THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

PRESENTED BY

PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID

It,

WILLIAM MACGILLIVKAY

M.A., LL.D.

ORNITHOLOGIST; PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY, MARISCHAL COLLEGE
AND UNIVERSITY, ABERDEEN

A MEMOEIAL TBIBUTE

TO

WILLIAM MACGILLIVRAY

M.A., LL.D.

ORNITHOLOGIST ; PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY,

MARISCHAL COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY,

ABERDEEN

BY WILLIAM MACGILLIVRAY

WHITER TO THE SIGNET

' In tfje ege of nature fjc fjas li&eli '

EDINBURGH

PRINTED FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION
1901

* Ctutfj from ftfe lips prefraileK foritfj tooufcle

* Cfje oft orKer cfjangetl), gfeltftttfl place to ndn '

PREFATORY NOTE

THE sketch of Professor MacGillivray's life and work
which follows was at first written in the form, and with
the brevity, of an article intended for a newspaper in
connection with the movement, then begun, for the
promotion of a Memorial of him ; but it was not so
used, and was retained, altered, and added to from
time to time, the result partly of suggestions from
friends, most of them former pupils of the Professor,
and partly of information which came to me from
different sources at odd times. It is in no sense
a " Life " of my eminent namesake — for such a work I
am not competent — but merely an appreciative sketch
in which I have tried to record, and to some extent
illustrate, my own conception of his special pre-emi-
nence as an ornithologist, and my warm admiration of
his high qualities of mind and character, as these come
out so prominently in connection with his life's work
in the different spheres in which his lot had been
successively cast.

W. MACGILLIVRAY.

4 ROTHESAY PLACE,
EDINBURGH, 15th May 1901.

CONTENTS

I. SKETCH OF PROFESSOR MACGILLIVRAY'S LIFE AND WORK .

II. PRESENTATION OF THE MEMORIAL MURAL TABLET TO THE

UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN

III. EXTRACTS FROM PROFESSOR MACGILLIVRAY'S TRIBUTE TO

THE MEMORY OF DR. BARCLAY ....

IV. JOURNAL OF A VISIT TO MUSEUMS IN GLASGOW, DUBLIN,

LIVERPOOL, BRISTOL, AND LONDON BY PROFESSOR MAC-
GILLIVRAY IN 1833 .....

V. EXTRACTS FROM PROFESSOR MACGILLIVRAY'S WORKS EX-
PLANATORY OF HIS SYSTEM OF ORNITHOLOGICAL CLASSIFI-
CATION . . -. '.....

VI. EXTRACTS FROM HIS WORKS DESCRIPTIVE OF BIRD LIFE, OF
PERSONAL ADVENTURE FOR SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION, OR
OF PICTURESQUE SCENES, ETC. —

1. Night Excursion to the Wells of Dee

2. Mountain Inspiration ....

3. Flight of Birds .

4. A Lover of Nature — Audubon

5. A Tame Rock Dove ....

6. A Winter Bird Scene at the Mouth of the Almond

7. On Clisheim in a Snow-Storm

8. Crossbills Feeding .....

PAGE

1

53

73

81

134

140
145
146
147
148
150
151
153

xiv MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

PAGE

9. The Raven in the Hebrides , , .154

10. Scene on an April Day . . . .155

11. Some of Professor MacGillivray's Friends . .156

12. The Song of the Blackbird . . .157

13. The Song of the Thrush . . . .158

14. The Carol of the Lark . . . 160

15. The Hen-Harrier . . . . 160

16. The Golden Plover . . . .162

17. The Common Ring-Plover . . .164

18. The Sea-Pie . . . . .165

19. Dunlins Feeding . . . .. , .166

20. The Common Snipe . . . .169

21. The Grey Heron . . . . .171

22. The Great Black-backed Gull . * .172

23. God's Works . . . . ' .173

24. Promise of a Bright Day . . . .174

25. Lochnagar . . . . .174

26. View from Invercauld Bridge . . .175

27. The Raven— Poor Bird ! . . . .176

28. Another Night Visit to the Sources of the Dee . 177

29. Object of the Study of Nature . . .182

30. The Scenery of Benabuird . . .183

31. Aged Birch Trees . . . . .184

32. The Wind in Beallach-bhui Forest . . 185

33. Merry-making of Birds . .< . j . 187

34. The Highland Moor . . . , .188

35. Three Pine Trees . . , . .191

36. Ravens — Poor Fellows! . . . . 192

37. Home . . . , » . 193

38. Scene at Torquay . <r / . . 195

VII. LIFE'S WORK ENDED —

"CONCLUSION". . . . . . 197

VIII. SUBSCRIBERS FOR THE MEMORIAL TO PROFESSOR MAC-

GlLLIVRAY . . . . . .199

ILLUSTRATIONS

PROFESSOR MACGILLIVRAY'S GOLDEN EAGLE . . Frontispiece

THE MEMORIAL PLATE .... To face page 53

THE MONUMENT . . . . „ 198

I

SKETCH OF PROF. MACGILLIVRAY'S
LIFE AND WORK

THE MEMORIAL.

IT is upwards of forty-eight years since William
MacGillivray, M.A., LL.D., Professor of Natural
History and Lecturer on Botany in Marischal College
and University, Aberdeen, son of William MacGillivray,
a surgeon in the Army, died in his fifty-sixth year —
having been born in Old Aberdeen in 1796. He was
buried in the New Calton Bury ing -Ground, Edinburgh,
where his wife and two children, who predeceased him,
had previously been interred. Until nearly the close
of last year there was not even a tombstone to show
where the author of a History of British Birds and The
Natural History of Deeside and Braemar lies, an over-
sight resulting no doubt from the circumstance of all the
members of his family having, either before his death or
soon after, gone for permanent residence abroad.

Nearly three years ago the attention of some of
Professor MacGillivray' s former students — all now well
advanced in life — was called to the oversight which

B

2 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

ill became the memory of so eminent a naturalist and
so estimable a man. A meeting of several gentlemen
who specially cherished his memory was held in Edin-
burgh on 27th May 1898 ; and, with a view to promot-
ing a suitable memorial of him, a committee was then
appointed with full powers to follow out the object
of the meeting and to devise and carry into effect
such a scheme for a memorial as they might find to
be practicable and most fitted for its purpose, with
power to add to their number. The following gentle-
men ultimately formed the committee : —

The Rev. William Mair, D.D., Earlston.

The Rev. Patrick Beaton, Paris, son-in-law of Professor
MacGillivray.

J. A. Harvie Brown, Esq., of Dunipace.

Professor J. Cossar Ewart, M.D., F.R.S., Edinburgh.

The Rev. James Farquharson, D.D., 47 Mardale Crescent,
Edinburgh (senior minister of Selkirk).

Alexander Fraser, Esq., Wimmera, Bruntsfield Place,
Edinburgh.

Principal Sir W. D. Geddes, LL.D., Aberdeen (now dead).

Professor E. Ray Lankester, LL.D., F.R.S., Director of the
Museum of Natural History, Kensington.

William MacGillivray, Esq., W.S., Edinburgh.

The Rev. Alexander Mitchell, D.D., Dunfermline.

The Rev. James Mitchell, D.D., South Leith.

Emeritus -Professor Sir John Struthers, LL.D., Edinburgh
(now dead).

Professor J. W. H. Trail, F.R.S., Aberdeen.

John Forbes White, Esq., LL.D., Dundee.

Dr. Mair was appointed chairman of the com-

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 3

mittee, and Dr. Farquharson secretary and treasurer.
Subscriptions were readily obtained from relations of
Professor MacGillivray, all now abroad, from former
students in his classes and from others ; and the object
for which the committee was appointed has now been
attained.1

The memorial is of a double character. A
monument has been erected at MacGillivray's grave
and a mural memorial tablet has been placed in
Marischal College, Aberdeen.

The monument consists of a large slab of Peter-
head red granite with an lona cross in a setting of
Celtic scroll work cut in the upper part of its face,
while a bronze relief of an eagle has been inserted in
the centre compartment of a Celtic arcade ornament
on its lower part. The middle of the stone, which,
with the cross, alone is polished, contains the following
inscription : — " In memory of William MacGillivray,
M.A., LL.D., born 1796, died 1852, author of a
History of British Birds and other standard works
in Natural Science ; Professor of Natural History and
Lecturer on Botany in Marischal College and Uni-
versity from 1841 to 1852. Erected in 1900, together
with a memorial brass in Marischal College, Aberdeen,
by his relatives and surviving students, who affection-
ately cherish his memory, and by others desirous of
doing honour to his character as a man and to his
eminence as a naturalist." The entire memorial — both
stone and bronze — is a piece of fine artistic work, and

1 See a list of the subscribers at the end of this volume.

4 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

is in perfection of good taste. Nothing could be
more appropriate as a memorial of the West Highland
ornithologist. The monument was designed and
executed by Messrs. S. M'Glashen and Son, Edin-
burgh, while the eagle was modelled and cast by Mr.
D. W. Stevenson, R.S.A., from MacGillivray's own
very fine life-like drawing of the golden eagle now
in the Natural History Museum, Kensington. The
vitality and power of expression in the drawing have
been rendered with success in the metal. The eagle
forming the frontispiece to this volume is a zinco-
colotype from a photograph of it.

The tablet for Marischal College was designed by
Mr. C. R. Ashbee, architect, 37 Cheyne Walk,
Chelsea, and was executed by the Guild of Handicraft,
Limited, 16 Brook Street, London.

It is a beautiful work of art, and is specially suitable
for its position in Marischal College as a memorial of
the famous ornithologist and Professor of Natural
History in that college. The inscription, in the same
terms as that on the monument, and in an antique,
picturesque and tasteful style of lettering, occupies
the centre of the plate, while the borders are filled
with natural history and botanical objects — all in
conformity with nature — the birds especially being
instinct with life, each exhibiting attitude and action
characteristic of its species. The borders are in open
work of beaten copper, partly bronzed and partly
gilded, shown effectively against a background of pale
red, while the whole of the remaining parts of the

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 5

tablet, including its frame, with flat pilasters at the
sides and the cornice, are of oak. Every detail of the
work is beautifully finished ; and it is difficult to
conceive a finer specimen of art of the kind, whether
in design or in execution.

An extremely interesting ceremonial took place in
Marischal College on 20th November last, when the
tablet was formally unveiled and presented to the
University by Dr. John Forbes White on behalf of
the committee and subscribers. The University was
represented by Principal Marshall Lang and several
of the professors, while others interested in perpetuat-
ing the memory of Professor MacGillivray, including
a number of ladies, formed part of the company
present.

A report of the proceedings from the Aberdeen
Free Press forms a subsequent part of this memorial
volume. Dr. White having been a distinguished
student of Professor MacGillivray, and having in his
Aberdeen University days been in intimate sympathetic
relations with him, there was no one better fitted to
discharge the duty which was put upon him, and none
could have done it better. His address is everything
that could have been desired for the occasion and is
well worthy of being preserved in a permanent form.

As time goes on the real value of Professor
MacGillivray's work, and especially of his History
of British Birds, continues to grow in the estima-
tion of scientists ; while that delightful book has
never ceased to be attractive to the general reader

6 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

who is a lover of birds and a sympathetic observer of
bird life.

There has not yet been written any adequate
account of MacGillivray's life and work; and, un-
fortunately, the means of now writing such scarcely
exist. It is known that from an early period he kept
full and careful journals, by the aid of which a
biography of great interest could have been prepared,
but these were destroyed years ago, and their place,
it is feared, cannot now be supplied from any other
source. The following short sketch of his life and
work has been prepared from such means as have been
found to be yet readily available.

His life history of fifty-six years may be divided into
five successive periods, each of which has its peculiar
interest — especially when regarded with reference to
the outcome of his many undertakings.

1. — His CHILDHOOD IN HARRIS.

The first period extends from the time when he
left Aberdeen, three years old, for Harris, where his
childhood was spent with two uncles, tenants of the
farm of Northtown there, brothers of his father, who
was then with his regiment, the Cameron Highlanders.
He remained there attending the parish school at Obbe
until he was eleven years of age, when he returned
to Aberdeen for the advantages of further education,
which was not obtainable in Harris. During these

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 7

eight years in Harris he must have learned much
which favoured the native bent of his mind towards
the study of nature. The sea, the rocks, and the
mountains in their ever -varying aspects, in summer
and in winter, in sunshine and in storm, with their
wild fowl in vast numbers, species succeeding species
in constant movement in their respective seasons
according to their habits and the necessities of their
nature, were all fitted to minister to the growth of
a mind which was naturally contemplative, and at the
same time extremely observant, sympathetic with every
form of life, and readily responsive to the grandeur and
the beauties of Hebridean scenery.

There is no written existing record as to how he
passed those years, but that "the foundations of his
mind " had then been laid, with promise of subsequent
growth in the direction of its ultimate development,
there can be no doubt. In a poem by him, more
particularly referred to in a subsequent part of this
sketch, he says :

" The solitudes of nature were my school,

And in the moaning voice of streams and winds,
Without the aid of dull scholastic rule,

I felt the tone which in the lone heart finds
Its echo."

2. — UNIVERSITY PERIOD IN ABERDEEN.

The second period extends from the time of his
return to Aberdeen, first for further school education

8 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

and afterwards for his university course of study at
King's College, which he entered when twelve years
old, just one year before the death of his father, who
was killed in the battle of Coruna in February 1809.
After finishing his arts curriculum and taking his M.A.
degree there, he entered on the study of medicine.
While pursuing his medical learning he began, in 1817,
the study of zoology, his only guides, as he said, being
Linnaeus and Pennant, while he knew no one who had
any knowledge of the subject except a friend and
fellow-student, William Craigie.1

During this period of study at Aberdeen he was in
the habit of spending his long summer holidays with
his relations in Harris. His journeys to and fro, in so
far as on the mainland, were always performed on foot ;
and in his book on British birds he gives a very inter-
esting and picturesque account of a walk on one occa-
sion during the night from Blair Atholl on his way
back from the West to the Wells of Dee, where he
had arranged to meet William Craigie on the morning
of the following day. Another very interesting excur-
sion to the sources of the Dee, while on his way to the
West in 1819, is narrated in his Natural History of
Deeside.

During his holidays in Harris he devoted much of
his time to teaching in the school at Obbe ; and a local
tradition of him still is that he was a most attractive
teacher, often directing the minds of his pupils to those

1 William Craigie afterwards emigrated to Canada and settled in
the town of Hamilton, Ontario.

aspects of nature, both animate and inanimate, in which
he was himself specially interested, dwelling much on
the evidence of creative power and design, which he
found everywhere in nature. He also spent much time
in watching by night as well as by day the lives and
habits of birds, often concealing himself for many hours
continuously, now in some cave or rocky recess from
which the endless varieties of swimming birds could be
most readily seen, and again in some temporary shelter
erected by himself on the higher cliffs, from which the
eagle, the osprey, the raven, and others could be closely
observed.

He made many excursions, whenever opportunity
occurred, with his congenial friend, William Craigie,
" zealously striving," as he says in the preface to his
Rapacious Birds of Great Britain, "to add to our
common store of knowledge both in zoology and
botany. Many pleasant and successful excursions we
made together in quest of plants and animals on the
romantic braes of the Don, the pebbly shores of the
Dee, the rocks of the Cove, the sands of the seashore
and the bleak moors of the interior."

The fascination of their pursuits, he tells us, was
such that after studying medicine for nearly five years
— officiating part of the time as dissector to the
lecturer on anatomy at Marischal College — he resolved
to relinquish it, and to devote himself exclusively to
natural history. Under many difficulties he persevered,
wandering far and wide over most parts of Scotland,
and exploring " the desolate isles of the West," as he

10 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

very appropriately calls the Outer Hebrides. On one
occasion he tells us he walked from Aberdeen to
London with his journal and Smith's Flora Britannica
on his back, for the purpose of seeing the country and
visiting the British Museum.

MacGillivray's study of medicine was begun in
1814-15, as pupil to George Barclay, M.D., physician
to the Aberdeen Infirmary and Lecturer on Surgery in
King's and Marischal Colleges. Dr. Barclay was him-
self then quite a young man — only about three years
older than MacGillivray his pupil. He was a native of
Aberdeenshire — youngest son of Charles Barclay, Esq.,
of Templeland, in the parish of Auchterless. He was
much respected and trusted as a physician, and beloved
by all who had relationships with him, whether profes-
sionally or as friends. MacGillivray's attachment to
him was deep and sincere ; and on his death, of typhus
fever, on 20th December 1819, in the twenty-seventh
year of his age, MacGillivray, then resident in Edin-
burgh, wrote and printed " A Tribute to the Memory
of a Friend ; being a Poem on the Death of George
Barclay, M.D.," to which was prefixed a short account
of Dr. Barclay's life and character. In the poem he
warmly expresses his feelings of attachment towards
his deceased teacher and friend, and his warm sense of
indebtedness to him. He had sent the poem to Mrs.
Barclay in manuscript, accompanying it with a letter
dated 4th March 1820, in which he writes : " The
poem which accompanies this, such as it is, is the pure
offering of feeling, and such as its title indicates. I

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 11

could from my soul wish it better, not from selfish
motives. I shall be happy if Mrs. Barclay think of it
as her friends here do. But in subjecting it to her
examination I expect the most unrestrained criticism.
... I must not indulge in reflections — even though I
should be deemed callous. My poem will speak my
feelings."

The poem is in the Spenserian stanza, the same as
that which had been adopted by Dr. Beattie in his
" Minstrel." Beattie (" Bard of the North," as he had
been designated) was then a strong poetic influence in
the counties of Aberdeen and Kincardine. He was
a native of Laurencekirk in Kincardineshire, became
parish schoolmaster of Fordoun in the same county,
and was afterwards, from 1769 to a few years before his
death in 1803, Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic
in Marischal College and University, Aberdeen. The
easy, smooth, flowing rhythm of his verse was very
attractive to the ear, while the thought and sentiment
of his poems were not unfrequently worthy of a more
free and less formal poetic diction. Several of his best
known poems were included in the Scotch school books
which were most in use in MacGillivray's early days.
One of these (Masons Collection} was popular in the two
counties even within the memory of the writer of this ;
and the most familiarly known and best loved poem in
it was undoubtedly " Beattie's Hermit."

MacGillivray, in his sketch of the life of Dr. Barclay,
says : " Beattie was among his favourite authors par-
ticularly in poetry." The local predominance of

12 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

Seattle's influence, and MacGillivray's affectionate
regard for his teacher and friendly guide, no doubt
mainly account for the peculiar diction and style of his
tributory poem. It is Beattie's " Minstrel " all through
— quite the style of the early years of the latter half of
the eighteenth century, in which human virtues and
vices, with capital initial letters, were personified, while
certain stereotyped euphonious words and phrases were
constantly repeated whatever the subject of the poem
might be, — all associated with strictest propriety of
conduct, formal respectability in morals and religion,
lone Philomelas in shady groves, powdered wigs, silver
buckled shoes, etc. etc. Still, in MacGillivray's poem
there is, notwithstanding the antiquated diction, which
had been quite abandoned by our best poets early
in the nineteenth century, much real poetic feeling
with absolute sincerity of purpose. Fine reflective
thought also now and again breaks through the ancient
mode of expression. This is well illustrated in several
of those stanzas in which MacGillivray portrays the
character of his deceased friend, and gives free expres-
sion to his feelings towards him. As the poem extends
to forty pages it is too long for being wholly included
in this volume, but several of the more interesting
stanzas are quoted from it as affording fair specimens of
its general character, and as throwing light on some
interesting features of the growing mind of the youthful
writer — then only twenty-four years of age. One
cannot help regretting, in reading these stanzas, that a
young man of his early poetic promise should not have

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 13

come within the influence of the unconventional style
and imaginative power of Wordsworth, which enabled
him to realise and to interpret to others the spiritual in
nature as no one else had done. How much it might
have added to MacGillivray's appreciation of those
aspects of nature which interested him most, while it
would have led him to a deeper sense of the divine in
nature — true and deep as that sense in him always was.
It would probably also have tended towards greater free-
dom from conventionalities, which must have hampered
him more or less (unconsciously) in his search after
truth, even in his own departments of science. But
the early acquired predilection for the Beattie style of
poetry, with the severity of the Edinburgh Review
criticisms of the " Lake School " and of Wordsworth's
poetry in particular, which then prejudiced so many
minds against it, sufficiently accounts for the absence
of the Wordsworth influence on his mind — intensely
devoted to nature as he was.

In one of the extracts from the memorial poem
given further on in this volume the writer of it, re-
ferring to Dr. Barclay's influence on him, says —

" The name which hallows this rude sonsr

o

Has been to me a blessing and a light
To guide me on my weary way along,"

and again —

" He saw my follies, and reprov'd them oft :
Not in the galling tone of sullen speech,
But as a friend, in accents firm though soft,"

14 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

while in another passage he says —

" Friend to the friendless, he was all to me
That my fond heart could wish."

Indeed, again and again throughout the poem his
love and respect for Dr. Barclay is expressed with
evidently unfeigned sincerity, although at times in
language which may to the reader appear bordering on
exaggeration — not unnatural in a youthful mind so
deeply affected, but which to him was no exaggeration.

The midnight scene in the Hebrides — the subject
of the last of the poetic extracts given in this volume-
is specially fine, although quite in the Beattie spirit and
style — especially the last line, which suggests the effect
of it as wooing " the contemplative mind to midnight's
bower."

The poem is highly valued, and is carefully pre-
served, by Dr. Barclay's still surviving son, Mr. George
Barclay, of 17 Coates Crescent, Edinburgh.

Mr. Barclay has a distinct recollection of his mother
telling him of the first impression made on her by her
husband's "wild Highland pupil," when as a young
wife she went to Aberdeen in October 1816. No doubt
MacGillivray had just then returned from his annual
summer stay in Harris — his clothing and his person
probably still betraying more or less the effects of his
long pedestrian journey, in which there had been much
scrambling over rocks, wading through marshes, and
wandering among peat bogs in search of rare plants, or
for observation of the habits of birds, which had

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 15

attracted his attention by the way. He not unnatur-
ally, therefore, presented to Mrs. Barclay more the
appearance of a somewhat primitive Hebridean Celt
than of the Aberdeen medical student ; but the qualities
of head and heart soon made him a welcome guest and
friend.

