, for there stood his merciless enemy on the watch; and there he remained for hours. Some lucky chance at last called away the bearer of burdens, and Geikie stole from his concealment when he found the