3. — EDINBURGH PERIOD TO 1831.

The third period embraces the eleven or twelve
years of his earlier residence in Edinburgh. He first
went there, he says in the preface to his Rapacious
Birds of Great Britain, on the advice of a friend, to
engage in " a kind of mineralogical speculation." The
friend was probably Dr. Barclay, whose father-in-law,
Mr. Walter Berry of Edinburgh, was much interested
in mineralogy. MacGillivray does not say what the
nature of the speculation was, or how it resulted ;
but he adds that he then attended the lectures of
Professor Jamieson, who at that time occupied the
Chair of Natural History in the University. He again
returned to the Hebrides, where he occupied his time
in "hammering gneiss rocks, gathering gulls' eggs, and
shooting birds"; but he got tired of that occupation,
which, although congenial to him, and was daily add-
ing to his knowledge of nature, afforded no means of
present livelihood or prospect of it for the future.
Besides having, on 29th September 1820, married Miss
Marion MacCaskill of Harris (he being then twenty-

16 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

four years of age and she seventeen), the necessity for
some settled income must have become urgent. He
therefore returned to Edinburgh, where he obtained the
position of assistant and secretary to Professor Jamieson,
under whom he undertook the charge of the Natural
History Museum there. Here he found abundant
opportunity for continuing his study of natural history,
and especially his favourite branch of it, ornithology,
with the aid of the collection of specimens in the
Museum, and subjects which came into his hands for
dissection, or which he himself collected in the course
of his excursions around Edinburgh and elsewhere.

He occupied this position for several years, but
desiring to have more leisure, as he explains in the
preface to his book on Rapacious Birds, for prosecut-
ing his investigations in the field, he resigned it, and
resumed his wanderings, extending these more widely
than before, mainly for the purpose of enlarging his
knowledge of the habits and lives of his feathered
favourites — supporting himself and his family, as he
says, by his " labours in the closet." What those closet
labours consisted of we have no precise information,
but they were no doubt principally of the nature of
contributions connected with natural history to scientific
periodicals, compilations, and other miscellaneous liter-
ary work.

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 17

4. — CONSERVATOR OF THE MUSEUM OF THE EDINBURGH
COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, 1831 TO 1841 — " HISTORY
OF BRITISH BIRDS " — AUDUBON.

In 1831 he was unanimously chosen, without any
influence being sought or used on his behalf, from
amongst ten applicants for the position of Conservator
of the Museum of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons,
as successor to Dr. Knox ; and thus began the fourth
period of his life, which extended to 1841. The amount
of work done by him during that period was marvel-
lous, while on the results of it, and of the many years'
previous preparation, his fame as an ornithologist
mainly rests.

During the ten years he occupied that position, his
duties to -the Museum were discharged with the most
conscientious care and with perfect scientific skill and
intelligence. His first year's work was especially
arduous and laborious, and it severely tested both his
physical and his mental powers. When he entered on
his duties on 17th September 1831, the numerous pre-
parations belonging to the College were partly in the
old museum in Surgeon Square and partly in two
other separate buildings ; while their condition and
arrangement were far from satisfactory. The existing
handsome building was just then being completed from
designs by Mr. Playfair, and it fell to MacGillivray to
see the contents of the old buildings removed to the
new one. He found the preparations in a very un-

c

18 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

satisfactory condition — many of them badly prepared,
badly put up, and badly arranged, while almost all were
far from clean. He had them thoroughly cleaned
and otherwise put into a satisfactory condition, and
re -arranged the whole collection, re -labelling every
article. The labelling of 4000 articles was of itself a
most laborious undertaking, occupying many months.
Almost all the labour, except the actual cleaning and
the manual work of transport to the new hall, was
done by his own hands. In one of his most interesting
reports to the Curators — interesting as throwing light
on the capacity and character of the man — he says that
he must practically do all the work himself, "as no
benefit would be derived from the interference of
others." The labels in his own neat handwriting are
still to be seen attached to many of the preparations
which remain in the order in which they were left
by him.

During the year 1832 the removal and re-arrange-
ment were completed ; and the College, it is believed,
recognises to this day the work then done as of
permanent value to the Museum — the system of
arrangement adopted by MacGillivray being still
adhered to.

The work thus accomplished by MacGillivray
was specially acknowledged by the College in terms
that leave no room for doubt as to its efficiency and
value, as appears from many of its minutes. In a
minute, dated 2nd August 1832, it is recorded that
" Mr. Wood said there could be but one opinion as

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 19

to the general assiduity and talent which had been
shown by the Conservator in the very arduous task of
removing and arranging the Museum, which he had
performed so much to the satisfaction of the College.
He therefore begged to move that the sum of £50,
together with the thanks of the College, be presented
to the Conservator for the extra labour he had had in
the matter."

At the next meeting of the College (13th August
1832), "Dr. Gairdner, President, in absence of Mr.
Wood, proposed that his motion of 2nd August, re-
garding a grant of money and vote of thanks to the
Conservator, be approved, as he believed it was admitted
on all hands that Mr. MacGillivray was most deserving
of this mark of approbation from the College, especially
as the motion proceeded from the Curators of the
Museum, who were best acquainted with the nature and
extent of his labours and with the manner in which he
had performed his duties. The motion was unanimously
carried."

The subsequent minutes of the College afford
abundant evidence of the extremely satisfactory manner
in which MacGillivray continued to discharge his duties
as conservator during the remaining eight years of his
tenure of that office, never grudging time or trouble
in the discharge of these duties in the manner most
conducive to the interests of the College and to the
entire satisfaction of that body.

His knowledge of comparative anatomy and of
natural history the College recognised as being of

20 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

special importance in connection with his duties in the
Museum; and by a minute of 21st March 1833 they
authorise him to absent himself from the Museum
on Saturdays, " for the purpose of enabling him to go
into the country and give demonstrations on natural
history."

A minute of 2nd August following bears that the
Curators in their quarterly report to the College
" desire to express their satisfaction with the state of
the collection under their care and with the skill and
attention by which the duties of the Conservator have
been performed, and that it appeared to the Curators
that, as he is at present engaged in preparing the cata-
logue, considerable advantage would be derived from his
being enabled to spend three or four weeks in London
for the purpose of inspecting the museums there. Mr.
Brown moved, agreeably to the recommendation inti-
mated in the report of the Curators, that the Conser-
vator be sent to London at the expense of the College
for the purpose of examining the museums there with
the view of preparing himself to adjust the catalogue
of the Museum belonging to this College, which motion
was agreed to."

The minute of 12th November contains the follow-
ing passage from the Curators' report : — " It will be
recollected that the College, with the view to the
preparation of the catalogue, gave permission to the
Conservator to inspect the museums in London. He
visited previously the University and Andersonian
Museums of Glasgow, the collections of natural

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 21

history in Liverpool, and the Museums of Dublin and
Bristol. In London he visited the various collections,
taking such notes and drawings as may be of use in
completing our own arrangements. He visited also the
museum at Chatham. The Curators have every reason
to be pleased with the industry and intelligence displayed
by the Conservator in the tour which he has made."

The College approved of the report and agreed
that the Conservator should have the use of a clerk to
assist him in making out the catalogne.

Fortunately MacGillivray's journal of his tour of
inspection of the museums has been preserved, and it
appears to be of so much interest as throwing light on
some of the more remarkable features of his character
that it is included in this volume — passages which
are merely technical or without general interest being
omitted. Three or four weeks was the time allowed him
by the College for the inspection, and it will be seen
that he inspected the museums in Glasgow, Liverpool,
Dublin, Bristol, and London — numbering twenty-four
in all — and that he accomplished the whole of that work,
including his various journeys, from the time he left
Edinburgh on 4th September until his return on 29th
of that month (three weeks and four days), although
there was then no railway to quicken his transit except
on a visit from Liverpool to Manchester and back ; and
it appears from the journal that he had gained all the
information with regard to the different museums, the
acquisition of which was the special object of his tour.
The contents of the museums, the arrangement of the

22 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

preparations, the mode in which they had been pre-
served, labelled, etc., and their condition generally,
were readily taken in by him in all their detail, as well
as in their general features, and were noted for refer-
ence in connection with his own work. He learned
much that was of special interest to him, although
apparently very little that was suggestive of improve-
ment on his own ideas of museum classification and
arrangement. Indeed he comments very unfavourably
on the condition of some of the museums he had
visited, while others drew from him warm approval.

Besides his comments on the museums there is
much in the journal of interest otherwise — his geological
observations, his picturesque descriptions of scenery
and of life, his general reflections, and his touches of
humour, peculiarly characteristic of the man, all tend
to enhance the value of the small MS. volume so neatly
written in his own hand.

The minutes of the College all through Mac-
Gillivray's tenure of office in its Museum contain
evidence of its entire confidence in him, and they
repeatedly record its admiration and appreciation of his
work. The Museum, during his ten years' charge of
it, was kept in perfection of order and cleanliness, while
much was added to it which enhanced its value. Every
addition (not a few by MacGillivray himself) was at
once put into the most perfect state of preservation,
and was fitted into his scientific arrangement. Nothing
was ever left out of order, and constant cleaning was
rigidly carried out.

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 23

From a minute of the College, dated 31st March
1834, it appears that MacGillivray had then begun to
give lectures on natural history, and he obtained special
permission from the College to absent himself on
Saturdays, " to admit of his giving these lectures and
to have scientific excursions with his pupils."

There is an interesting and amusing paragraph in a
minute of the College of 2nd August 1834, in which it
is stated that the Curators in their report to the
College "agree to a sentiment expressed by the Con-
servator that it has been noticed to him that low and
vulgar persons can derive no benefit from visiting the
Museum, but that it was obvious to him that such a
collection is calculated to remove many of their pre-
judices and that without information all men would be
low enough. Besides, he added, such persons are the
least disposed to handle anything."

In a minute of 3rd August 1835 it is stated that
the Curators reported that the catalogue was now
completed, and that all the preparations then stood in
the order of it, and it is added : " This work, so creditable
to the College and so calculated to increase the useful-
ness of it, has occupied so much of the Conservator's
time and attention, and has been so materially advanced
by his assiduity and by his judicious arrangements as to
merit some species of acknowledgment on the part of
the College, and with this view the Curators re-
commend to the College to vote him a gratuity of
twenty guineas, which was unanimously agreed to."
In the minutes throughout the remaining six years

24 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

there are frequent references to the condition of the
Museum, which was always in the perfection of order
and cleanliness, MacGillivray's predominating views
as to museums being that the order should be
strictly scientific, and that everything should be kept
scrupulously clean. During his whole tenure of office
he seems to have been allowed an almost autocratic
privilege in having his views carried out, the result
always being the entire satisfaction of the College.

At last the termination of his career as Conservator
of the Museum seems to have come about rather
abruptly. It is recorded in a minute of the College of
16th March 1841 that the President had received a
letter from MacGillivray, informing him that he had
heard from the Marquis of Normanby that he had been
appointed to the professorship of " Civil and Natural
History " in Marischal College, Aberdeen, and that he
accordingly resigned the conservatorship of the Museum,
as from the last day of April following, by which time
he said he hoped it would be in perfect order for a
successor.

The minute of the College of 21st April following
bears that, on the motion of the President, Dr. Huie,
seconded by Dr. Maclagan, the College " unanimously
resolved to put on record the high sense which they
entertain of the value and efficiency of Mr. MacGilli-
vray's services as Conservator of the Museum of the
College for the last ten years, and to convey to him
through their President their sincere congratulations
on his appointment to the professorship of Civil and

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 25

Natural History in Marischal College, together with
their best wishes for his comfort and success in that
new department of public duty."

Thus ended MacGillivray's career in connection
with the Edinburgh College of Surgeons, in the course
of which he had shown in a marked degree those
qualities which specially fitted him for the higher sphere
of usefulness in connection with the science to which
his heart, head, and time had been so zealously and so
exclusively devoted for upwards of twenty years ; and
then began thejifth and final period of his life's work.

His name had already become famous as an orni-
thologist by the publication of the first three volumes
of his History of British Birds ; but before referring
specially to that final period, some account must be
given of his other work during the ten years of his
connection with the Museum.

These museum duties — constant and arduous as they
were, and much as they occupied his time and thought
—formed but a part of the work accomplished by him
during that fourth period of his life. Besides his lectures
on natural history, many contributions to scientific
periodicals, including the article " Ornithology " to the
seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the
editing of the Edinburgh Journal of Natural History
and Physical Science, from 1835 to 1840, the editing of
new editions of several books on natural science, writing
a condensation of Alexander Von Humboldt's travels,
the lives of eminent zoologists, Descriptions of the
Rapacious Birds of Great Britain, published in 1836,

26 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

which he called his " first work," although he had pre-
viously published many original papers, translations,
and compilations, "all in the way of business," as he
says. He also during the same period wrote a History
of British Quadrupeds for Jardin's Naturalist's Library,
Manuals of Botany, Geology, and Zoology, and the
first, second, and third volumes of his History of
British Birds — his " great work," as he himself calls it
by anticipation in the preface to the Rapacious Birds,
the remaining two volumes having been issued only
shortly before his death in 1852.

A further literary undertaking during this more
than busy period had reference to Audubon's Ornitho-
logical Biographies. He wrote the whole of the scien-
tific part of that work, and a complete synopsis of it.
In addition to all his writing, he was also occupied in
making those most truthful and finely artistic drawings
of British birds in water colour, now in the British
Museum.

The most important outcome, however, of the
ten years' work consisted in the three volumes of the
History of British Birds, to which the patronage of Her
late Majesty had been graciously extended, and to whom
the work was dedicated.

The object which he sought specially to accomplish
in the publication of that work is explained by him in
the preface to the first volume as follows, viz. — " The
object I had in view when, many years ago, I com-
menced the observations recorded in this work was at
some convenient season to lay before the public descrip-

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 27

tions of the birds of Great Britain, more extended, and
if possible more correct, than any previously offered ; "
and in the preface to the Rapacious Birds he says:
" Ornithology can be successfully prosecuted only by
examining the internal structure, the external form, the
actions and habits, the distribution and the various
relations of the objects to which it refers ; " adding, " all
arrangements of birds hitherto published are merely
artificial, inasmuch as in their details reference is had
only to one or a few sets of organs." He further says
he had not written without full preparation, having been
at work for twenty years accumulating facts by his own
observations in many fields, by numerous communica-
tions with other observers, by examination of many
specimens, in museums and in his own possession,
derived from various parts of the world, and by dissec-
tion of such birds as were available to him.

The publication of the History of British Birds
formed the commencement of a new era in ornithology,
and the result was to revolutionise to a great extent
that branch of natural science. It was in accordance
with the principles indicated in the above quotations
that the book was written, and its value from a scientific
point of view consists in its having been so. This work
had the effect at the time of raising its author to the
highest position in Britain as an ornithologist. In a
subsequent part of this memorial volume several ex-
tracts from MacGillivray's works are given, in which
he fully explains and vindicates the principles on
which his system of classification, entirely differing

28 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

from the classification of previous ornithologists, was
founded.

But since that time the advance in ornithology, in
every aspect of it, has been enormous. Many have
followed the line of treatment initiated by MacGillivray,
and most writers, since the publication of the Origin of
Species, have gone much further, in the light of the
principles of evolution and natural selection. Every
organ and feature of the bird, both internal and external,
has been made the subject of the most minute examina-
tion, with results directly bearing on the principles of
classification. These results and the present advanced
stage of this most attractive branch of science are well
and shortly explained in the recently published Structure
and Classification of Birds by Mr. Beddard. Still the
origin of the movement and the direction it has taken
are due to MacGillivray.

He betrays oftener than once in his works a pro-
phetic consciousness that, while he felt he was groping
in the dark, the dawn of greater light was near ; but
how far he would have been able to accept the prin-
ciples of Darwin may be uncertain. His belief in the
separate creation of each species, and in its permanency
as so created, appears to have been strong, when the
introduction to the first volume of his History of
British Birds was written. In it he says: " Species alone
exist in nature," while " genera, families, orders, and all
the mediate sections of a class must ever remain fluctu-
ating ; " and that while species " are more or less allied
to each other, they exist in an order conformable to the

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 29

plan of their creation." His religious views, too, un-
doubtedly deep and sincere, were quite in harmony
with his views as to the creation of species. He
saw God everywhere in nature ; and as his scientific
knowledge deepened and widened, the more did the
Creative Mind reveal itself to him in intelligent adapta-
tion and design for the accomplishment of specific ends.
Everything, as it existed, was to him the direct result
of an original forth -putting of Creative Power and
design, while his reverence for that Power increased
as his scientific knowledge extended and deepened.
Although the form of his religious belief, like the form
of his poetry, was very much that of the preceding
century, its reality and intensity were of his time, and
peculiarly his own individually. Would his restricted
scientific views as to species, with his form of religious
belief, have prevented him from accepting the Dar-
winian theories of evolution and natural selection ?
Would he have been able, with his ardent love of
truth and his capacity for clear insight into nature, to
accept the Darwinian theory of evolutionary progres-
sive creation in place of the view that all things were
made at a beginning out of nothing, each species, age
after age, simply reproducing itself, although subject
to much and constant variation within its specific
limitations ?

It is not improbable that he would have got entirely
over the then existing wall of separation between the
past and the present of all scientific systems. Indeed,
notwithstanding his views as to species indicated in the

30 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

above quotations, and his form of religious belief, there
are passages in his Manual of Botany, published three
years after his first volume of British Birds, which
appear to show that his views had been undergoing
a change, as in that work he says : " There is nothing
absolutely certain as to species," that " species often
pass into each other by gradations which render it
impossible to draw a line of demarcation, and thus
all species are more or less arbitrary ; " while in his
geological teaching he had quite abandoned those
views as to creation which so hampered Hugh Miller
to the last, and led to his fanciful theory of interpreta-
tion of the first chapter of Genesis. In the epitome
of his lectures as dictated to his class in Marischal
College, he says : " Species have not changed during
historical times," apparently implying that they may
have changed during longer prehistoric periods ; and,
again, in that epitome he says " the most perfected
animals appear to have been created last," thus assuming
that there had been successive creations — not one only,
once for all. He was absolutely free from prejudice,
always kept his eyes open, and constantly insisted on
ascertained fact as the only legitimate basis of theory :
while his love of truth and strict adherence to it formed,
it may be said, the backbone of his life and of his work.
He was eminently worthy of the Gaelic name he bore,
" Gillivray " — servant of the truth ; and the publication
of The Origin of Species would probably have been
hailed by him as the rising of a new sun in the heaven
of science, and as bringing the light for which he had

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 31

been prophetically looking. He would probably have
been able to see God's creative power in nature not less
clearly and reverently than before — creative by a never-
ceasing evolutionary process, a continual progressive
unfolding of the essential being of all existences — an
endless change and growth of organic form making
clearer to him the full significance of those very prin-
ciples of classification which he had already adopted,
with a deeper insight into the facts of nature on which
they rested, and which, through the mind of Darwin,
had come to the scientific mind of the age as a new
and great revelation.

But besides the scientific aspect of the History of
British Birds, that "great work" has other features
which will always preserve its interest and attractive-
ness to many readers who may be unable to enter
intelligently into the author's scientific descriptions and
deductions. The narratives of his excursions — often
by night as well as by day ; the difficulties encountered
— at times with no little danger, especially while
scrambling among the rocks of the Outer Hebrides,
or climbing the cliffs of Ben Macdhui ; his descriptions
of scenery — now overpowering in its ruggedness and
grandeur, and again tenderly soothing in its soft and
varied beauty, amid which he wandered in the pursuit
of knowledge of the habits and modes of life of his
feathered friends, are often extremely fascinating, and
all the more so when such scenes are enlivened by a
solitary raven on its crag, or by a couple of sea eagles
wheeling about on wing high above his hiding-place,

32 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

or by flocks of sea birds of all varieties wandering over
a flat sandy shore, with the sea far out on a bright
sunny morning, in search of their early meal, or by a
grey and yellow wagtail, as seen by him on the banks
of the Braid Burn one summer day while walking along
its course. " How pretty and pleasantly thou runnest,"
he writes, " along the sandy margin of the brook. The
pattering of thy tiny feet can be heard only by fairy
ears ; so light is thy tender frame, which vibrates as if
thy joints were too delicate and thy muscles too sensi-
tive for thee to fix them for a moment in rest. The
gentle breeze, that scarce bends the young grass, curves
the long feathers of thy tail, and the sudden blast sweeps
thee away quivering and emitting thy shrill notes," etc.
It concludes : " It is pleasant to me to gaze upon thee,
thou marvellous epitome of mind and matter, so har-
moniously organised." The passage is given at length
in the latter part of this volume, and it will be seen
how lovingly sympathetic it is throughout with the
tiny creature, which for the time had completely
drawn his affections towards it.

But every feathered creature, from the most powerful
and relentless bird of prey to the smallest and most
harmless of the race, attracted his sympathy as he
found it in its native habitat and congenial sur-
roundings.

Of the ravens at Loch Tulloch he says : " It is very
pleasant to hear the ravens on the crags talking to each
other in great variety of accents — one answering the
call of another. Poor fellows ! if the glen were mine

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 33

I would give strict orders not to molest them ; for next
to the eagle — now altogether destroyed — the raven is
the greatest ornament of such a scene."

Indeed there was no bird to be found in all his
wanderings which did not draw a warmth of sympathy
from his kindly heart ; and there are many passages in
his book on British birds, which, for picturesque beauty,
poetic feeling, or tender sympathy with nature and
every living creature that came under his observation,
can scarcely be surpassed. Yet he never allowed his
sympathetic feeling, or his appreciation of the pictur-
esque to interfere with his proper work as a scientific
ornithologist. To learn the facts about the habits and
lives of living birds was the main object of his many
wanderings ; and his power of imagination and sym
pathetic susceptibility, in place of hindering, helped
much, in his case, to the readier and clearer perception
of those facts, and to his capacity for making them
more vividly and attractively apparent to others — to
the non- scientific as well as to the scientific.

There is another feature of the writer's mind of
much interest, which betrays itself in many passages
of his "great work," as well as in his other works
— that is an ever-present sense of the deep mystery
of Nature and of the limits of his power of insight,
however much he had been able to see more than
others of his generation. He was intensely worshipful
at Nature's shrine — all his best thought and feeling
often rising into reverential awe, and his heart over-
flowing with gratitude and thankfulness to the Author

D

34 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

of all that beauty and glory which constituted for him
its supreme and abiding interest.

The illustrations in his History of British Birds,
drawn by himself, and consisting principally of the
heads and feet of birds, besides being scientifically
accurate, are fine specimens of art, each being strik-
ingly expressive of the character of the species of bird
represented. As examples, nothing could be finer
than the head of the golden eagle, or of the sea eagle,
or of the raven, or the magpie.

But these illustrations, good as they are, come far
short of his water -coloured drawings of birds in the
British Museum already referred to. They are beautiful
works of art, executed with great delicacy and care —
in expression, in attitude, and in their natural surround-
ings, just as he had seen them with his own eyes. Yet
they are little known outside the walls of the Natural
History Department of the Museum. Modest as he
habitually was, he did realise that there were things
which he could do better than other people, and he
spoke the simple truth when he said that, in his day,
no one could draw a bird except Audubon and himself.

But besides his work as conservator of the
Surgeon's Museum and all his own scientific and
literary work, he undertook, as has been said, to aid
Audubon in the preparation of his Ornithological
Biographies for the press. He was introduced by
Mr. James Wilson (Christopher North's brother) to
Audubon when that eminent American ornithologist
was arranging for the publication of his great work

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 35

in Edinburgh in 1830. Audubon writes in his journal,
recently published by his grand-daughter, Miss Marion
R. Audubon : "I know I am a poor writer, that I
scarcely can manage to scribble a tolerable English letter
and not a much better one in French, though that is
easier to me. I know I am not a scholar, but, mean-
time, I am aware that no man living knows better
than I do the habits of our birds ; no man living has
studied them so much as I have done, and, with the
assistance of my old journals and memorandum books,
which were written on the spot, I can at least put
down plain truths which may be useful and perhaps
interesting, so I shall set to at once. I cannot, how-
ever, give scientific descriptions and here must have
assistance."

Thus Audubon wrote on 16th October 1830 in
his lodgings, 26 George Street, his residence during
all the time he was in Edinburgh.

The co-operation of Audubon and MacGillivray
in the production of the Ornithological Biographies is
thus referred to by Mr. D. G. Elliot in an address
to the New York Academy of Sciences on 16th
April 1893. He says : " No better or more fortunate
choice could have been made. Audubon worked
incessantly, MacGillivray keeping abreast of him ;
and Mrs. Audubon rewrote the entire manuscript to
send to America to secure the copyright."

The late Dr. Coues, in his Key to North American
Birds, second edition, 1884, says of Audubon : " Vivid
and ardent was his genius ; matchless he was, both in

36 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

pen and pencil, in giving life and spirit to the beautiful
objects he delineated with passionate love ; but there
was a strong and patient worker by his side, William
MacGillivray, the countryman of Wilson, destined to
lend the strong Scotch fibre to the Audubonian
epoch. The brilliant French - American naturalist
was little of a scientist. Of his work, the magical
beauties of form and colour and movement are all
his ; his page is redolent of nature's fragrance ; but
MacGillivray's are the bone and sinew, the hidden
anatomical parts beneath the lovely form, the nomen-
clature, the classification, in a word the technicalities
of the science."

Mrs. Audubon, writing from Edinburgh to her
sons in America, says : " Nothing is heard but the
steady movement of the pen ; your father is up and at
work before dawn, and writes without ceasing all day.
Mr. MacGillivray breakfasts at nine each morning,
attending the Museum four days in the week, has
several works on hand besides ours, and is, moreover,
engaged as a lecturer in a new seminary on botany
and natural history. His own work progresses slowly
but surely." The date of this letter does not appear,
but it could not have been written during Mac-
Gillivray's earlier years as conservator of the Museum,
as he must then have been fully occupied more than
four days a week with the arduous and anxious work
connected with the removal and subsequent rearrange-
ment of the museum contents. In 1833, and again in
1834, he had, as already mentioned, obtained the

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 37

permission of the College to absent himself from the
Museum on Saturdays only.

Audubon, in the introduction to the first volume
of his Ornithological Biographies, published by Adam
Black, Edinburgh, in 1831, says : " I feel pleasure in
acknowledging the assistance I have received from a
friend, Mr. William MacGillivray, who, being possessed
of a liberal education and a strong taste for the study
of the natural sciences, has aided me, not in drawing
the figures of my illustrations, nor in writing the book
now in hand, although fully competent for both tasks,
but in completing the scientific details and in smoothing
down the asperities of my Ornithological Biographies.

Again, in the introduction to the fourth volume,
published in November 1838, Audubon writes : "With
reference to a vast number of specimens " — which had
been sent him from America — "an account of the
digestive organs and trachea of these, generally concise,
but occasionally of considerable length, you will find
under the articles to which they refer in the present
volume. Their anatomical descriptions, as well as the
sketches by which they are sometimes illustrated, have
been executed by my learned friend, William Mac-
Gillivray, who in the most agreeable manner consented
to undertake the labour, by no means small, of such a
task, and to whom those who are interested in the
progress of ornithological science, as well as myself,
must therefore feel indebted." There then follows a
sentence in which he prophesies that the time is
approaching when museums filled with stuffed skins

38 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

will not be considered sufficient to afford a knowledge
of birds, and when the student will not only go forth
to observe the habits of birds but to procure specimens
for careful dissection, thus showing the effect of
MacGillivray's teaching and example on a man who,
although he knew much of the habits, lives, and
exterior of birds, was " no scientist."

Audubon, on finally departing for America, left his
son Victor to finish the work of publication, and he
wrote to him as follows : — " You have my journals,
all necessary facts, and in yourself sufficient ability to
finish the letter-press with the assistance of our worthy
friend, John Bechman, as well as MacGillivray."

From these quotations it is clear that Mac-
Gillivray's part in the preparation of the Ornithological
Biographies must have involved much anxious, laborious
and constant work, requiring the greatest care and
judgment, over a period of eight years, and that work
must have added much to his other constantly en-
grossing occupations. Yet nothing which came from
his pen shows haste ; and everything he did was done
with patience, with care and with accuracy. Care,
patience, and accuracy were elements in his nature
which no circumstances, however pressing, could
counteract or overcome.

His labours in connection with Audubon's work
terminated in 1839, when the Synopsis., which was
wholly prepared by him, was finished and published.

MacGillivray, as appears from many passages in his
British Birds, appreciated much the warm friendship

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 39

of Audubon, and he frequently acknowledges his in-
debtedness to him for information and specimens
which were of great importance to him in connection
with his own work.

His book on the Rapacious Birds of Great Britain
was dedicated to " John James Audubon, in admiration
of his talents as an ornithologist, and in gratitude
for many acts of friendship." Although the two
men, as Dr. Coues says, were in most respects very
unlike each other, they were both men of generous
mind and warm heart, having common interests,
with reference to which each was willingly helpful
to the other, Audubon, no doubt, gaining most by
the friendship, which greater gain was willingly
and ungrudgingly conceded by MacGillivray to his
friend.

MacGillivray and his family then lived at No.
1 Wharton Place, now no longer in existence, its
site being occupied by part of the buildings of the
Royal Infirmary. Their immediate neighbour was
the late Mr. Fraser, the successor of Dr. Neill of
Canonmills Lodge in his well-known, old-established
printing business. The MacGillivray, the Audubon,
and the Fraser families were on terms of close friend-
ship with each other ; and Mr. Alexander Fraser,
Wimmera, Bruntsfield Place, Edinburgh, lately of
Canonmills Lodge, son of MacGillivray 's friend, who
was then a boy, still remembers with pleasure the
friendly meetings in one or other of the three family
residences, and he specially mentions one such meeting

40 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

in Audubon's rooms when John MacGillivray (Mac-
Gillivray's eldest son), carelessly flourishing a stick,
broke a glass case in which Audubon kept one of his
ornithological treasures, to the great disappointment
and annoyance of the naturalist. Mr. Fraser also
relates how he, John MacGillivray, and John
Audubon, then both lads like himself (afterwards
eminent naturalists) were wont to go out on bird-
shooting expeditions, when on one occasion they
were caught in Ravelston Woods, rather roughly
handled, and had their gun taken from them.

5. — PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY IN MARISCHAL
COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY, ABERDEEN, 1841 TO
1852 — " HISTORY OF BRITISH BIRDS " COMPLETED
— "NATURAL HISTORY OF DEESIDE AND BRAE-
MAR " — DEATH.

As already mentioned, MacGillivray in 1841 entered
on a new and extended sphere of eminent usefulness, as
Professor of Natural History in Marischal College,
Aberdeen, a sphere for which he was specially qualified,
and which was altogether congenial to him. Then
began, as has been said, the fifth period of his life. His
chair included zoology, geology, and botany, this latter
being a separate lectureship. All of these branches he
had made subjects of special study, and had published,
as mentioned before, a manual on each of them while

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 41

he was in Edinburgh. His scientific many-sidedness
fitted in well with the varied character of his work in
his new position, while that position at the same time
afforded him opportunities for still further self-develop-
ment in accordance with the bent of his mind and in
the lines of his varied previous extensive acquire-
ments.

In Marischal College he found himself in direct
contact with many young inquiring minds. To instruct
and to guide these was henceforth to be the main
business of his life. He devoted himself to this work
with all his energies, mental and physical, and with
a warmth of sympathetic interest rarely found in the
occupants of a professorial chair. There was earnest-
ness and reality in all he said and did — in his lectures,
in his excursions into surrounding districts, frequently
with his students in search of zoological or botanical
specimens, or for examination of geological phenomena.
These excursions often involved long and fatiguing
walks, but his youthful companions, inspired by his
spirit, always felt that what they had gained in
knowledge from discoveries made under his guid-
ance, in instruction then received or illustrated, or
in pleasure from his kindly and courteous companion-
ship, much more than compensated for the fatigues
undergone.

MacGillivray brought new life into Marischal
College, while the specially interesting nature of his
lectures and the attractiveness of his personality
drew to his classes many students whose curriculum

42 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

did not include the subjects of his teaching. Even
brother professors, unable to resist his magnetic
influence, were not unfrequently seen on the benches
in front of him. The late Professor Blackie,
then occupant of the Humanity Chair in Marischal
College, actually enrolled himself as one of his
students !

An example of MacGillivray's wonderful aptitude
for work connected with his chair, and of the rapidity,
and at the same time careful accuracy, with which he
was able to accomplish it, was the preparation and
publication, within two years of his appointment, of
his History of the Mollusca of the North- East of
Scotland. That work includes, with very full descrip-
tions, upwards of 300 species, all of which, except
one, had, he says, been carefully examined by him-
self, while he had gathered two - thirds of them
with his own hands — about twenty being new to
science.

In the work of collecting he was aided by mem-
bers of his own family, by students, and by friends
resident in various parts of the adjoining districts,
all of whom, inspired by him, were more than
willing to contribute to his work any aid in their
power.

In his preface to that book he remarks : — " I present
it " (the book) " with confidence to the public, because I
am conscious of having produced it with great care, and
because I think it will be useful." It was intended,
he says, for his pupils and persons commencing the

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 43

study of mollusca ; and on that account, he adds,
he had made the descriptions fuller than usual, as
he was anxious "to induce them to go beyond mere
nomenclature and to make themselves acquainted
with the structure and relations of the objects
described."

He further observes, with justifiable but modest
pride and prophetic forecast, that it was the "first
zoological work that has emanated from the University
of which I am a member, and I cannot but look upon
it as indicating the not distant dawn of an era destined,
I trust, to produce investigations, the importance of
which will tend to give our city a rank, certainly not
yet acquired, among those distinguished for the cultiva-
tion of Natural History."

That prophecy has to a large extent been ful-
filled, and there can be no doubt that it is mainly
through his work and inspiring influence that it has
been so.

MacGillivray occupied his chair eleven years, dis-
charging his duties with the energy, intelligence, and
independence of view which formed so essential features
of his character. In the course of his many excur-
sions and otherwise he accumulated a large collection
of zoological specimens, which he arranged into an
excellent private museum, with the capacity for
scientific order which was so natural to him. That
museum was used by him to great advantage as illus-
trative of his teaching, and it is now the property of
the Aberdeen University.

44 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

His students always held him in the greatest respect,
and many of them were warmly devoted to him. He
was accustomed to treat them as friends ; and one
former student, recently referring to him, says : "I
had a very great regard for him not only as an orni-
thologist but as a man. He was exceedingly lovable
and undoubtedly the first ornithologist in Europe,
and we were all proud of his fame. One thing
always made a great impression on me : he treated
his class as men and gentlemen, and we recipro-
cated his action. It was far otherwise with some
of the professors." Another Aberdeen student of
his day, but who was not in his class, lately a pro-
fessor in a Canadian university, now dead, writes
of him as follows : " He was about my own height "
(rather below medium stature), "firm of step, erect
of gait, as he trod the pavement of Broad Street or
wound his way through the Gallowgate to the Old
Town ; great of reputation among British birds, and
tireless, pedestrianising with his class among the hills
and heather of Deeside. He could walk the most
active of them into limp helplessness, and remain as
fresh as at the outside of the march." "Keep your
knees bent as you climb a mountain. You thus avoid
having to raise your body at each step," was his advice
to another student who had accompanied him in hill
climbing.

Many others of his former students refer to him
in similar terms of warm eulogy, those features of his
character which appear to be most prominent in their

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 45

memory being his eminence as a scientist, especially in
ornithology ; the attractiveness of his lectures, with his
happy mode of illustration ; his readiness to undertake
any work, however arduous, in the interest of his science
or his class, and his specially kind consideration of his
students.

In the words of the member of his class last men-
tioned, " his interest in the habits of his students was
remarkable. If he saw a good student careless he would
remonstrate with him privately ; while earnest atten-
tion gained his favour. With his rapid power of obser-
vation he could detect even a temporary lapse from
diligence. His lectures were carefully written out,
and he dictated an epitome of them once a week.
Now and then he gave out a subject for an essay, say
' The Sparrow,' and he indicated a preference for a
paper bearing on its habits and life on the street and on
the wing. As an examiner he was patient, tender, and
gentle, unwilling to say an angry word. He would
rather help out the hesitating student ; but it was
easy to see that carelessness was an abomination to
him."

There appears to have been much in MacGillivray's
considerate and kindly manner towards his students
which strikingly accords with Dr. Barclay's treatment
of him as his pupil. The two young men were evi-
dently much alike in the essential features of their
character, and in all probability the influence of the
kind friend and dutiful teacher left an impress on
MacGillivray's mind which time never effaced, and

46 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

which more or less influenced for good his whole after
life.

In the autumn of 1850 he spent a holiday of about
a month with his son Paul and his eldest daughter on
a pedestrian excursion to the upper part of the valley
of the Dee and Braemar, his main object, as he explains
in his last written book, The Natural History of
Deeside and Braemar, having been to examine the
"geological structure of Braemar, its Alpine vegeta-
tion, and to a certain extent its zoology." Full details
of that excursion and of its results are given in that
book, which, besides its scientific value, is in several
respects the most interesting and fascinating of his
works. There is an unpretending simplicity in its style,
while not a page is without interest, resulting either
from the attractiveness of the personality of the
narrator, as it comes out in connection with every
detail, however trivial in itself, or from the pleasant
surprise at the unexpected discovery of some Alpine
plant, or the observed effect of a mass of eruptive
rock as specially bearing on the geological character of
the district, or from a strikingly picturesque view,
or from an incidental reflective thought associated with
the aspect of an object or scene which had specially
impressed him, in which he gives utterance to his
deepest thoughts or breathes out his most tender
feelings or his holiest aspirations. There are more of
such passages in that book than in any of his other
works within the same compass. His sense of awe in
the presence of the Great Mystery of Nature appears

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 47

to have been deepened. Religious thought had grown
in him to greater maturity, and had come to dominate
in a sense his science and his life, yet not so as to
prevent him from seeing the facts of nature as he had
always seen them or from drawing from them without
bias the deductions which they appeared to him to
warrant.

In his preface to that book he says : " If the
Valley of the Dee has many a time been traversed by
the wise and the learned, the man of science and the
man of wit, the poet, the painter, and the tourist, it is
equally instructive to the naturalist, who ought in his
own person to represent all these." In his case the ideal
naturalist was realised, for he did combine all these
characteristics in himself. He was eminently the man
of science ; he had the heart and the imagination of the
poet and the painter, and he was the patient, plodding
pedestrian tourist, easily accommodated with lodging
and food wherever he went, — in his earlier days not
unfrequently sleeping under the open canopy of heaven
after supping on a piece of oatcake and a few mouthfuls
of water from a spring.

It would do injustice to most of the finer passages
in the book to attempt to quote them partially, but one
— a very touching one, near the end, can be so quoted
without such risk : " The Divine Providence," he says,
" has rendered my path pleasant to me in the rugged
corrie, in the thick wood, and in the green valley ; has
prepared friends to forward my views, to protect me
under their hospitable roofs, and instruct me by their

48 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

conversation ; has restored me to health and preserved
it to me ; has enabled me to accomplish the purpose of
my journey, and filled me with gratitude now that I
approach its termination."

It is believed, however, that although he felt at the
time that he had benefited in health by the excursion,
the fatigues to which he had subjected himself had been
really detrimental to it. He became so ill a few weeks
before the end of the College term of 1850-51 that he
was obliged to relinquish his class duties for the
remainder of that term, these having been undertaken for
him by a former student, now the Rev. Dr. Farquharson,
for the last forty -two years the much -esteemed (now
senior) parish minister of Selkirk. MacGillivray was un-
able to enter on his class duties for the session 1851-52,
and the same gentleman acted as his substitute again for
the whole of that session. Accompanied by his eldest
daughter, he went to Torquay for his health in the late
autumn of 1851, and while there his wife died suddenly
in Aberdeen in February 1852. On 8th March following,
when still at Torquay, he published the fourth volume
of his History of British Birds — just fourteen years after
the issue of the third volume — and in the preface to it he
makes the following very touching reference to his posi-
tion at Torquay at the time : " As the wounded bird
seeks some quiet retreat where, freed from the persecution
of the pitiless fowler, it may pass the time of its anguish
in forgetfulness of the world, so have I, assailed by
disease, betaken myself to a sheltered nook where,
unannoyed by the piercing blasts of the North Sea, I

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 49

had been led to hope that my life might be protected
beyond the most dangerous season of the year. It is
thus that I issue from Devonshire the present volume,
which, however, contains no observations of mine made
there, the scenes of my labours being in distant parts of
the country."

The fifth and concluding volume of his " great work "
was published on 31st July of the same year, after his
return to Aberdeen, and on 8th September following
he died in his residence in Crown Street of that
city.

The " Conclusion " at the end of that volume is
calmly but deeply pathetic. In it the writer says :
" I have been honest and sincere in my endeavour to
promote the truth. With death apparently not distant
before my eyes, I am pleased to think I have not
countenanced error through fear or favour. Neither
have I in any case modified my sentiments so as to
endeavour thereby to conceal or palliate my faults."
The " Conclusion," from beginning to end, forms a
most touching "Finis" to all his life's labours. It
shows that he fully realised, in quiet, self-possessed
consciousness, that the end of his life's work was near ;
and the great outstanding features of his mind — an
unquenchable love of truth and profoundly reverential
worship of the Creator of all that organic life which
formed the subject of his untiring investigations — come
prominently out in it. That conclusion is given fully
as the final extract from his works in this volume, and
it forms an appropriate ending to it.

E

50 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

It is difficult now to realise what Professor Mac-
Gillivray's loss to natural science then was felt to be
— the loss of " the most eminent ornithologist in
Europe," as he has been truly designated. The loss,
too, of a man who was so devout, so generous, so self-
denying, so warm-hearted, so painstaking, so energetic,
and so conscientious in the discharge of duty and in
the carrying out of any purpose to which he felt he
had a call — who can tell what that was except those
who had the privilege of personal relationship with him
as scientists or as friends, or as members of his own
bereaved family !

He had thirteen children, several of whom died in
infancy or childhood. His two sons, John and Paul,
became eminent in natural science. John was naturalist
on three scientific exploring expeditions sent out by
the Government, viz. (1) that of the Fly, commanded
by Captain Blackwood, to Torres Straits and the
Eastern Archipelago, to which he was appointed in
1842, when he was only eighteen years of age, and from
which he returned in 1846 ; (2) in the end of the same
year the Rattlesnake expedition, under Captain Owen
Stanley (Professor Huxley, then an assistant surgeon in
the Royal Navy, being also of the staff) ; and on his return
from that expedition in 1850 he wrote an account of it,
which was published in 1852 ; and (3) later in that year
he was appointed to the Herald expedition to the
coasts of South America and the South Pacific, under
Captain Denholm. He, however, left the Herald on
its arrival at Sydney in 1855, and thereafter devoted

SKETCH OF LIFE AND WORK 51

his life to scientific explorations in Australia and the
Pacific Islands. His constitution ultimately giving
way from exposure and the fatiguing nature of his
work, he died at Sydney in 1867. It is said that he
left journals of his expeditions and work of exploration,
including amongst much else the results of special
observation and study of the habits of the aborigines.
These journals, the writer has heard, are still in exist-
ence in Sydney, and there can be no doubt that there
is much in them that would be of extreme interest to
scientists as well as to many other readers. It is there-
fore hoped, if they do exist, that they will yet be per-
mitted to see the light of day.

Paul also settled in Australia, and became an
eminent surgeon, but latterly devoted himself almost
entirely to natural science, and made a large collection
of specimens, which is now in the Museum of Natural
History, Melbourne. He died a few years ago, and a
monument has been erected at Bendigo, his former
residence, to his memory. A third son, who died early,
also showed a strong predilection for natural science,
and, had he lived, might, it was believed, have rivalled
his two distinguished brothers. So that the love
of natural science was strong in the blood of that
family.

Dr. Donald William MacGillivray, a younger
brother of the Professor, followed the medical profes-
sion. He was educated for it at the University of
Edinburgh, living in family with his elder brother
while attending the classes there. After taking his

52 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

medical degree he returned permanently to the
Hebrides. He at first settled for the practice of his
profession and for farming in South Uist, but the late
Mr. Gordon, the proprietor both of South Uist and the
Island of Barra, who entertained a warm friendship
for him, offered him the tenancy of the large and
important farm of Eoligary in Barra, to which he
removed, and there carried on extensive and successful
farming for many years, at the same time giving the
inhabitants of the island the benefit of his medical
advice gratuitously. He was much trusted and highly
respected by the islanders, and indeed by all who had
the privilege of knowing him as a friend or otherwise ;
and when he died at Eoligary in February 1886, in the
seventy-seventh year of his age, he was much missed
and sincerely mourned. He, like his eminent elder
brother, was interested in the ornithology of the
Hebrides, as is also one of his sons, Mr. William
Lachlan MacGillivray, now of Eoligary, who has a fine
ornithological collection there, and has made not a few
presentations of birds and eggs of special interest to
the Edinburgh Natural History Museum. The natural
history blood therefore appears to run in that branch of
the MacGillivray family also.

II

PRESENTATION OF THE MEMORIAL MURAL
TABLET TO THE UNIVERSITY OF ABER-
DEEN.

AN interesting ceremony took place on Tuesday 20th
November 1900, in the Natural History Class-room at
Marischal College, when Mr. John F. White, LL.D.,
on behalf of the subscribers, presented to the Principal,
as representing the University, a mural tablet to the
memory of William MacGillivray, M.A., LL.D.,
Professor of Natural History and Lecturer on Botany
in Marischal College from 1841 to 1852. Amongst
those present were Principal Marshall Lang, Mr.
John F. White, LL.D., Dundee; Lord Provost
Fleming, Professors Cowan, Pirie, Trail, Cash, Dove
Wilson, Reid, M' William, Hamilton, Nicol, and
Arthur Thomson ; Mr. A. W. Gibb, Lecturer on
Geology; Mr. P. J. Anderson, Mr. D. R. Thorn,
Dr. Tait, Inverurie ; Rev. Mr. Johnstone, Belhelvie ;
Dr. Poison, Mr. John Lyall Grant, Mr. James
Duguid, advocate ; Mr. A. M. M 'Donald, advocate ;
Mr. T. A. W. A. Youngson, advocate ; Mr. Alexander
Macfarlane, late Collector of Customs ; etc.

54 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

Principal Lang said — Ladies and Gentlemen, — You
know the object of our present assembly, and I shall
at once ask Dr. Forbes White, whom we are glad to
see amongst us to-day, to state the object of the meeting,
and address us in regard to that object and to perform
the duty that he shall, in his graceful way, perform.

Dr. John F. White, who was received with
applause, said — It is with some reluctance that I
appear before you to-day to perform an important
duty. The position I occupy should have been filled
by the Rev. Dr. Mair of Earlston, Chairman of the
MacGillivray Committee, and a distinguished graduate
of our University, whom failing, by the Rev. Dr.
Farquharson, late of Selkirk, the secretary and moving
spirit of the movement, and the favourite pupil of
Professor MacGillivray. But owing to the infirm
health of both of these gentlemen, which I much regret,
I have been asked to undertake the duty which they
would have discharged much more efficiently. I do
so, however, with sincere pleasure, as it gives me
the opportunity of expressing my life-long gratitude
to an honoured teacher, one of the three professors
to whom I owe most. Professor MacGillivray was
appointed to the Chair of Natural History in Marischal
College and University in 1841, and died in 1852.
During the last two years of his tenure of office his
health broke down, so that his real work as professor
was done in nine short years. Yet how much work
did he crowd into this brief space of time 1 In winter

PRESENTATION OF TABLET 55

he lectured on natural history ; in summer on botany.
He made researches on foot over the whole of the
north-eastern district, making observations in every
department of natural science. He completed his
monumental work on the History of British Birds,
with several text-books and biographies of eminent
naturalists and other works, and last of all his
Natural History of Deeside — a goodly amount of hard,
earnest work. He was buried in the New Calton
Bury ing- Ground of Edinburgh, the city he loved so
dearly, and in which he had done good work before
coming to Aberdeen. Arthur Seat and Salisbury
Crags seem to have been graven on his heart. It is
somewhat discreditable to both cities that almost half
a century has elapsed before any public honour has
been done to his memory. Yet this delay has not
been without its advantages. Fifty years have con-
firmed the impressions of his old students, and, further,
have given us the approval of a younger race of
naturalists. It is gratifying to us to know that none
have taken a deeper interest in our movement than Pro-
fessors Trail and Thomson, MacGillivray's successors
in the University. Professor Trail has been untiring
in his aid from the beginning. But still further, this
long lapse of time has given a better perspective to
MacGillivray's position. We see him in larger pro-
portions — we now know that he was more than a
great naturalist and fine teacher. His last work, the
Natural History of Deeside, published by command of
the Queen three years after his death, shows him to

56 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

have been a profound lover of Nature in its largest
sense. In clear, nervous prose it reveals a fine poetic
vein. He uses his word -palette like a landscape
painter. There are passages in this book which for
splendid yet sober description will compare not un-
favourably with some of the finest passages in Modern
Painters, and it must be remembered that Mac-
Gillivray's book was written, though not published,
before Ruskin had surprised the world. Take, for
instance, MacGillivray's splendid apostrophe to the
upper reach of the Dee as seen from the old bridge
at Invercauld, or his word-picture of the sunset over
the moor of Glen-Gairn, or, again, for the effect of
sound to which MacGillivray was peculiarly sensitive,
listen to a wind -storm raging among the pines of
Beallach Bhui, or, greatest of all, to the echoing and
re-echoing of the peals of thunder in the corries of
Ben Muick Dhui. In these numerous passages Mac-
Gillivray tells us that his descriptions were written in
his note-book on the spot and at the moment, quick
and vivid, thus showing his truly artistic spirit and
his impressionable nature. In his drawings for the
book we can see also how completely he combined
his geological knowledge with a painter's feeling. In
the very last words which flowed from his pen, at
the close of his fine preface, he describes his ideal
naturalist when he says — "If the Valley of the Dee
has many a time been traversed by the wise and the
learned, the man of science and the man of wit, the
poet, the painter, and the tourist, it is equally in-

PRESENTATION OF TABLET 57

structive to the naturalist, who ought in his own
person to represent all these characters." Here, with
modest unconsciousness, MacGillivray describes him-
self. It is on these lofty grounds — of his all-round
completeness — that he claims our admiration to-day.

But I must turn to MacGillivray's work in his
class, and here I must notice how easily he attracted
to his special subjects even those students whose bias
lay rather towards classics and mathematics. For it
was a noticeable fact that many of his best prizemen
were not students of science, but of the other subjects.
I do not know exactly whether it was owing to the
magnetic influence of the earnest Professor, or whether
it was that such students were attracted by the fresh
study of Nature, hitherto to us a sealed book, but this
I can say, that even the students of literature felt that
there was no antagonism between the two pursuits,
but rather that the one was complementary to the
other. We felt that new powers were being awakened
within us ; that the hitherto dormant faculties of
observation, comparison, classification, and generalisa-
tion were receiving a new stimulus. It is true that
many of these students have drifted into other pursuits
and lines of study, but the influence of MacGillivray's
methods and spirit abides indelible. They are
applicable to art as well as to science, truth in both
cases being the ultimate aim.

MacGillivray's lectures were formal and precise, full
of detail — perhaps overladen with detail, as I see from
four thick volumes of notes taken by me in his class.

58 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

But as he always illustrated by specimens, even these
details were not felt burdensome. He was perhaps the
last of the race of all-round naturalists, though he had
the accuracy of a specialist in many departments.
Ornithology was his favourite, his strongest subject, of
which the best proof is to be found in his monumental
work in five volumes on the History of British Birds.
He was also Lecturer on Botany, as well as Professor of
Natural History, and his edition of Withering's Botany
was practically a new work by MacGillivray. Though
the botany class was not in the old curriculum, yet
many arts students attended it, attracted by the per-
sonality of the lecturer. He was an excellent miner-
alogist, while his text-book on geology was abreast of
the age. He was the first professor in the University
to give a strictly scientific course of lectures on geology,
a science which was then beginning to attract the atten-
tion of theologians. The Vestiges of Creation had
appeared in the early forties, and clergymen attended
MacGillivray's class in numbers to hear what science
had to say in regard to the age and creation of the
world. Professors came also ; among others Professor
Blackie, always eager for knowledge, enrolled himself as
a student. In my own year, the late Principal Pirie,
then Professor Pirie of the Theological Faculty in
Marischal College, was a regular attender, and he gave
a prize for a special examination in geology. But
MacGillivray's activity did not end here. His Manual
of the Mollusca of the North -Eastern Counties sent
many classical and mathematical students twice or

PRESENTATION OF TABLET 59

thrice weekly to the Fishers' Square, Footdee, to com-
plete their collections and to search for the rare speci-
mens to be found in the baskets of the deep - sea
fishermen. When there was difficulty in identifying the
specimen from the manual, it was taken to MacGillivray.
It was at times like these that MacGillivray was seen
at his best. Holding the specimen tenderly in his taper
fingers, and applying to it a lens, he would descant on
the difference or want of difference between a variety
and a species. These were the half-hours in which
Matthews Duncan, Thomas Keith, and Charles Murchi-
son received their first lessons in science, long before
they took to the study of medicine, in which they
afterwards became famous. It was then that the Rev.
Dr. James Farquharson acquired early that knowledge
which enabled him, when he had just taken his M.A.
degree, to conduct for more than two years the classes
of natural history and of botany during MacGillivray 's
last illness, and afterwards led him to take an active
part in the work of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club
during his forty years' residence in Selkirk. It was
under this sort of stimulus that Dr. Thomas Jamieson
of Ellon threw himself into the geological studies
which have since made him the recognised authority in
Scotland in regard to the alluvial deposits. It was
MacGillivray that led Andrew Leith Adams, son of
the great Banchory scholar, to devote himself when a
surgeon in the army to prolonged studies in natural
history, studies which led to his retirement from the
army to occupy a chair in Queen's College, Cork. In

60 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

this class-room there sat for many years the late Dr.
Alex. Cruickshank, storing his mind with the secrets of
the Nature he loved so well, the joy of his life. It is to
these studies that the University and the city owe the
munificent gift of our Botanic Gardens, presented by
Miss Cruickshank in memory of her brother. I could
give the names of many schoolmasters, such as James
Anderson of Foveran, men who carried their love of
natural science into their several parishes, studying the
works of Nature themselves, and inculcating her lessons
on their pupils. From such influences, carried further
by MacGillivray's successors in the University, a wide-
spread love of Nature has grown among working men,
who in their various societies dignify their labours by
such studies — a solace from hard manual toil.

There are still some persons left in Aberdeen who
can remember the personal appearance of the man.
Under medium height, spare in form, shy and reserved
in manner, he walked swiftly along the street, generally
alone, with his head inclined downwards and his eyes
bent towards the ground, wrapt in his own thoughts.
Celt of the Celts, he was singularly courteous and
polite, with fine quiet dignity, but when offended he
could use sharp words which left their sting. He
made few friends, but once made he clung to them
with tenacity. His life was in his work and in his
home. There can be no finer proof of the beauty of
his life than that every member of his large family
laboured with him and for him, both sons and daughters,
attracted to the work by love and sympathy. John,

PRESENTATION OF TABLET 61

the eldest son, became the naturalist on the Rattlesnake
in the scientific voyage in which Professor Huxley also
served. Paul made his mark in the Flora of Aberdeen-
shire, and afterwards in researches in Australia, where
he died. While all the daughters assisted their father,
special reference must be made to the two excellent
pen-and-ink tail -pieces by Miss MacGillivray which
adorn the " Deeside " volume. For delicacy and refine-
ment they recall the work of Sir George Reid, P.R.S.A.,
and I can give them no higher praise.

Had sufficient money been at our disposal, we
should have adopted the suggestion of Sir John
Struthers and founded a gold medal in MacGillivray's
memory in the University. But, failing in this, we
have had to content ourselves with a monument at his
grave by Mr. M'Glashen of Edinburgh, in fine Peter-
head granite, about 9 feet high. The design would have
pleased MacGillivray. Near the foot is a good-sized
golden eagle, the royal bird much loved by the orni-
thologist, the extinction of which in the Scottish High-
lands he deeply lamented. It fittingly suggests the
lofty aspirations of MacGillivray. The eagle is finely
executed in bronze by Mr. D. W. Stevenson, R.S.A.,
from a splendid drawing of the bird by MacGillivray
himself, now the property of the British Museum. The
monument is adorned with Celtic ornament, which
befits the tombstone of our naturalist, who held that
Gaelic was the most beautiful language in the world.
In the centre is a fine lona cross, symbol of the earnest
faith of the reverent MacGillivray. The bronze tablet

62 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

is made by " The Guild of Handicraft " of London, from
the design of Mr. Ashbee, whose work is well known.
It is adorned with artistic representations of some of the
flowers and animals which were the friends of the man
whose memory we wish to honour. The inscription
reads — "In memory of William MacGillivray, M.A.,
LL.D., born 1796, died 1852. Author of a History of
British Birds, and other standard works in natural
science; Professor of Natural History and Lecturer
on Botany in Marischal College and University from
1841 to 1852. Erected in 1900, together with a monu-
ment at his grave in New Calton Cemetery, Edinburgh,
by his relatives and surviving students, who affection-
ately cherish his memory, and by others desirous of
doing honour to his character as a man and to his
eminence as a naturalist."

At this point Dr. White unveiled the tablet, and
briefly outlined its artistic features.

Dr. White, continuing, said — It is altogether a work
designed in the spirit of the man whom we wish to
honour, and we think and believe that in every respect
it would have met with the approval of our friend.
And now, Principal Lang, in the name of the sub-
scribers, I hand over to your care this bronze tablet,
to be set up in a fitting place in the University as a
memorial of a great naturalist and distinguished pro-
fessor. It represents also the hope of the subscribers
that this tablet may stimulate future generations of
students to follow in the footsteps of William Mac-
Gillivray and emulate his virtues.

PRESENTATION OF TABLET 63

Principal Lang said — Dr. Forbes White, on behalf
of the University, I accept with gratitude the custody
of the tablet which has been unveiled. I take it from
you, for you assured me of this before I saw it, that
both in its conception and in its execution this work
reflects the highest credit upon the artist. But its
merit is enhanced by its association with the name of
one whose splendid service in Marischal College, whose
devotion to natural science, and whose acknowledged
eminence both as author and teacher have shed lustre
on the annals of this ancient seat of learning. The
biography to which you have so felicitously and tenderly
alluded is inspiring, whilst it is also pathetic. Born in
the old city of Bishops Elphinstone and D unbar, the
city whose presidium et dulce decus, next after the
venerable Cathedral, is the Grey Crown of King's
College — never did son of the north more admirably
exemplify those qualities of persistency in purpose, of
indomitable courage, of the surrender of the mere self-
life to a selected aim, which have distinguished so many
natives of the northern counties. What a picture is
suggested in the tale of the young Aberdonian trudging
on foot from Aberdeen to London, with a meagre
supply of money in his pocket, a scanty wardrobe in
his wallet — his wealth consisting, indeed, in his journal,
in his copy of Smith's Flora Britannica, and in his own
brave heart. The lad who could do that had in him the
stuff of which heroes are made. And so, we follow
him ascending rung by rung the ladder which, planted
against the Hill of Difficulty, reaches to the place of

64 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

Fame. He succeeded, and he deserved to succeed.
He who left his own city, a young Aberdonian, without
wealth and without friends, returned to Aberdeen the
Professor of Natural History, with a name among the
mighty men, and with a great career stretching before
him. For eleven years he taught and laboured —
observing, classifying, studying, and writing ; his the
pen of the ready writer, and his the tongue ready like
the pen. Eleven years only, and at fifty-six he was not.
A long life was not his ; yet, if we count time by heart-
throbs, by feelings, not by figures on a dial, how much
and how worthily had he lived ! Some of his old
students — two of them you have mentioned to-day —
Dr. Mair and Dr. Farquharson — have been my warm
friends ; and the enthusiasm with which they recall his
magnetic personality, his luminous exposition, his walks
and talks as he led them afield, and showed them the
things of interest and beauty about the paths they trod,
is in itself a testimony to the manner of man he was.
It is strange, indeed, that for forty-eight years the grave
in the New Calton Burying - Ground in Edinburgh
should have been left unmarked except by the two
letters, W. M., on the low corner-stones. He did not
need a monument. His voluminous works, placing him
in the forefront of British naturalists, are a monument
more enduring than bronze or even granite ; and
there is a suggestion of him in every trill of the little
songsters which he loved, and whose ways and story he
has so graphically unfolded. But why was it, we are
tempted to ask, that those who knew him allowed nearly

PRESENTATION OF TABLET 65

five decades to pass before they originated an effort to
express in some form their veneration for his memory ?
Well, is it not a striking evidence of the vitality of the
affection with which his memory is cherished that you,
sir, should, in the name of many besides, pay the
eloquent tribute you have paid to him — and that we,
many of us having no recollection whatever of him,
associate ourselves with you in paying honour ungrudg-
ingly and freely to the distinguished teacher, to the
distinguished scientist, and to the man greatly beloved.
It shall be the care of the University to guard the token
of that honour which you have presented. And from
the walls of this College it shall speak to generations to
come of one whom all may follow in the love and
service of truth ; and following whom, " all may have,
if they dare choose, a glorious life or glorious grave."

Professor Trail, who at the outset read a letter of
apology for absence from Mr. Robert Walker, secretary
of the University Court, said — I did not know Professor
MacGillivray personally, but I have learned to know
him in a way that, I think, perhaps not very many know
him, through his works ; and through these I have
learned to revere the man and to love his memory, and
to join heart and soul in the movement that has been
carried through so far. I regret that we have not been
able to provide — I will not say a more fitting memorial,
but one that would have appealed more directly to the
students to encourage them to follow in his footsteps.
They will find it difficult to emulate him. While still

F

66 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

a student in this University, and after I had completed
my medical curriculum, by Professor Nicol's wish I
spent much time in the Natural History Museum,
working over the collections of animals, many of which
had been received unnamed, and required to be deter-
mined and prepared for exhibition. I also went care-
fully over the older collections, both of animals and of
fossils, making good the damage sustained in the course
of years. In this work I obtained a practical training
of very great value, and was prepared to estimate the
difficulty of carrying on such work with imperfect
resources in books and other means of information, and
while having to rely on one's own judgment. During
my work I had occasion to become well acquainted
with Professor MacGillivray's collections preserved in
the Museum. The neatness of his writing and methods
were conspicuous in all his work ; but admiration of
this was soon followed by respect and honour as 1 came
to know more fully the width and accuracy of that
work. From his collections I turned to his writings, to
find only still stronger reason for wonder that he could
have found opportunity to write so much, and on so widely
different sides of natural science. But still higher rose
my respect for his talents as I realised that he was no
mere compiler, but that all he wrote showed that he
had learned in practical study what he sought to teach.
Unwearied industry at the command of great talent
alone could have enabled him to do so much and so
well. His manuals on botany and on geology show
that his knowledge of these sciences was not that of a

PRESENTATION OF TABLET 67

mere amateur. They incidentally reveal that his beliefs
on various questions were in accord with those now
held rather than with those prevalent when he expressed
them. For example, in his Manual of Botany., issued
in 1840, he says — "There is nothing absolutely certain
as to species, much less as to the groups into which they
are disposed, as genera, families, orders, tribes, and the
like. We merely agree to consider as species individual
plants which closely resemble each other in the structure
and form of their organs. Such species, however, often
pass into each other by gradations, which render it
impossible to draw a line of demarcation, and thus all
species are more or less arbitrary. We know from
observation that all assumed species undergo changes
from climate, cultivation, and other influences ; and
individuals exhibiting remarkable alterations we call
collectively varieties ; but variety is a still more vague
idea than species." He edited in one volume a reduced
form of Withering's Botany. That this service to
British botany was considerable was proved by numerous
editions of the book in this form, each of those issued
before his death being revised by him. His interest in
botany and geology are further shown by papers pub-
lished in scientific journals, and by one of his latest
works, the Natural History of Deeside. But zoology
was his favourite science ; and his books and papers on
branches of zoology are many and valuable. All come
fresh to the student as the work of a man that tells of
what he saw in language remarkable in style as well as
in accuracy.

68

Throughout his writings one feels that he wrought
his work not for fame or vainglory, but that that work
was to him its own reward, and that he felt the power
to perceive and in some measure to express the message
to man that pervades the universe constrained him to
communicate to others what meant so much to himself.
In his writings one meets now and again a lament (the
only one he makes, though for many years his life must
have been a continued struggle with hardship and
poverty), that so few will take the true and pure pleasure
so freely offered to all, that so few think the study of
the universe worth their attention or realise that through
it they can learn more fully the power, wisdom, and
goodness of the Creator of all. To him such study was
a necessity of his very nature, as well as a privilege
beyond price that he would fain have shared with all.
He held that the whole world is holy and God's message
is written everywhere — a message that he sought to aid
all to interpret ; but one seems to hear from him the
burden, " Ye will not come." The introduction to his
History of the Molluscous Animals of the Counties of
Aberdeen, Kincardine, and Banff (a wonderful work
to be the result of less than two years' search) gives a
very vivid picture of his keen desire to advance the
progress of scientific study, the best interests of education,
and the honour of his University. No less does it show
how he succeeded in enlisting the sympathies of his
students and his pleasure in acknowledging their assist-
ance. He speaks in it of " the pleasure of continually
adding to one's knowledge, the sympathy of friends, the

PRESENTATION OF TABLET 69

invigorating influence of the many ramblings required,
and the delight of aiding others in the same pursuits "
as "amply sufficient to carry one through greater
difficulties " than he had met with in the preparation of
the book. He held strong views as to the claims of
natural science to a place in education, and the need
of freeing education from " the incubus of what would
smother the mind that, if unrestrained, would inhale
with delight the pure air of heaven." To him Nature-
study in schools would have brought delight as the
promise of a better state of education. I think that of
him, as of few men, can be said — " Blessed are the pure
in heart, for they shall see God."

Professor J. Arthur Thomson said — After the
admirable and appropriate words we have heard, I find
it very difficult to add anything. Yet I am glad to use
the opportunity kindly afforded me, and I wish to say
three things.

Without prejudicing an important question, may I
say that just as gladly as the Principal has received
this beautiful MacGillivray memorial on behalf of the
University, so gladly would I in turn become its sub-
custodian in the Natural History Department. I venture
to hope that it may not be removed many yards, if pos-
sible not many feet, from the spot where we have seen it
unveiled by Dr. White. A memorial should be appro-
priate and beautiful — and this is both ; but it ought also
to be a stimulus ; and surely it is in the precincts of this
class-room that its powers of stimulus should be tested.

70 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

Every one in Britain who cares much about birds
does, in a real sense, know MacGillivray, for he left a
lasting mark upon ornithology. May I explain in a
minute why one says so. It is because, until 1837, no
one in Britain had seriously tried to found a classification,
or natural system of birds except upon external char-
acters ; while MacGillivray — a trained anatomist — got
far beneath the surface and showed that a bird is not
always, nor altogether, to be known by its feathers. My
own opinion is of little moment in matters ornithological,
but let me quote a sentence from The Dictionary of
Birds, in which Mr. Alfred Newton, rather an unsparing-
critic, says — "After Willughby, MacGillivray was the
greatest and most original ornithological genius save
one (who did not live long enough to make his powers
widely known) that this island has produced." It may
be that the greatest merit of MacGillivray's " system of
birds" was that it prompted a better one, yet we are
here to-day respecting him because he tackled a big
piece of work and did it well.

But, as has been said, there are many other reasons
— beyond all ornithology — why we seek to keep his
memory green. He was a fine type of the open-air
naturalist, before the days of microtomes (and how he
pours scorn on the " pompous ornithologist " who does
not know what it is to climb and stalk and watch) ; he
was a fine type of the all-round naturalist, holding to no
petty distinctions between this science and that, realising
the unity of Nature and the unity of Science, showing,
for instance, in his Natural History of Deeside, that

PRESENTATION OF TABLET 71

botany and zoology, geology and meteorology, and
human history besides, were grist to his scientific mill ;
he was a fine type of the local naturalist, as keen as
Dr. Trail is for regional surveys, or the study of local
faunas and floras, for science, like charity, begins at
home.

MacGillivray had a great interest in the history of
natural history, and wrote an interesting book there-
upon. It is curious that one of his successors, the late
Professor Alleyne Nicholson, did likewise ; and that yet
another has followed the same fascinating path. Some
one has spoken of his independence, and of this and of
his great good humour there is interesting evidence in
a manuscript entitled The Two Ornithologists in the
library, where he relates a real or supposed quarrel with
Audubon, for whom he apparently did more work than
he ever got credit for. As one looks at the memorial
one cannot help remembering that MacGillivray was in
a way an artist both with pen and pencil. His style is
delightful ; his handwriting must to many of us seem
marvellous. It equals the memorial inscription in beauty,
and excels it in legibility.

But I had almost forgotten the most important thing
I have to say. MacGillivray was one of a grand body
of workers who raised natural history (as he says
without personal reference) from a position of contempt
to the highest dignity. What was their secret ? Was
it not, in part at least, as MacGillivray says somewhere
else, that Nature always reveals herself to those who
approach her with humility and with affection.

72 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

Principal Lang said he thought they had had a very
profitable, instructing, and stimulating afternoon, and
before they parted he was sure that they would like to
express their gratitude to Dr. Forbes White for coming
from Dundee and for giving them his most interesting
and beautiful address upon Professor MacGillivray.

Dr. White said it had been a very great pleasure
indeed to him to have had any share in that meeting.
He was extremely glad, as one of MacGillivray's oldest
pupils, to have had an opportunity of expressing his deep
debt of gratitude to him.

Ill

EXTRACTS FROM A TRIBUTE BY PROFESSOR MAC-

GlLLIVRAY TO THE MEMORY OF DR. BARCLAY,

DATED TTH APRIL 1820.

XI

My thoughts were gloomy, and I felt the wo
Of human kind press with a leaden weight

Upon my breast ; yet I could not forgo
For aught of intellect that wilder'd state,
For it had left my heart reckless of fate ;

And when the light of love flash'd on my soul,
Oh ! then I felt of Rapture's power the height,

Equal to former gloom, and she was sole
Directress of my feelings, wild without control.

XII

Enough of this — enough is said to show —
Not that I am, forsooth, a wondrous wight

Who trod a path apart from all below,

And in the storm and lightning had delight,

The whirlwind's rage, and deepest gloom of night ;

74 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

But that the name which hallows this rude song

Has been to me a blessing and a light
To guide me on my weary way along,
And lead to shady groves, their flowers to rest among.

XIII

A shipwreck'd mariner upon the sea

Of thought, scarce 'scap'd from the o'erwhelming

wave,
That roll'd its mighty mass in frantic glee

Along perdition's gulf — scarce 'scap'd this grave,

I found me dash'd, and none at hand to save,
On Doubt's dark slippery rocks : he saw my state,

And brought relief ; and though I might not brave,
As I had done, the wrathful scowl of Fate,
He cheer'd my soul, and rais'd my drooping head elate.

XIV

Friend to the friendless, he was all to me

That my fond heart could wish ; and though no

more

His friendly smile may wake my bosom's glee,
Yet shall his memory live within its core,
Unchang'd, 'mid feeling's change, the love I

bore : —
For what is death, that it should rase the name

Which fond affection teaches to adore ?
'Tis but the change of being, and the same
Kind feeling which we bore still urges its strong claim.

TRIBUTE TO DR. BARCLAY 75

xv

He saw my follies, and reprov'd them oft :
Not in the galling tone of sullen speech,

But as a friend, in accents firm though soft,
Moulded alike to cherish and to teach,
Seeming than order rather to beseech.

My guide in Learning's arduous path, he cheer'd
My drooping spirits ; then, as I would reach

Each little stage, and still a new appear'd,
Though hard the task, 'twas by his care and love
endear'd.

XVI

The magic world which I had fondly made,
Each fancy-hammer'd link of that frail chain

Which comprehended all, living and dead,
Spiritual and of matter, of the brain
The misty mould, incongruous and vain,

He knew and smil'd : he smil'd perchance to see
How the fantastic wreath the luckless swain

With patient labour fram'd and cheering glee,
Which ne'er with sober Reason's precepts might agree.

XVII

But his, though 'twas the smile of irony,
Had nought of malice : universal love
And mild benevolence beam'd from his eye ;

76 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

And his the feeling heart each pang could move
That human nature knew ; " gentle as dove,
As serpent wise." If innocence might e'er

Be join'd to knowledge elsewhere than above,
The union in his soul might well appear,
O'er whose untimely fate I drop th' unbidden tear.

XVIII

Friend of my heart ! who that e'er knew thy worth
Could hear unmov'd the melancholy tale ?

There breathes not on this dark and dreary earth
A human being whom I love so well —
Save one1 — and she, perchance, may sadly dwell

On thy lamented doom. — We scarcely know
How dear our friends, till the convulsive swell

Which heaves the throbbing bosom sadly show
That he for whom it rises mingled with its glow.

1 This requires explanation. Having his mind entirely occupied
with the idea of his departed friend, the author, at the time of com-
posing this stanza, thought and felt that none could be dearer to his
heart. This, however, it will readily be perceived, was rather a hallu-
cination produced by feeling, than the result of a strict investigation
of his affections. There are several whom he loves as well ; but few
whom he loves more. There are no other passages which require
explanation or modification to show that they are legitimate. This
explanation is made, not for the purpose of showing the author's regard
to truth : for opinion and appearances, he thinks, he can treat with
great contempt and disregard; but to prevent the possibility of
fancying that exaggerations have been used in describing the character
of his friend.

TRIBUTE TO DR. BARCLAY 77

XIX

Friend of my heart ! hast thou for ever fled ?

Ah ! fondly could my swelling heart believe
That he who now is number'd with the dead,

For whose harsh doom, though that of Heaven, I
grieve,

Yet breath'd : but hope no longer may deceive ;
And slowly mouldering in the silent earth,

The prey of death, now chill'd beyond reprieve,
Is that once glowing breast of truth and worth,
Which sympathis'd with sorrow, join'd in social mirth.

xx

Calm and compos'd, no passion's fiery sway
Left its deep furrows on his beaming face ;

Grave without gloom, and innocently gay,

The smile upon his dimpling cheek would chase
The frown of wisdom ; and although the trace

Of thought upon his placid brow was seen,

No harshness with it mix'd, but from the grace

Which beam'd in every feature you might glean
Knowledge of mind array 'd in virtue's dazzling sheen.

XXI

Rich were the treasures of his cultur'd mind ;

For Learning there her various stores had pil'd,
Glean'd from each mine of thought, drossless, refin'd,

78 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

Select and pure, o'er which even virtue smil'd.

Unlike the puffing pedant, he was mild ;
And, conscious of his worth, he spurn'd the glare

Which flippant Folly beams upon her child ;
The sceptic scorner's chair he would not share,
For virtue and religion claim'd his constant care.

XXII

Social affection glow'd for all mankind

Within that guileless breast ; and o'er his cheek

And in his eye beam'd sympathy refin'd,

Seeming, without the aid of speech, to speak
A soul all gentleness, holy and meek ;

And that diffusive love, thus clearly known,
Concentrated, when he would fondly seek

The charm of happiness among his own,
The kindred souls who shar'd his heart, intensely shone.

XXIII

Ah ! little know'st thou, darling of his love !

Who oft hast met his fond parental smile
With infant glee, which every smile could move,

And climb'd with panting haste his knee the while,

That he whose sorrows thou didst oft beguile,
The other source of all thy infant joy,

Who woke thy mirth with many a parent's wile,
Shall never guide the footsteps of his boy,
Nor on his youthful mind his anxious cares employ.

TRIBUTE TO DR. BARCLAY 79

XXIV

Yet may the image of thy father's face,

By Memory's pencil dash'd upon thy heart,
In other years, when thou shalt fondly trace

Each lineament, the joy of grief impart ;

And on the wings of Fancy thou shalt dart,
Beyond the farthest gleam of earthly ray,

To yonder mansions of the blest ; — then start
To find thee guideless on life's wildering way,
And call upon the God who is the orphan's stay.

xxv

Alas, for her whom he has left behind !

What language may be found to speak her wo
To paint the anguish of her wilder'd mind,

Writhing in agony beneath the blow

Of fate, which she was doom'd to undergo ?
No, not the eagle eye of thought can pry

Into that bleeding bosom's core to show
Its chaos of despair, since burst the tie
On which all hopes of earth-born happiness rely.

80 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

A COPY of the following Lines having been found in DR. BARCLAY'S
desk after his death, his friends have expressed a wish to have
them printed, on account of the simile contained in them. For
this reason, and not for any supposed intrinsic merit, they are
subjoined ; and with the more propriety, that they were composed
by the author of the foregoing pages. They form part of an
unfinished poem ; and were suggested by a midnight walk on a
sandy beach of one of the remote Hebrides.

The midnight hour,

Solemn and still, but placid and serene ;
Calm as the pale and lovely face of Virtue,
When the glad spirit meditates her flight
From her material mansion, and the voice
Of Hope pours on the ear the melody of Heaven —
The smooth expanse of ocean, when the wind,
Wearied with blustering, sleeps upon its bosom ;
The ripple of the wavelet on the shore,
Scarce loud enough to break the calm profound ;
The dim-discover'd mountains of the east,
That overhang, in soften'd majesty,
The deep — oh ! these have charms that well might woo
The contemplative mind to Midnight's bower.

IV

JOURNAL OF A VISIT TO MUSEUMS IN GLASGOW,
LIVERPOOL, DUBLIN, BRISTOL, AND LONDON BY
PROFESSOR MACGILLIVRAY IN 1833.

GLASGOW, BLACK BULL INN,

Wednesday, 4<tk September 1833.

HAVING been ordered by the Royal College of Surgeons
of Edinburgh to proceed to London, for the purpose of
inspecting the anatomical, physiological, and patho-
logical museums there, I left the metropolis of Scot-
land at nine this morning, and after sitting four and a
half hours on the top of a coach, arrived at Glasgow, the
second city of that ancient kingdom. Finding myself
somewhat benumbed by the cold, I took a stroll along
the streets, and coming accidentally upon a large sand-
stone quarry, examined it more geologorum.

• . • • •

A little after three I went to the College for the
purpose of visiting the Museum ; but after ringing and
rapping for a considerable time at the door of the latter,
was obliged to retrace my steps, when I learned that
the keeper admitted no person after three. Here then
is my first lesson in the matter of museums, namely, to

G

82 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

admit no visitors after the hour of shutting ; for a like
reason, none before the regular hour of opening, and a
fortiori none on shut days ! Glasgow, however, must
not have the honour of dictating to Edinburgh ; and no
man ought to follow an evil example.

In the afternoon I crossed the Clyde by one of the
bridges, walked out into the country, observed that oat
stooks are composed of twelve sheaves, wheat ones of
fourteen ; looked at everything, especially the ladies,
who were all desperately ugly ; recrossed the river,
counted the steamers, and seeing some persons un-
shipping a cargo of limestone, took a specimen ; traversed
the city, walked into the Exchange, which to my taste
is superior to any building in Edinburgh ; returned to
the Black Bull, took tea, read newspapers, and finally
arrived at my bedroom.

On the way from Edinburgh to Glasgow I saw that
the whole district consists of the coal formation, singu-
larly broken up the greater part of the way by trap
rocks, which consist in general of a dark blue greenstone !
Between Upton Hall and Bathgate these trap rocks
form remarkable hummocks or rounded prominences,
the examination of which would probably be interesting.
In the greater part of the route the walls are of green-
stone, as are most of the houses ; but towards Airdrie,
and from that to Glasgow, they are of sandstone of
various tints and textures, very seldom red, however.
In the city itself the houses are of sandstone, which is
generally very much inferior to that of Edinburgh in
colour and quality, but still sufficiently good.

JOURNAL 83

Glasgow seems an immense receptacle of goods and
provisions. I went out to look for a bookseller, and
with difficulty found one — shop after shop interminably
—cheese, butter, hams, hardware, tallow, haberdashery,
drinkables, eatables, putonables, smokeables, snuffables,
and a profusion of abominables, but, it would seem,
very few readables, excepting bills respecting merchan-
dise and steam navigation. However, it is a fine city,
and doubtless as full of wickedness as fine cities
usually are.

STEAM- YACHT "AiLSA CRAIG,"

ON THE CLYDE SOMEWHERE BELOW GREENOCK,

Thursday, 5th September 1833.

Between nine and ten in the morning I called on
Dr. Hannay, to whom I had a letter of introduction
from Dr. William Thomson, and who engaged to meet
me at the Andersonian Institution at one o'clock. I
then proceeded to the College, whence I was, however,
obliged to return, the Museum not being open. So I
had recourse to Nature, as I often have had under more
grievous disappointments, and betook myself to the
margin of the city, where I observed, opposite to St.
Mungo's Church, a monument-crowded eminence, the
inspection of which promised amusement, if not profit.
The little valley or hollow at its base showed strata of
sandstone precisely similar to those described as having
been seen yesterday. The hill itself is to be laid out as
a burial ground, and is named the New Cemetery or
Necropolis. On ascending I was somewhat surprised to
find it composed, excepting at the western base, of a

84 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

rather large - grained greenstone, having dark green
hornblende and reddish felspar as its components. On
the south-eastern side is a very large quarry, which I
afterwards visited.

The monument on the summit of this hill, which
was formerly named the Fir Park, is a statue of
John Knox elevated on a Doric column. The pedestal
bears the following inscription : —

To testify gratitude for inestimable services in
the cause of religion, education and civil liberty

To awaken admiration
of that integrity, disinterestedness and courage

Which stood unshaken in the midst of trials
And in the maintenance of the highest objects

Finally
To cherish unceasing reverence for the principles and

Blessings of that great Reformation
By the influence of which our country, through the midst of

difficulties

Has risen to honour, prosperity, and happiness

This monument is erected by voluntary contribution

To the memory of

JOHN KNOX

The chief instrument, under God

of the Reformation of Scotland

On the XXII day of September MDCCCXXX

He died rejoicing in the faith of the gospel at Edinburgh

on the XXIV of November A.D. MDLXXII, in the sixty-seventh

year of his age

Well done, citizens of Glasgow, quoth I. Edin-
burgh has four statues, and Glasgow has four. Let

JOURNAL 85

the world judge which of the cities has displayed most
judgment and good taste.

Charles II. John Knox.

George IV. Watt.

Lord Melville. Sir John Moore.

Burns. William III.

At twelve I at length obtained admission to the
College Museum.

In the front room are several stuffed skins of
quadrupeds : a camelopard of rather small size, a
zebra, a hyena, several species of deer and antelope,
a lion and lioness, etc., most of them very ill-prepared,
and in bad attitudes, with clumsy ununiform pedestals.
They are, however, kept very clean, and have in
general been good specimens. There are four recesses
in the walls, filled with foreign birds and insects, ill-
prepared and whimsically disposed.

In the room to the right are coins, medals, snakes,
quadrupeds, all without order.

A collection of British birds, very clean and neat,
but generally in bad attitudes. The beaks of two
eagles were actually polished and varnished, and the
legs and bills in general were painted, usually of tints un-
like those of the parts in their natural state. The legs
of birds ought never to be painted for obvious reasons.

Minerals. — A very large and fine piece of Labrador
felspar, polished.

Left-hand room : birds and quadrupeds, fresh and
in good condition, but generally ill-stuffed.

86 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

The whole Museum is more disposed for show than
use, and the most egregious want of method is per-
ceptible in all the rooms — I mean scientific method ;
for the articles are well disposed for effect and the
whole place has a rich and finished look, the furniture
and materials being good, and in sufficient quantity.

On the whole, I am much pleased with the Glasgow
collection, but the materials, which are good, might be
better arranged, and a great error common to most
collections is that all sorts of things are gathered, and
that they are laid out for show and not for use.

Dr. Hannay could not meet me at the Andersonian
Institution, but sent a young gentleman, whom I
found exceedingly obliging and polite, and who intro-
duced me to Mr. Scoular, who is a keen zoologist.
The collection there is contained in a large circular
dome-roofed apartment, well lighted, and having a
gallery. It consists of fragments of everything under
the moon : — rocks, minerals, skeletons, fossils, skulls,
stuffed quadrupeds, birds and fishes, reptiles in spirits,
coins, antique pottery, plaster casts, human crania,
skeletons of mammalia, etc.

The skeletons are horrible. There is one of a small
elephant out of all proportion — all the rest are bad.
All the birds and quadrupeds and fishes are ill-stuffed
—yea, every one of them — at least I did not see one
that was good. They are ill -arranged too. The
people here may have science, for anything that I

JOURNAL 87

know to the contrary, but they have no taste, no, not
a particle. A dome is not a good place for a museum.
Galleries are better. Nothing can be got to fill up the
central space, unless one should erect a pyramid of
elephants, megatheria, giraffes, and crocodiles.

There are materials for a good display, however.
The zoological specimens are excellent, the minerals
tolerable, the shells poor.

Dr. Hannay's friend then took me to the small
room containing Dr. Hunter's anatomical and patho-
logical collection — filth, dirt, and abomination ; a few
skeletons of quadrupeds, some skulls, and two or three
hundred preparations in bottles, all disgustingly dirty
and disorderly. A young Hibernian showed the
wonders, himself not the least, yet a good sort of a lad,
and smartly attired. I hope I shall not see many
collections like them, otherwise I shall renounce the
calling, and betake myself to geognosy, where, if there
be confusion, it is confusion with design, or to botany,
where all is beauty.

LIVERPOOL HARBOUR, "AILSA CRAIG,"
Friday, Saturday, September, 1 A.M.

We arrived here ten minutes ago. When I got up
in the morning we were off Portpatrick. The land to
the Mull of Galloway was rather low, bare, and un-
interesting. The rocks along the water apparently
granite along the whole coast.

From Air Point to Ramsay in the Isle of Man the
land low and sandy. The banks vary in height to 80 or

88 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

100 feet, the highest eminence about 150. The highest
mountain of the range, forming the elevated ground of
the island, seems to be about 2000 feet high. I imagine
it to be composed of slate. To the next point the
rocks along the shore are of slate, probably clay slate.

ANGEL INN, CASTLE STREET,
LIVERPOOL, Saturday.

I left Glasgow by the " Ailsa Craig " steam-yacht at
half-past four on Thursday. At Greenock some goods
were to be taken in, and in the meantime I visited Dr.
Turner and my old friend his wife. The evening
passed right merrily on the Clyde, and at six in the
morning, when we emerged from our dormitories, we
found ourselves opposite Portpatrick. The sun shone
gloriously all day ; the sea was so smooth that it almost
resembled the face of a plate of glass. When we
reached the coast of Man, there was not a ripple on
it, a circumstance which the captain remarked he had
never seen before. The sun set gloriously, like a ball
of fire, and in due time we had a clear firmament
studded with stars. Jupiter blazed in the south-east, and
the moon rose red like a volcanic fire over the Lanca-
shire land, while the water, agitated by the paddles of
the vessel, flashed and sparkled with phosphoric light.
As we approached the mouth of the Mersey we passed
a multitude of vessels, and took on board a pilot. The
lights blazed over the smooth waters like meteors, and
by their guidance we arrived in one of the docks at one
this morning. At two I went to bed, and at six got up

JOURNAL 89

again ; but a drowsy man must necessarily be a dull
writer, and so I proceed to extract my carcase from its
investiture.

DUBLIN, Tuesday, 10th September 1833.

On Saturday I visited various parts of Liverpool,
examined the docks and the geology of the neighbour-
hood, and, finding myself near the railway station, went
to it and took a seat for Manchester at twelve. We
arrived there at half-past two, after numerous stoppages
by the way, for the purpose of discharging and taking
in passengers. At Manchester I remained only half an
hour, in the course of which I merely observed that the
country belonged to the coal formation and new red
sandstone, which is also the case along the whole of the
railway. The journey back to Liverpool was performed
in an hour and a half. Fine sections of the new red
stone are presented along the course of the railway ;
and there are numerous quarries about Liverpool of the
same formation.

On Sunday I heard a very excellent sermon in one
of the chapels of the Wesleyan Methodists, and walked
over a great portion of the western district of the town.
The streets are generally narrow, and very irregularly
planned ; the houses of brick, and by no means remark-
able for beauty. Most of the churches are of sandstone,
red or grey, but several are of brick. As to these
matters, however, they may be seen in the Stranger in
Liverpool and elsewhere.

90 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

On Monday before ten I called on Dr. Mackintyre,
to whom I had a letter from Dr. W. Thomson, and who
gave me an order for the Zoological Gardens. He in-
formed me that there are no anatomical or pathological
collections in Liverpool, and that, being engaged, he
could not at present accompany me anywhere. So I went
to the Royal Institution, where I met with Dr. Murray
and his brother, the former being engaged in delivering
a course of lectures on geology. These gentlemen,
with great kindness, showed me the Museum, which is
contained in a singularly ill-disposed suite of apartments.
The disposition, however, is worse as to effect than as to
the distribution of the articles. There is an extensive
collection of rocks and minerals, generally pretty good,
the former deficient in character and uniformity. They
are placed in square trays or boxes and are arranged in
glazed tables, but they are by no means neatly disposed.
The fossils are numerous and generally good. Quad-
rupeds, ill-stuffed — birds, wretched. There is not one
specimen in a characteristic attitude, but they are pretty
numerous. A painting by Audubon of the wild turkey,
good. A portrait of Dr. Traill, not more like than it
should be. Ancient paintings from Roscoe's collection ;
cast of antique statues ; Ognia and Elgin marbles.

I am of opinion that the College of Surgeons of
Edinburgh ought by all means to obtain casts of the
Apollo Belvidere, Diana, Venus de Medicis, and a few
others as specimens of the perfect form of the human
body. There are a few Florentine wax casts ; a con-
siderable collection of skeletons and skulls of mammalia

JOURNAL 91

and birds, fine corals, shells, etc. This, as usual, is an
omnium gatherum museum. I say decidedly that
everything is ill-arranged, the cases ill- constructed, the
ticketing bad.

I then walked to the Zoological Gardens, which,
although not extensive, are very prettily arrayed ; and
this kind of museum is assuredly much superior in every
respect to a collection of stuffed animals — not that the
latter can be dispensed with either.

At six left Liverpool by the Commerce Steam Packet
for Dublin. The cabin passengers were in general of a
cast much inferior to those of the " Ailsa Craig." The
latter had an exceUent library consisting of fifty or sixty
volumes, including two Bibles. The former had only a
volume of the Spectator., with cards and a backgammon
table. The accommodation inferior, as well as everything
else. The deck crowded with ragged Hibernians of both
sexes, returning from the harvest. The weather was
beautiful until twelve at night, when we were off the
Point of Anglesey, and when I retired to my berth —
Jupiter, numberless stars, aurora borealis, phosphorescent
sea, etc., ships sailing towards the Mersey. There was
a breeze and a good deal of rain after this. We landed
at half-past ten at Kingstown, seven miles from Dublin,
and I arrived at the latter city in a filthy car driven by
a ragged and blackguard-looking Irishman.

The country about Kingstown is of granite, of which
great quantities were lying at the harbour for exportation.
The splendid public edifices at Dublin are of the same

92 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

material, but most of the private houses are of brick.
The buildings and streets are much superior to those of
Liverpool, and the Bank, University, and other places are
magnificent ; the streets, however, are not very cleanly,
nor are the roads at all good, and the lower orders of the
people are villainous in aspect, and disgustingly filthy
and ragged.

I arrived in Dublin about twelve, and after taking a
cup of coffee proceeded to the College, and thereafter
to the College of Surgeons, where I found Dr. Houston,
Conservator of the Museum.

The building is splendid, and has a fine situation in
Stephen's Green.

The hall is a fine room, with an arched roof, of an
oblong form.

The hall of the Museum is about ninety feet long
and forty -five feet broad — that is by estimate. It is
lighted solely from the roof, and has a gallery all round.
The space below the gallery, which is too broad, is very
dark. The skeletons are arranged in glass boxes or cases,
on the floor, and on shelves, under the gallery, the
central part of the floor being unoccupied save by a
miserable glazed table, containing skulls and calculi.
There is a considerable number of skeletons, but almost
all most uningeniously articulated, and in the most
preposterous attitudes. About six are excellent, how-
ever, viz. a horse, an alpaca, a nylghau, a lion, and one
or two more skeletons of grampus, good. In this
department almost everything is in the most wretched
disorder.

JOURNAL 93

Fine skeleton of boa and pike ; a few tolerable corals ;
three very fine human skeletons — male and female
European and male negro.

• • * • •

The preparations are on the whole pretty well put
up ; but there is a most decided want of taste in the
distribution of the articles, which, however, are placed in
good order as to their nature — but science and taste
must go together in museums.

It is a fine light room ; but for a museum decidedly
inferior to that of the Edinburgh College — excepting in
respect to light.

Things in general very dirty. Dr. Houston scolding
his assistant — but in fact the place is not yet arranged.

Fine fossil horns and bones of the Irish elk among
rubbish, in a lumber room !

Dr. Houston says the members of the Edinburgh
College of Surgeons are continually praising their
museum, but for his part he leaves to strangers the
praise which the Dublin Museum deserves. All I
could say in its praise I said, namely that the apartment
is light and elegant.

Dublin after all is a splendid city. The Irish dialect
is detestable — to my ear. The people have a peculiar
aspect, physically and morally bad. The lower orders
have a decided taste for ragged great coats.

Wednesday, llth September 1833.

Went to Dr. Houston's at eight, to breakfast. Met
Dr. Evanson, a very pleasant person, who asked me the

94 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

name of a plant which some one had recommended as a
diuretic. It was Polygonum aviculare. I told him the
whole family to which it belongs is astringent. About
ten I accompanied Dr. Houston to a Surgical Hospital,
and afterwards strolled through the city, taking care to
visit the filthiest parts, which, on the whole, are not
nearly so bad as I expected to find them.

At two I visited Dr. Evanson, who drove me out in
his car, along with a friend, to the Phoenix Park, the
Zoological Gardens, and a limestone quarry about four
miles out of town. The gardens are of considerable
extent and in a good position, being on rather high
ground, with an adjoining hollow and pond fringed
with Typha minor and other plants. They are laid
out with much less taste than the Liverpool animals,
and contain a smaller number of species. The
collection, however, is good, and infinitely superior
to a museum of five times the number. These
collections will in time teach zoological painters the
characteristic attitudes of animals, of which Audubon
and myself are the only persons who have succeeded
in attempting to afford an idea, in so far as regards
birds. As to stuffed animals, they are altogether,
entirely, and wholly absurd. I have not seen ten
quadrupeds nor five hundred birds that were even
tolerable. It is a difficult task to put up a skeleton
of a quadruped, and still more to stuff the skin of one.
Fools, who do not know the difficulty, readily find
faults with the performance, and often see faults where

JOURNAL 95

there are none. The quadruped skeletons of the
Edinburgh College of Surgeons are on the whole well
put up, but hardly one of them is perfect. The lioness
is good — so is the elephant — and so are several
others. Altogether they are a hundred times better
than those of the Glasgow College, the Andersonian
Institution, the Liverpool Institution, and the Dublin
College of Surgeons. So far good. But if the Edin-
burgh collection were mine, and I had hands enough,
and money enough to set them agoing, I could make
it worthy of the nineteenth century. One of the
members told me that the placing of bottles on a shelf
is nothing. Truly, old one ! any person with but one
eye might discover that, although it is not everything,
it is yet something which may be desperately mis-
managed.

Museums with too many managers must be mis-
managed. Who ever heard of any great exploit
emanating from ten heads, although ten thousand
hands may have executed it. Did a journal with two
editors ever prosper ? Could two Audubons have drawn
the "Birds of America." If the ordination of the
Museum should go contrary to my ideas, let it go to —
the condition in which it was when I received it. I
never seriously desired the appointment, never called
on a member for his vote, did not even inquire when
the election was to be, and do not now know who
voted for or against me. Having undertaken the
task, however, I am now interested in it ; but, my
boys, thwart a little, and you shall see that I can

96 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

do without you, just as well as you can do with-
out me.

But, more seriously, I have never been so happy
in any office, and that just because I have found the
members gentlemanly, considerate, and kind — with few
exceptions — two individuals only — and of these only
one hollow. However, hollow or whole, no matter. I
thank God that I am what I am ; that although I
have, and have good reason to have, a very low
opinion of myself, I have yet been endowed with
faculties the exercise of which will enable me, with
the guidance and protection of God, to procure a
proper share of the things that belong to this life.
As to the next, I have confidence in God, that, having
begun, He will accomplish.

So, as I was saying, the Dublin Zoological Garden
is good, although it might be better.

The district around Dublin, et infra, is of a
geological formation, which, for want of data, I am
unable to determine.

Thursday.

Was out at eight and walked along the southern
canal, where I observed abundance of Poa aquatica
and Lycopus Europceus, together with other more
common plants. At nine went to Dr. Evanson's
to breakfast, where I met a number of medical
gentlemen, together with Pat Doran, the mineral
dealer. One of these gentlemen, Dr. John Hart,

JOURNAL 97

took me to the hall of the Dublin Society, chiefly
to see the splendid specimen of Cervus megaceros.
It is indeed a magnificent skeleton. There is a very
extensive collection of rocks and minerals, occupy-
ing several apartments, but not well arranged, and
numerous specimens in all the departments of zoology,
together with Etruscan vases, antiquities, casts of
statues, and various other articles. The disposition
of the collections is bad, and the rooms are not very
well adapted for the purpose, although they are by no
means bad. I saw Gieseke's working room, his Green-
land curiosities, and other articles. About twelve I
set out in a car, accompanied by two of the gentlemen
and Mrs. Doran, and, traversing the city, proceeded
northward about seven miles, until we came to the
Portmarnock Sands.

• • • • •

At Bell Doyne dined — returned to Dublin by six,
after a very pleasant ride. There were races to-day
near Howth, and the roads were crowded with cars and
other vehicles.

At seven called on Mr. Houston, but did not find
him in, and at the College of Surgeons to meet Mr.
Beauchamp (prond. Beecham), but did not see him,
and in the neighbourhood on Dr. Evanson, who kept
me some hours and sent out for some of his friends.
I have not experienced more kindness anywhere than
I have here, more especially from Dr. Evanson, who is
a fine, frank, gentlemanly, rather dashing fellow.

On Friday was out by seven, took a place in the

H

98 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

Steam Packet for Bristol and was on board before eight,
soon after which we started. It was at this time a dull
rainy morning with a light breeze, which, however,
presently increased to a gale, so that we were obliged
to get into Kingstown Harbour, about seven miles
from Dublin. It continued to blow furiously, but
having abated somewhat, we ventured out again, and
proceeded along the coast for several hours, when the
captain, judging it impossible to make way against the
wind and tide, ordered the vessel to be put round, and
soon after we anchored in our former station. It blew
furiously, with very heavy rain, until daybreak, when it
began to moderate. At six we again set out and
coasted along to Wicklow Head. The weather was
fine, and the sea not so high as might have been
expected. At seven we were off St. David's Head,
and by nine were fairly in the Bristol Channel. The
sea was high, and the vessel rolled at a fine rate,
so that almost all the passengers were desperately
sick, including two captains of the Royal Navy. I
escaped, however, by keeping in a recumbent posture
the greater part of the time. When I got up in the
morning we were in the mouth of the Severn, and after
passing up the beautiful river Avon, we landed at
Bristol about eight. The scenery along this river is
singularly splendid. I was delighted with the fine
sections of stratified rocks, and the lovely woodland
scenery interspersed with fields and villages.

JOURNAL 99

GLOUCESTER HOTEL, CLIFTON, BRISTOL,

Sunday evening, 15th September 1833.

Here I am in the coffee-room of the Gloucester
Hotel, where everything is at this moment very quiet,
although the voices of some fellows tippling in a neigh-
bouring apartment are making their way through the
wall. I have finished three cups of tea and half a
muffin. Opposite sits a tall Englishman — I know he is
one, although I took no note of his speech. He has
taken half an hour to his coffee and eatables, ten
minutes to smacking his lips, five to picking his teeth,
and as many more to humming, haing, or grunting, and
is at present inspecting a newspaper. At another table
is another person, who is similarly occupied — save the
smacking, picking, and grunting. At a cabinet is -a
fourth looking for a book, and at a table is a fifth read-
ing the Times, or basking in the rays of the True
Sun. What a difference between this and the coffee-
house of the Northumberland buildings in Dublin,
where, while I was discussing my beefsteak and subse-
quent half-pint of vinum flavum and cup of tea, three
Scottish men were quarrelling most obstreperously, one
having given to another the lie direct. The affair
ended in nothing, however, for the parties were evi-
dently not gentlemen. The Irishmen present were
peeping over the upper margin of their newspapers, and
the eyes of all the waiters were directed towards the
vulgar disputants. I do not exactly know how it is,
but I do dislike Ireland and its inhabitants, and when

100 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

I arrived here to-day, I felt as if I had got among old
friends. I was at least in the same island. The scenery
here is truly English — an undulated country, highly
cultivated, intersected by hedgerows, and interspersed
with clumps of wood. As to the fissure, evidently pro-
duced by the disruption of the limestone strata, in
which the Avon flows over its tortuous and muddy bed,
it is only to be seen when you come close upon it.
The views along this river are exceedingly beautiful, St.
Vincent's rocks rising to a height of from one to three
hundred feet. So far as I have observed, they seem to
belong to the carboniferous limestone deposit, and are
highly inclined. A conglomerate of the magnesian
limestone lies over this deposit, in a hollow below St.
Vincent's rocks.

GLOUCESTER HOTEL, Monday, 16th September 1833.

Rose at seven and walked down the river side, along
the base of the cliffs which belong to the mountain
limestone formation. I observed a very considerable
number of plants unknown to me.

Returned to the inn and took breakfast. To-day
again the large Englishman. Two classes of men eat
deliberately, and smack as they eat — the gluttonous and
the dyspeptic, the former fond of eating for the pleasure
which it gives them, the latter eating more than they
are disposed to eat for the sake of the supposed benefit.
This man is stout, healthy, and firm. He smacks,
smiles at his meals, seems to have his whole soul in the

JOURNAL 101

matter, eats and drinks deliberately, hums now and then
to clear his throat, etc. Hogs smack at a great rate
while eating. Smack, smack, smack — a most gentle-
manly man too, un homme superbe. I would not live
within hearing of that fellow for £200 a year in addition,
and I feel tempted to wish I had one good crack at his
chops. The glutton took half an hour to it too — chup,
chup, chup.

The principal object of my visit to Bristol having
been the inspection of the Museum of the Institution, I
now went to that " elegant building," as it is called in
the Bristol Guide, and introducing myself as myself to
the keeper, obtained permission to examine and inspect.
Nay, the good fellow accompanied me through the
whole, showed and explained everything, and afterwards
demonstrated the geology of the district from a hill top.

The collections are badly distributed in small rooms,
the principal apartments being employed for other
purposes — as reading-room, library, lecture-room, etc. ;
but they are extensive and valuable. Rocks, simple
minerals, and fossils — fine specimens, capable of forming
a very beautiful series, at present partially arranged ;
stuffed quadrupeds and birds, a considerable number,
prepared in the usual style ; some skeletons, good — a
splendid one of a turtle — numerous skulls, magnificent
Egyptian mummies, and all sorts of things, including a
very beautiful " marble statue of Eve at the fountain,"
by E. H. Baily, R.A., purchased from that artist by the
Institution for 600 guineas. There is a bad flaw in the
right thigh, and two patches, one on the back ; the

102 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

other on the right elbow. But overlook these defects
in the stone, and if you do not consider the statue
superior to many of the very finest antiques. For my
part, I would rather have it than the whole Museum
together, although the latter is doubtless convertible
into more money, and more useful to the bargain.

• * • • •

The Institution has only existed a few years, and
yet the collection is already very extensive. Every
collection that I see makes me regret the more our
want of a decent series illustrative of comparative
anatomy. The series of skulls of mammalia which we
have is extremely contemptible ; and we are equally
deficient in most of the other departments. The collec-
tion ought to be extended or obliterated. As it is, it is
in my opinion a disgrace to the College.

The keeper is certainly a very nice fellow, totally
destitute of all affectation or assumption, apparently
possessed of very considerable knowledge in geology.

After packing my movables, including myself, into
an omnibus, which was large enough for its contents,
seeing it contained only one individual, I proceeded
towards Bristol, where I ascended a stage-coach bound
for London. Soon after we were on our way to Bath,
through which we passed in the dusk. The night was
clear and rather cold, but towards three in the morning
it began to rain, and continued wet until we arrived in
London, which event took place between seven and
eight. I was set down, quite benumbed, about eight
at the George Inn, Aldermansbury, not far from St.

JOURNAL 103

Paul's. So I made a partial shifting, a rude shaving,
and a good breakfasting, and thereafter sallied forth.
St. Paul's I had seen before ; it did not excite much
wonder. Strolling along I got to Waterloo Bridge, and
inspected Hungerford Market, which latter afforded me
a good deal of amusement. Soon after I went to the
British Museum, which is at present shut upon its
proprietors, the public. However I had a letter to
Master Grey, and he being absent I presented it to his
brother. He gave me permission to walk in, and when
disengaged from Professor Lichtenstein of Berlin, then
on a visit, showed me all the apartments in succession.
It is unnecessary to describe this splendid and extensive
museum, as there is a catalogue of it published. How-
ever, 1 have taken some notes.

• • • • •

Montagu's collection of British birds, which is fine
on account of its extent, but does not contain ten well-
stuffed specimens. When are we to see some improve-
ment in this art ? Surely it were better to give an artist
twenty shillings for a fine specimen than five for a bad one.
Every stufFer has a way of his own in which he prepares
all birds. In Edinburgh, Black John, and Carfrae, and
Gibson have each a peculiar mode — every species has
the same attitude. The late Mr. Wilson was a good
stuffer of grouse, but he stuffed all birds in precisely the
same style. The pervading style of Montagu's birds is
distortion. There is not, so far as I have observed, one
faultless specimen among them. Good collection of
eggs. Montagu's shells in glazed tables — pretty good.

104 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

and fine, but not extraordinary. Mr. Nicol in Edin-
burgh has a much finer collection.

General collection of birds and shells. The former n ot
remarkable for its extent, and miserable as to stuffing.

The splendid gallery behind is lighted from the
roof, as are the two last rooms. The floor is of oak,
the roof on the same plan as that of the Museum of the
Edinburgh College of Surgeons, and having the same
defects. The floor is already damaged by water. Who
copied ? or did both copy ? The architects who have
no genius make Grecian buildings.

There is another smacking Englishman in the coffee-
room, and I am tormented by him. Smack, smack,
smack ! He is a sulky cur, too, and the waiter cannot
please him. I almost wish he had a piece of album
grocum in his cheek. But to proceed.

Two rows of tables — glazed, with minerals — very
splendid, and beautifully arranged, although not yet
properly named. They are laid on cotton, which covers
a board, having a raised black margin. Now, it is
pleasant to look at such an arrangement, although there
are persons who care very little about the matter, and
who would as readily put on their coat with the back

before, provided it lay easily. Dr. is of this

character, and a member of the College of Surgeons.

Comparatively few of the articles in the Museum are
yet named. The shells are generally placed on dispro-
portionately large cards, and might with advantage be
made to occupy less than half the space.

As to Cook's curiosities, and all the Hindoo,

JOURNAL 105

Egyptian, and Grecian statues and fragments, I leave
them to the curious in these matters. I can consider
the Eve of the Bristol Institution superior to the whole.

I had letters to certain persons, and began to search
for them, but found them not. However, I got my old
and very excellent friend Dr. Grant, with whom I
dined. We had a long crack. He complains desper-
ately of the affairs of his college, his whole income for
the last year not having exceeded £120.

It rained furiously as I was going home, and I did
not find my way without some difficulty. London is an
ugly wilderness. "My own romantic town" is the
best I have seen after all.

The Portland or Barberini vase in the British
Museum is much inferior to the model of it by
Wedgewood in the Edinburgh University Museum.
It is of blue glass, with white opaque figures. The
model mentioned has a black opaque ground ; that of
the Liverpool Institution has a blue ground.

The hall for the Royal Library, 300 feet in length,
is splendid. Two scoundrels in the room in which I
write are damning and blaspheming, so I must leave
them to their meditations.

Wednesday, 18th September 1833.

Having had no sleep on the way from Bristol to
London, I remained in bed till near nine. After break-
fast I went out, took a tortuous direction through the
city, and arrived at Dr. Grant's, 10 Seymour Place,
North, Euston Square.

106 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

Dr. Grant accompanied me to the London Uni-
versity in Gower Street.

Saw his own collection of comparative anatomy
and zoology, which is contained in his lecture-room, and
although consisting of a considerable number of articles,
is not by any means fine, and certainly is not neatly
kept or well arranged.

The collection of materia medica is in all respects
excellent.

The anatomical and pathological collection of the
University is in a square room of moderate size, with
a gallery.

• • • • •

The preparations are very beautiful. The heads of
the bottles are very neatly secured and painted in the
usual way. The ticketing and numbering neat. Every-
thing in excellent order, and cleanly. The whole has a
finished and beautiful appearance.

The room containing the apparatus for the natural
philosophy class is also very neatly fitted up with large
glazed cases, and the collection is excellent.

We went next to King's College, which forms the
east wing to Somerset House, but the Museum was shut.

Went then to the Geological Society, in the vicinity.
Models, casts, and specimens of various kinds. The
principal part of the collection is arranged in presses
fitted up with drawers. There is nothing particularly
remarkable about them, excepting two circumstances.

JOURNAL 107

1st. As geological and mineralogical specimens are
liable to be much injured by dust, those contained in the
drawers are secured by means of four sheets of paper
fastened along the sides of each drawer and laid over the
specimens in succession.

The method has several inconveniences. The
articles cannot be inspected without taking out the
drawer and laying it on a table. Then there are four
awkward flaps of paper appended to each drawer. It
would be much better to cover it with calico stretched
upon a frame exactly fitting.

2nd. Each drawer in front has a small brass frame
for the general label, which slips into it. The drawers
in the Museum of the Edinburgh University are fur-
nished with similar appendages.

• • • * •

Then we visited the Museum of the Zoological
Society in Bruton Street. The house is too small and
inconvenient, and the Society are meditating a removal.

First room, small — square. Glazed cases, about 8
feet high, and 2j deep. Movable shelves, supported by
small square bars.

In this room is a fine collection of mammalia, the
best stuffed that I have seen — extremely crowded.
Dugong, camelopard and skeleton ; oran outan, red,
adult, and young — several black ones, etc. Skulls, horns,
tortoises, snakes, etc., on the walls. Shells on a glazed
table, arranged on cards of oak covered with paper.

Second room upstairs. Birds in very neat
mahogany glazed cases. Shells movable.

108 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

I did not succeed in finding the College of Surgeons,
and coming upon Park Crescent and Square, I visited
the Colosseum in the Regent's Park. The Panorama
of London, for the exhibition of which this building was
erected, struck me as being the grandest feat of art which
I have seen. The deception was to me quite perfect.
The saloon for works of art I found also highly interest-
ing. The other appendages, viz. the conservatories,
caverns, and Swiss cottage, were very pretty and amusing.
The" African Glen, "containing stuffed animals, I thought
inferior to everything else, although interesting to a
zoologist.

I then visited the Zoological Gardens on the north
side of the Park. They are laid out with great taste,
and contain a very large collection of animals disposed
in suitable habitacles. If I had time, I should find it
very instructive to study the attitudes of the animals,
especially the birds. To the zoological painter collections
of living animals must prove of the greatest importance.
It is in fact utterly absurd to draw from stuffed skins.

Thursday, IQth September 1833.

Went in the first place to the Excise Office, where
I found my old friends Mr. Murray and Mr. Linning,
both of Edinburgh. Mr. Linning urged me to remove
to his house, and remain a week or so in town, to see
the museums more leisurely. I then went to Lincoln's
Inn Fields, and delivered my letter of introduction to Mr.
Clift, who informed me that the Museum was shut, and

JOURNAL 109

that although I might have a glance of it to-day, I should
have a better opportunity of seeing it to-morrow. So I
crossed the river by Waterloo Bridge, walked through part
of Surrey, and came upon St. Thomas's Hospital, where
I was informed that the Museum could not be seen.

At Guy's Hospital I did not find Dr. Hodgkin, to
whom I had a letter, but introduced myself to the
keepers, and was allowed to inspect the museums.

The anatomical and pathological collections are
principally contained in an oblong elevated apartment,
lighted from the roof.

On the floor a skeleton of the hippopotamus ; another
of the elephant — both fine, but the latter small.

Four tables — on one of which are wax models of the
brain, neck, face, thorax, etc., extremely beautiful.

On the other three tables a most beautiful series of
wax models illustrative of cutaneous diseases in glass
shades and bottles.

I then visited the Museum of Comparative Anatomy,
and the Obstetrical Museum, which are kept in the
rooms of two small dwelling-houses, by no means adapted
to such a purpose.

Skeletons of quadrupeds, birds, etc., in general very
good, and beautifully prepared. The artificial cartilages
of the ribs are very beautifully made, painted white —
splendid skeleton of a snake about eight feet long. This
collection, however, is not extensive.

The obstetrical collection consists of models and
preparations.

110 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

On the whole, the collections are in excellent con-
dition, the materials are of the best quality, and the
models and casts are splendid. The apartments might
be better adapted to the purpose of a museum ; but the
collection may safely be called one of the finest in
Britain.

After visiting Guy's Hospital, I repaired to Mr.
Linning's, where I dined, in company with Mr. Murray
and a Dr. Campbell, Miss Linning and Master Linning.
We had a very pleasant evening of it. On returning to
the city, along with Mr. Murray, I went to his lodgings,
where I remained nearly two hours, and had a long crack.

Friday, 20th September 1833.

Called on Mr. Stanley, 12 Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Then went to the Museum of the Royal College of
Surgeons — otherwise called the Hunterian Museum.
Saw Mr. Clift, who began to describe certain objects,
but finding him much too prolix, I took a convenient
opportunity of slipping away, and examined for myself.
• • • • .

This splendid collection presents an example of a
museum overstocked, there being materials for furnish-
ing three apartments of the same size.

Some of the stuffed animals, skeletons, bones, and
horns, horribly dirty. The walls and roof also dingy
with dust.

. . . . .

It is impossible to offer any detailed description of
the Museum, for which reference must be made to the

JOURNAL 111

printed catalogue. It is a magnificent collection, and
the room is fine ; but everything is so crowded that there
is more appearance of confusion than of regularity, and
there is more dirt everywhere than there ought to be.

Excepting the Museum of Guy's Hospital, that of
the London University, and that of the Glasgow College,
I have seen none approaching to our own in cleanliness.

After leaving the Hunterian Museum, went to Mr.
Linning's, where I dined. Returned as usual to the
George Inn, Aldermansbury, in the coffee-room of which
I now am, absolutely smoking with perspiration, caused
by three cups of tea, and an atmospheric temperature
of eighty degrees.

Saturday, 2Ist' September 1833.

Having been entrusted with three letters for Sir
James MacGregor, I proceeded after nine to Berkley
Street, which I reached about twelve, after having strolled
about in the Park and elsewhere. He had not yet
arrived at the office, so I left the letters and my card
for him, and returned towards " the City." By the way
left a letter at Mr. Gould's, Broad Street, Golden Square.
He is a celebrated preparer of objects of natural history ;
but he being out, I had no opportunity of seeing him.
Some of his performances, however, I had seen in the
Zoological Society's collection, and they are highly
creditable. After this, I examined the Museum of
King's College, which is open to the public every day
excepting Wednesday. It is contained in two rooms —
a large and a smaller. These apartments are well adapted

112 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

for the purpose. They are plain, without the encum-
brance of ornamental columns, pilasters, and all the
rubbish that usually disfigures museums, and are lighted
from the side, which is obviously the best mode of
lighting.

The anatomical and pathological preparations are
good, and being fresh and neatly put up, look exceed-
ingly well. There are a few good skeletons of animals,
and a number of excellent casts and models of
cutaneous diseases, etc. These models are inferior
only to those of Guy's Hospital, if indeed they be so.
The person who makes them is Mr. W. Tuson, anatomical
modeller, King's College. The stands of the skeletons
are tolerable, but as usual they are deficient in uni-
formity. I have seen none at all approaching to our
own in neatness and just proportion.

I had a note from Mr. Stanley to Mr. Partridge,
and that gentleman, the curator, and the modeller
were very attentive to me. The numbering is on
the lower part of the bottles : black figures on a
white ground.

On leaving King's College I went to the Excise
Office, whence Mr. Linning accompanied me to
Bartholomew's Hospital, where I found Mr. Stanley,
and had the remarkables pointed out by the keeper
of the Museum.

It is small for such an establishment, in a single
oblong apartment lighted from the roof. There is
a narrow gallery. The cases are open, run along the

JOURNAL 113

wall, have movable shelves, and are of convenient
height, especially those of the gallery, which are about
7 feet in height. The collection is confined to human
anatomy and pathology — the latter below, the former
in the gallery. The anatomical series is not extensive.
The preparations are put up in the usual manner, and
with the ordinary degree of neatness. Some of the
bottles, containing objects whose colours are liable
to fade, are enclosed in a movable cylinder of blue
pasteboard. This is the only place in which I have
seen this contrivance employed.

• . • • •

After inspecting this museum, and visiting the dis-
secting room, etc., I accompanied Mr. Linning to Lloyd
Street, where I dined, and whence I returned after eight.

• • • • •

Under existing circumstances it is impossible to
examine objects in series. Were a person disposed to
study healthy and diseased structure from preparations,
he would find ample opportunities in the museums here,
and in the department of comparative anatomy. The
Museum of the College of Surgeons would alone furnish
objects, the proper inspection of which would take many
months.

With respect to the osseous system of animals,
there is certainly a most extensive series in the
different museums taken together. This is also the
case with respect to teeth, horns, hoofs and claws.
The Hunterian collection exhibits all the other organs
in series more or less complete.

i

114 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

As to zoology, properly so called, there are also
abundant materials.

Mammalia, between the Zoological Society's collec-
tion, the British Museum, and the Hunterian — a very
extensive series.

Birds in the Zoological Society, British Museum, etc.

Reptiles in abundance.

Fishes less complete, all the other departments in
one degree or other.

After all there cannot be a perfect naturalist who
has not studied long in the metropolis ; but study
there will not of itself make a naturalist. Yet museums
are evidently indispensable.

I have seen no good collection of insects, but there
are many private ones in London.

In mineralogy the British Museum is almost com-
plete ; but one cannot study this science without being
allowed to handle the specimens.

For the geologist, the Geological Society's collec-
tion and the organic remains in the British Museum
and elsewhere.

Sunday, Z2nd September 1833.

Having slept too long, I was not out in time to go
to the Scotch Church, near the Regent's Park, where
I had engaged to meet Mr. Linning, so I went to
St. Paul's. The interior of this building, I think, must
strike a stranger more than its exterior. After morn-
ing service I crossed the river by Southwark Bridge,

JOURNAL 115

on which I found Mr. Murray peripatising. I pro-
ceeded eastward with the view of taking a walk into
the country, it being a beautiful day, but an omnibus
coming up, I went upon it, and was conveyed to
Greenwich, of which I visited the magnificent hospital,
saw some of the old boys at their dinner, entered the
painted hall of King William's building, inspected the
representations of naval heroes and battles, and listened
for a few minutes to the demonstrations of a respect-
able-looking personage with a long white rod, until
he began to show that " now, the four corners of that
great square represents the h elements," when 1 marched
out, entered the park, ascended the hill of the
observatory, and after a pleasant walk among the fine
trees, emerged into Blackheath. I then proceeded
along the road, over Shooters' Hill, and down its
eastern side, until I had arrived within two miles of
Dartford, when a coach came up, and I got upon it.
We arrived at Chatham about six.

In the whole course of this ride I had abundant
opportunity of seeing what I had never seen before,
a chalk district. Immense excavations have been
made, and the road in many places has been cut deep
into the deposit, exposing the strata of chalk, inter-
spersed with black flint, and nearly horizontal.

Beautiful views of the Thames, covered with
shipping, occurred at intervals ; and at Rochester the
scenery is fine, the Medway, the splendid old castle, the
city, the ships in the river, the chalk cliffs, and other
interesting objects presenting themselves in succession.

116 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

The diluvium on Blackheath and elsewhere consists
of sand and pebbles of black flint, which are used for
making the roads. The country is very beautiful, flat,
or gently undulated, and more profusely wooded than
I should have expected. About Chatham the ground
is more undulated, but the chalk strata are still nearly
horizontal, the valleys having apparently been pro-
duced by diluvial excavation. The houses in the
towns and villages are built of brick, but are neat, and
the people everywhere seemed in the most prosperous
condition, even the labourers being remarkably well
clothed and "looking like their meat," as people say
in Scotland. I was surprised at the great number of
very elegantly -formed and graceful young women.
The features of the inhabitants are more regular and
less weathered (as a geologist would say) than those
in any part of Scotland. The men are, on the whole,
stout and independent-looking. They are not lumpish
either, as in Lancashire and elsewhere, but rather active.

I have not met with an instance of incivility since I
entered England ; but I have the same to say of Scotland
and Ireland — although sometimes, particularly by clerks
in offices or shops, one is answered by a single word.

From half-past ten, when I went to bed, to near
five, I was tormented by bugs, which bit in all
directions : right and left, over the face, neck, arms,
back, and legs, not even sparing the crown of the
head. As I had no oil, which is a specific, I was
obliged to use the tallow of the candle to rub the
bitten parts.

JOURNAL 117

Monday, 23rd September 1833.

After breakfast I called on Mr. Dadd, apothecary,
to whom I had a letter from Mr. Hay, and proceeded
to Fort Pitt, where I found Dr. Clark, to whom I had
a letter from Dr. William Thomson. He introduced
me to Dr. MacCrae, Curator of the Museum, who
forthwith accompanied me to it. It is contained in
two apartments of the ordinary form, fitted up with
cases ranged along the walls. The preparations are
good, and minute and accurate cases are kept of those
made from specimens obtained in the hospital. There
is a very extensive series of national skulls, of which I
am informed there are many duplicates, which may be
given in exchange.

. . . • •

The cases are rather high, but on the whole this
museum is in good order, although not very extensive.

Mr. Robert Jameson, Professor Jameson's nephew,
now made his appearance, and accompanied me to the
Natural History Museum, of which he has temporary
charge. It is also contained in two apartments, fitted
with open and glazed cases along the walls, having fixed
shelves.

There are also glazed tables on the floor. The
collection, although not extensive, is very good. The
arrangement is not perhaps the best. The birds are kept
as skins merely, which is a good enough way. A good
collection of reptiles ; and in general more or less in
every department.

118 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

I then accompanied Mr. Jameson to the dockyard
at Chatham, ascended a 74-gunship in process of
building, examined the chalk section on Chatham Hill,
looked into the Chatham Museum, went round Fort
Pitt, took some refreshment, and proceeded in an
omnibus to

The Museum. It is a general collection ; but the
most remarkable objects in it are the fossils of the chalk
formation. It is small, and contained in a narrow and
shabby-looking apartment. There is a good collection
of birds, so far as it goes, contained in glazed cases or
boxes.

The weather continued fine. I had lost the regular
conveyance ; but getting into a small omnibus I pro-
ceeded to Gravesend, where I had not remained ten
minutes when an opportunity occurred of getting to
London, and at ten o'clock I was set down at Charing
Cross. So I presently got to the George Inn, supped
with a Cornish gentleman of very pleasing manners,
wrote part of my notes, and after some annoyance from a
drunken party bawling in an adjoining room, fell asleep.

It may now be proper to make a general review of
my proceedings in London, and a prospectus of what is
to be done.

I have visited : —

Museums of the London University.
Anatomical Museum of King's College.
British Museum.
Museum of Zoological Society.

JOURNAL 119

Museum of Geological Society.

Zoological Society's Gardens.

Museum of the College of Surgeons.

Anatomical, Pathological, Obstetrical, and Natural History

Museums of Guy's Hospital.

Anatomical and Pathological Museums of Bartholomew's Hospital.
Colosseum and African Glen.

Pathological and Natural History Museums at Fort Pitt, Chatham.
Museum of the Chatham Institution.

I have called on : —

Dr. Grant. Mr. Stanley. Mr. Clift.

Mr. Owen — not in town. Mr. Gould — not in town.

Dr. Hodgkin — not at home. Sir James MacGregor — not at home.
Mr. Linning. Mr. Murray.

The following business to be transacted : —

To see the Museum of St. Thomas's Hospital.
To see Mr. Heaviside's Museum.
To see the Museum of the Linnean Society.
To call with letters on : —

Dr. Carswell. Dr. Tweedie. Mr. Scott. Dr. Hodgkin.

Tuesday, 24>th September 1833.

Went to Dr. Hodgkin, 9 New Broad Street, who
advised me to make another visit to Guy's Hospital
to-morrow, and gave me a letter to one of the surgeons
of St. Thomas's Hospital, Mr. MacMurdo, and to the
proprietor of Heaviside's Museum, so I went to
MacMurdo's, but, not rinding him, left my letter with
his wife. I then went to Heaviside's Museum, but the
old boy was busy, and rather pettish, and could not

120

show it. I then travelled westward, called at Dr.
Tweedie's, 30 Montague Place, Russell Square, but did
not find him, and so left my letter with Mrs. Tweedie.
Then went to Dr. Carswell's with a letter from Dr.
Thomson — found him and delivered my letter. Then
went to Mr. Linning's, where I dined. In the evening
wrote a letter, and arranged my affairs.

Notes respecting the Museum of the Edinburgh
College of Surgeons : —

1st. Department of Healthy Anatomy. — To be kept
distinct from that of comparative anatomy, which,
however, is to be arranged parallel to it, on the opposite
side of the same apartment.

The arrangement for the present may be that which
is adopted, viz. bones, ligaments, muscles, brain and
nerves, blood vessels, pulmonary organs, digestive, etc. ;
but a more correct arrangement would be : —

Brain and Nerves. Organs of Secretion.

Organs of Sense. Organs of Locomotion.

Organs of Circulation. Organs of Generation.

Organs of Nutrition. Organs of Lactation.

The fact, however, is that one may begin at any
point in the animal economy ; and whatever method is
best calculated for demonstrating the structure of the
perfect body is the best for the arrangement of an
anatomical collection.

The cases being of two kinds, viz. glazed presses
and open shelves, a separation of preparations, accord-
ing as they are dry or wet, is necessary. This is a

JOURNAL 121

desperate evil in a museum, and is productive of great
confusion.

In an anatomical museum the cases ought to
be all glazed, 8 feet high, elevated half a foot from
the floor, 2 feet deep, and furnished with movable
shelving.

Such a museum should be in the form of one or
more rooms, in the upper flat of a building, 12 feet high,
20 feet broad, lighted from the roof, with low, flat, glazed
tables along the middle of the floor.

Architectural decoration ought not by any means to
be admitted. The style should be perfectly simple.

Such a museum might be polygonal.

In our Museum the exposed ticketing should be
suspended, the cards smaller than they are at present,
the articles numbered, the divisions lettered.

2nd. Department of Comparative Anatomy. — As the
cases are precisely the same as those for the department
of human anatomy, disorder cannot be avoided. The
same disposition as to the preparations should be
followed ; but the articles should be arranged according
to the classes to which they belong, the subdivisions
being the same as the divisions in human anatomy.

A museum for comparative anatomy ought to be
very differently constructed from one for human
anatomy, as the case fitted for the skeleton of a man
is not adapted for that of an elephant or a mouse.

Such a museum must be of larger dimensions,
elevated, and lighted from the roof as well as the
sides.

122 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

3rd. Pathology. — The pathological series answers
very well for the galleries of our Museum. It was the
opinion of one of the members that it ought to have
been placed below ; but he has lived long enough to
confess his error. There is the same defect, of dissimilar
cases, productive of disorder, which cannot be avoided.

Preparations and casts should be equally included in
the series ; but, as many of the latter are too large for
the cases, they may be kept apart in a room devoted for
that purpose.

The calculi must be placed in glazed tables, and the
floor ought to be considered as general receptacle for
exordinals belonging to any of all the three series.

The catalogue must be regularly made out, accord-
ing to the organs or diseases, and not according to the
cases, shelving, or tables, though the latter must always
be referred to at every article.

The system of ticketing must be as follows : —

The exposed tickets uniform as to size and writing,
numbered to correspond with the numbers of the articles,
varnished, of a neat oblong form, suspended over the
preparation.

The tickets within the glazed cases to be of the same
size, suspended if possible ; if not, to be supported by a
small piece of wood with a groove, painted white.

Every museum ought to have a library containing
such books as are necessary for reference or illustration.

It ought to be well and neatly arranged, kept re-
markably clean., and free of all smells, as of varnish,
turpentine, camphor, and especially putrefaction.

JOURNAL 123

It ought to have the proper number of hands, and
the keepers and assistants should not be overpaid, nor
yet too scantily supplied, otherwise they become
negligent.

Wednesday, 25tk September 1833.

In the morning made inquiries respecting coaches to
Edinburgh, and in Gracechurch Street bought four
ounces of entomological pins for Mr. Maclagan, price
8s. 9d. Crossed the Thames by London Bridge, and
introduced myself at the Museum of St. Thomas's
Hospital.

Presently after a gentleman came up to me, and
very politely offered to show me anything remarkable.
He accompanied me through the whole collection, and
afterwards showed me the room containing the library
and preparations illustrative of materia medica.

Mr. Edward W. Nordblad, Curator, St. Thomas's
Hospital.

The preparations illustrative of comparative ana-
tomy are in general poor ; many of them are decayed,
and the collection is decidedly contemptible. In the
other departments the preparations are in general good,
but the objects are ill-arranged, frequently crowded ; in
other cases the reverse. The casts, bones, etc., are
very dirty, and everything bears the appearance of an
old institution as much in need of a radical reform as a
Scotch burgh. It seems astonishing that the principle
of emulation should not operate here, the Museum of

124

the neighbouring and rival institutions being compara-
tively so splendid.

The curator informed me that there are too few
hands employed — himself, an assistant, and a person for
cleaning ; whereas in Guy's there are the curator, an
assistant, another person for cleaning and drudgery, a
man for preparing skeletons, and a modeller who does
nothing else. In the Edinburgh Museum there is a
conservator, who does all the work, or pays for having it
done. This also needs reform, seeing the establishment
is more extensive than either St. Thomas's or Guy's.

Some people make a mighty blowing, and look as if
they had discovered a mare's nest when they find a
preparation from which the spirit has partially evapor-
ated. Let them learn that in the Museum of St.
Thomas's Hospital, in the county of Surrey, there lies
the half of a human body dissected, together with a
brain, enclosed in an air-tight glass case, with about one
inch of spirits in the bottom. The vapour is sufficient
to keep the articles in perfect preservation. The fact,
however, has long been known to me.

As I have already remarked, it is of little importance
what arrangement is adopted, provided it be simple,
perspicuous, with Jew primary divisions.

Leaving St. Thomas's I recrossed the river by
London Bridge, carrying with me specimens of the
oolite of which the old London Bridge was built. I
then went in search of Mr. Scott, my publisher.

JOURNAL 125

Well, in the first place, as he is newly set up, his
name is not in the Directory, so I went to the old
establishment of Dove, with whom he was in Piccadilly,
No. 178. The shop untenanted. Called at next door.
The people there knew nothing of Scott, but directed
me for Dove, to Wigmore Street, where again I was
directed to Bartlett's Buildings. When I came to the
end of Oxford Street, where they were said to be,
nobody knew anything of them. One person said he
had seen such a place, but could not tell where. Being
in the neighbourhood of Soho Square, I entered it, and
found in a corner the Linnean Society's Rooms — 5
o'clock — shut. However, the servant showed me them.
The apartments are not suitable, being those of a
common dwelling-house. The collections consist of —
the Linnean herbarium, Sir James Smith's herbarium,
an East India collection of plants, birds of New
Holland, various quadrupeds and birds, and other
objects. The plants are fastened upon strong bluish-
white paper of large size. There is also a good library.
The hall for meetings rather shabby. Entomological
collection well. I then returned towards St. Paul's,
and went to 31 Poultry, which was tenanted by a book-
seller from Banff, a Mr. Cowie, to whom I was intro-
duced by Dr. Barclay eleven years ago. He is dead,
his wife married to his successor in trade, who retains
the name, in this manner — Cowie and Co. By the by,
I saw in Gracechurch Street to-day a curious instance
of this kind, viz. Stone, late Flint. A person in the shop
gave me Scott's direction, viz. — Scott and Webster, 36

126 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

Charterhouse Square, nr. West Smithfield. By this time,
however, it was rather late, and I was rather fatigued,
so I thought I should rather return to Aldermansbury.
In a letter from Edinburgh I am directed to get
from J. Simpson, stock manufacturer, 166 Strand, South
Side, a military stock, purchased by Kenneth MacCas-
kill, assistant surgeon, 1st Foot, on 10th September.
I have reached the Strand; but in 166 is a person
named Whitelsock, and in 106 are Widow Dyke and
Son, quill manufacturers to His Majesty ; and Simpson
I find nowhere. However, I have done my duty.
There remain for me now —

To see Heaviside's Museum.

To deliver Mr. Coleman's letter.

To see Mr. Scott.

To call on Mr. Linning.

To visit Mr. MacCulloch.

To pack up my movables.

To pay my debts.

To take a seat in or on a coach, and to leave London.

It seems a little strange to a stranger that in London
nobody knows anybody, excepting those that it especially
concerns him to know. This is true Irish, but at
bottom correct. In Edinburgh everybody knows every-
body with whom he has nothing to do, and his neigh-
bour's affairs are of much interest to him, especially if
he has no business with them. In Scotland a man is
nothing unless he has a long string of ancestors, in
England nothing unless he has a long purse. A
Londoner does not inquire respecting the man who

JOURNAL 127

occupied his shop last year, nor does he care who lives
next door to him — and why should he ? He cannot
direct a stranger beyond the street in which he resides,
and confesses that he has not seen the interior of St.
Paul's or the Colosseum. He cannot tell whence comes
the stone with which the street is paved, or how the
bricks are made of which his house is built. He is not
aware of the rapid decomposition of the oolite of which
the public buildings are formed, nor does he consider
that while streets in London are thrown down and re-
built every fifty years, those of Aberdeen last for
centuries. London to him is the world, and all beyond
is extramundane. Now all this, and much more, arises
simply from circumstances ; and Dr. MacCulloch, who
accuses the Hebridians of want of skill in agriculture,
speaks as foolishly as I should do were I to accuse the
Londoners of want of observation.

Thursday.

The principal business transacted to-day was the
inspection of the Museum of Mr. Langstaff, surgeon,
Basinghall Street. It is contained in a small building
at the back of his house, and in two apartments of the
latter. He says there are upwards of 7000 articles.
The pathological collection is excellent and, according
to his account, the case of every preparation is
accurately detailed. In comparative anatomy there
is a very considerable series. He has also a great
number of reptiles and insects in good condition.
The morbid structures are excellent. The skeletons

128 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

are not numerous, nor are they kept in good con-
dition. Skulls of mammifera rather numerous, but
not remarkably fine. There is a good series of
national skulls. Mr. Langstaff is disposed to part
with his collection. He says he does not exactly
know its value, but thinks it may be worth from
£6000 to £7000. I imagine, speaking vaguely, that
it may be worth £2000. It seems to be more
extensive than the Bell collection purchased by the
Edinburgh College of Surgeons ; but unless the
articles were laid out so as to be properly seen, one
cannot judge with accuracy.

CARLISLE, Saturday night.

On Thursday evening, at a quarter from six, I left
London by coach, said to be for Edinburgh, after pay-
ing £4 : Is. for transportation, and proceeded in the
direction of Manchester, where I arrived at four on
the afternoon of Friday. The night was exceedingly
beautiful, the temperature being moderate, the
atmospheric current gentle, the moon bright, and
the stars scintillating in their usual manner. I saw
three falling stars, one of them nearly as large as
Jupiter. From three to six in the morning, however,
the cold was so great that I was almost benumbed.
A moonlight ride in England is pleasant enough.
The numerous pretty towns and villages through
which we passed, the gentle character of the scenery,
the placidity of the night, the sense of security, and
the rapidity of motion, conspired to render the transit

JOURNAL 129

agreeable. The celerity with which the change of
horses was effected was admirable, but nothing of
any importance occurred on the journey. The country
was flat, or very slightly undulated, until we came
to Derbyshire, where hills of considerable elevation
presented themselves. The white mist that covered
the lowest grounds along our course seemed at a
little distance like a sheet of water, for which I at
first took it. The first light of the morning sun
showed the herbage covered with hoar frost. A short
delay caused by a refractory horse, which had to be
changed, enabled the passengers to get out and walk
about a mile, which had a good effect in restoring our
limbs to their natural state. At the Royal Hotel
in Manchester I had a most refreshing sleep of
eight hours' continuance, after which I was awakened
by the pain of some bug -bites on the neck and
back.

We left Manchester at half-past five, and arrived
here at nine. It rained more or less heavily the whole
day, but the temperature was mild, and I experienced
very little inconvenience. The first part of our
journey was not interesting, the country being flat,
and disfigured by brick towns and manufactories ; but a
change soon came over the scene, and from Lancaster
to this place the country is hilly and even moun-
tainous. The geological phenomena observed were
interesting, although, of course, imperfectly observed.
During the night, from London to Derby, I could
only see that the country was secondary, consisting

K

130 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

of clays and lias. In Derbyshire I saw amygdaloid,
carboniferous limestone, millstone - grit, and other
secondary rocks. To-day the rocks seen were
carboniferous limestone, sandstones of several forma-
tions, a splendid mountain of the first secondary
limestone beyond Kendal, mountains of a kind of
slate intermediate between clay slate and compact
felspar. With respect to botany, I could not mark
much of any importance. Inula dysentenca, Sangui-
sorba officinalis, Convolvulus sepium, etc.

Between Kendal and Shap is a track of high
ground, covered with peat and heather, as wild as
any that I have seen in the Highlands or Hebrides.

EDINBURGH.

At Carlisle I slept nearly four hours. It had
rained heavily during the night, and when I arose
at four, it still continued. Breakfast was on the
table in the coffee-room, and after appropriating to
myself a moderate quantity of it, I ascended the
Edinburgh mail, to which I had transferred myself
by paying 7d. additional. The distance to Edinburgh
is 96 miles, and we arrrived there at half-past three.
At the head of the Solway Firth the land is alluvial
and almost perfectly flat, enclosed by hedges, generally
without trees in them, contrary to the English
practice. On coming to the Esk we passed for several
miles along that river, crossing and recrossing it
several times. The scenery was perfectly Scottish —
that is to say, the fields large, the trees left to assume

JOURNAL 131

their natural forms, the hedges trim, the houses built
of stone, the heights covered with trees, the hills bare
and heathy. The river tumbled, and rushed, and shot
silently along, or curled into eddies as it proceeded in
its winding course between its lofty banks, which were
often precipitous, and generally covered with trees
and shrubs. Nothing half so beautiful occurred
between London and Scotland. At length the road
left the river and passed by one of its tributaries, until
we ascended far among the high green hills of transi-
tion slate, covered here and there with brown fern.
After passing through a long, narrow, bare glen, we
entered another, the streamlet of which flowed east-
wards to join the Tweed. Cultivation increased as
we proceeded, the country became more wooded, and
as we approached Hawick, the valley opened. From
that place to Selkirk the ground is high and bleak,
but partially cultivated. The rock was everywhere
greywacke and slate. From Selkirk to Galashiels the
road passes along the bottom of the valley of the
united Yarrow and Ettrick streams — Abbotsford on
the south side of the Tweed — Melrose obscurely seen
at a distance. The valley of the Gala is not remark-
able, excepting towards its lower part, where it is
wooded and partially cultivated. The hills are stony
and bare, and although in many places cultivation
extends far up the secondary valleys, the ground is
scarcely anywhere sheltered by hedges or trees, which
would certainly be of decided advantage. From this
to the neighbourhood of Dalkeith the ground is high,

132 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

heathy, destitute of wood, and but slightly cultivated.
There is, however, a very extensive tract of good,
slightly sloping ground on the edge of the hilly
district that is capable of yielding crops or woods.
As you come over the ridge, you see in succes-
sion the Fifeshire Lomonds, the Pentland Hills, and
Arthur's Seat. I observed that beyond Dalkeith the
roads are repaired with a blue limestone, seemingly
of the carboniferous series, but presenting appear-
ances differing considerably from any variety that I
have seen.

The Museums which I have visited are the
following : —

Museum of the Glasgow University.

Museum of the Andersonian Institution, Glasgow.

Museum of the Liverpool Institution.

Museum of the Dublin College of Surgeons.

Museum of the Dublin Society.

Museum of the Bristol Institution.

Museum of the London College of Surgeons.

Museum of Guy's Hospital.

Museum of St. Thomas's Hospital.

Museum of Bartholomew's Hospital.

Museum of King's College, London.

Comparative Anatomy and Natural History Museum, London

University.

Anatomical and Pathological Museum, London University.
Materia Medica Collection, London University.
Comparative Anatomy and Natural History Museum, Guy's

Hospital.
Obstetrical Museum, Guy's Hospital.

JOURNAL 133

British Museum.

Museum of the Zoological Society.

Museum of the Linnean Society.

Museum of the Geological Society.

Mr. LangstaiTs (Heaviside's) Museum.

Anatomical and Pathological Museum, Fort Pitt, Chatham.

Natural History Museum, Fort Pitt, Chatham.

Museum of the Chatham Institution.

EXTRACTS FROM PROFESSOR MACGILLIVRAY'S

WORKS EXPLANATORY OF HIS SYSTEM OF ORNI-
THOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION AS DIFFERING FROM

THOSE OF OTHER ORNITHOLOGISTS.

1.

THE object which I had in view when, many years ago,
I commenced the observations recorded in this work
was at some convenient season to lay before the public
descriptions of the birds of Great Britain, more extended,
and if possible more correct, than any previously offered.
To accomplish so ambitious a purpose, I judged it neces-
sary to direct my attention to the living objects them-
selves, rather than to their skins in collections or their
portraits in books ; to follow them in their haunts,
observe their manners, procure unmutilated specimens,
carefully examine all their parts, and thus be enabled to
bring forward facts that had been entirely overlooked,
and place others in a light in which they had not pre-
viously been viewed. Short specific characters, slight
descriptions or notices, and measurements of parts, I
could easily have obtained by visiting museums and

ORNITHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION 135

consulting books ; but the elaboration of a detailed
account of the species, such as is to be found in the
following pages, could obviously be accomplished only
by much labour of a different kind. — British Birds,
vol. i., Preface.

2.

In again presenting to the public some of the results
of my long-continued examination of the habits and
structure of the birds of Great Britain, I may be per-
mitted to offer a few retrospective remarks. The
introduction to the first volume contains, among other
matter, a description of the skeleton, the organs of
flight, and the digestive apparatus of birds, rendered
necessary by the neglect of anatomy evinced by our
most esteemed ornithological writers, who in their
treatises have either expressly maintained, or practically
shown it to be their opinion that the inspection of the
external parts is a sufficient guide to zoological know-
ledge. In avoiding this error, as I cannot but esteem
it, I have not fallen into the opposite one of considering
an acquaintance with the internal structure of animals
alone necessary to their historian, but have entered
into details as to external form, and the texture and
colours of the cutaneous system, much more extended,
and, if my efforts have been successful, not less accurate,
than those which I have met with in any of the works
alluded to, and have presented numerous facts relative
to the habits and economy of the different species.

136 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

The varieties exhibited in the mode of flying, the
differences of manners, the dispersion and migration of
birds, were introduced to notice in chapters intervening
between the methodical descriptions of the orders under
which I thought it expedient to arrange the species.
In recalling these circumstances to mind, my object is
simply to connect the past with the present, and direct
the attention of the reader to the continuity of plan
and similarity of execution exhibited by the two
volumes ; not certainly to boast of my performances,
which I am convinced require not a little of that kind
of indulgence which the candid and considerate critic is
always ready to apply to the productions of an artist
who honestly and earnestly, although not always success-
fully, strives to represent Nature as she appears to him.
In the present work, as in others, and in all my
papers published in various journals, I have endeavoured
to adapt the style to the subject, rendering it compact
and precise when engaged with technical descriptions,
copious and florid when treating of the actions and
haunts of birds, abrupt or continuous, direct or discur-
sive, harsh or harmonious, according to the varying
circumstances of the case. My aim has been to amuse
as well as to instruct, to engage the affections as well as
to enlighten the understanding, to induce the traveller
on the road to science to make occasional excursions,
tending to raise his spirits, and to show to the public
that ornithology is not necessarily so repulsive as
some of its votaries represent it. — British Birds, vol ii.,
Preface.

ORNITHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION 137

3.

Several keen observers of birds have, to my sure
knowledge, received from the information conveyed in
these volumes an impulse which will effectually prevent
them from ever perverting Nature by forcing her into
quinary or ternary arrangements, or from dwindling
into mere describers of skins, and indiscriminating com-
pilers of correct, doubtful, and erroneous observations.
Of such pupils I am proud, and if my exultation should
be held as an indication of vanity, I cannot help it, for
1 am constrained to speak the truth. Should any man
conceive himself injured thereby, I hope he may con-
sider that in matters of science there ought to be perfect
freedom of thought, and that a very obscure individual
like myself may sometimes fall upon truths subversive
of theories invented by men of the highest intellect. —
British Birds, vol. iii., Preface.

4.

It seems difficult to conjecture why the vultures
should be, properly speaking, destitute of inferior larynx.
What is there in their voice or respiration that renders
an inferior laryngeal muscle, or a division of the last
tracheal ring, inexpedient? Such questions tend to
show that much remains to be studied in the anatomy
and physiology of birds.

Observations like these may appear unnecessary to

138 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

the persons who view birds merely as composed of skin
and feathers ; but to them I now cease from addressing
myself. They will gradually disappear from the earth,
and their place will be occupied by men who will study
birds as organic beings. The attempt which I have
made to establish a rational method of study in this
most interesting department of science, however feeble
it may be, will yet form, I am well persuaded, the com-
mencement of a new era among my countrymen, whom
I hope yet to see perfecting my favourite study to such
a degree as to render these volumes antiquated and
effete. For my own part, I am well pleased to think
that my labours, however little appreciated by such of
my contemporaries as evidently conceive themselves to
be the sole depositaries of ornithological knowedge, will
be productive of beneficial results, inasmuch as they will
stimulate to increased exertion some of those young and
ardent naturalists who, to my certain knowledge, have
derived pleasure from even the rude attempt at observa-
tion of so humble an individual as myself. — British
Birds, vol. iii. p. 159.

5.

Each of our many ornithologists, real and pretended,
has a method of his own : one confining himself to short
technical descriptions as most useful to students ;
another detailing more especially the habits of the
birds as more amusing to general readers ; a third view-
ing them in relation to human feelings and passion ; a

ORNITHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION 139

fourth converting science into romance, and giving no
key to the discrimination of the species, bringing his
little knowledge of the phenomena under the dominion
of imagination, and copiously intermingling his patch-
work of truth and error with scraps of poetry. The
plan of this work is very different from that of any of
these, and is not by any means calculated to amuse the
reader who desires nothing more than pleasant anec-
dotes or fanciful combinations, or him who merely
wishes to know a species by name. It contains the
only full and detailed technical descriptions hitherto
given in this country. The habits of the species are
treated of with equal extension in every case where I
have been enabled to study them advantageously. The
internal structure has been explained in so far as I have
thought it expedient to endeavour to bring it into view,
and in particular the alimentary organs, as determining
and illustrating the habits, have been carefully attended
to. If imagination has sometimes been permitted to
interfere, it has only been in disposing ascertained facts
so as to present an agreeable picture, or to render them
easily intelligible by placing them in relation to each
other. — British Birds, vol. v., Preface.

VI

EXTRACTS FROM PROFESSOR MACGILLIVRAY'S
WORKS DESCRIPTIVE OF BIRD LIFE, OF
PERSONAL ADVENTURE FOR SCIENTIFIC IN-
VESTIGATION, OR OF PICTURESQUE SCENES, ETC.

1. — A NIGHT EXCURSION TO THE WELLS OF DEE.

IT is pleasant to hear the bold challenge of the gor-
cock at early dawn on the wild moor remote from
human habitation, where, however, few ornithologists
have ever listened to it. I remember with delight
the cheering influence of its cry on a cold morning
in September, when, wet to the knees, and with a
sprained ankle, I had passed the night in a peat bog
in the midst of the Grampians, between the sources
of the Tummel and the Dee. Many years ago, when
I was of opinion, as I still am, that there is little
pleasure in passing through life dry-shod and ever
comfortable, I was returning to Aberdeen from a
botanical excursion through the Hebrides and the
south of Scotland. At Blair Atholl I was directed to a
road that leads over the hill, and which I was informed

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 141

was much shorter than the highway. By it I pro-
ceeded until I reached Blair Lodge, where I obtained
some refreshment, of which I stood greatly in need.
The good woman very benevolently exerted herself
to persuade me to remain all night, the hills being, as
she said, bleak and dreary, entirely destitute of every-
thing that could afford pleasure to a traveller, and even
without human habitation, the nearest house being
fifteen miles north. It was now six o'clock, and I was
certain of being benighted, but I had promised to be
at the source of the Dee by noon of next day, and all
the dragons of darkness could not have prevented me
from at least striving to fulfil my engagement. They
had never heard of the spring in question, nor even
of the river ; no Cairngorm could be seen, and a
woman just arrived from the Spey informed me that
I should be under the necessity of going through
Badenoch before I could get to it. I placed more
confidence in my travelling map. All, however, shook
their heads when I disclosed my plan, which was to
proceed eastward, cross a stream, get to the summit
of a ridge of mountains, and so forth, until I should
reach the first burn of the Dee, where I expected
to find my friend Craigie. It was sunset when I
got to the top of the first hill, whence I struck
directly east, judging by the place where the sun
disappeared behind the rugged and desolate mountains.
After traversing a mile of boggy heath, I found myself
put out of my course by a long, deep, rocky valley or
ravine which I was obliged to double, and before I

142

had accomplished this night fell. I travelled on,
however, about two miles farther, and coming upon
another but smaller valley, in which I was apprehensive
of breaking my neck if 1 should venture through it, I
sat down by a rock, weary, and covered with perspira-
tion. Rest is pleasant, even in such a place as this ;
and when I had experienced a little of its sweets, I
resolved to take up my abode there for the night.
So, thrusting my stick into the peat between me and
the ravine below, I extended myself on the ground and
presently fell into a reverie, reviewed my life, gave
vent to the sorrow of my soul in a thousand reflections
on the folly of my conduct, and ended with resolving
to amend ! Around me were the black masses of the
granite hills rising to heaven like the giant barriers
of an enchanted land ; above, the cloudless sky,
spangled with stars ; beneath, a cold bed of wet turf ;
within, a human spirit tortured with wild imaginings
and the pangs of a sprained foot. " In such a place,
at such a time," and in such a mood, what are the
vanities of the world, the pomp of power, the pride
of renown, and even the pleasures of bird-nesting !
Having in a short time become keenly sensible that
a great portion of vital heat had oozed out of me, I
looked out for a warmer situation ; but, alas, with little
success ; for although I pulled some stunted heath and
white moss, with which I covered my feet, and laid me
down by another crag that afforded more shelter, I
could not sleep. After a while, having experienced a
fit of shivering, I got up to gather more heath, with

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 143

which I formed a sort of bed and lay down again.
But even heath was not to be obtained in sufficient
quantity, so that for a covering I was obliged to bury
myself in moss and turf, with the soil adhering. At
long, long length, the sky began to brighten in what
I supposed to be the north-east, and I was anxiously
looking for the approach of morn, when gradually the
pale unwelcome moon rose over a distant hill. It was
piercing cold, and I perceived that a strolling naturalist,
however fervid his temperament, could hardly, if
scantily clad, feel comfortable even among moss, in
a bog of the Grampians. What a blessing a jug of
hot water would have been to such a stomach as mine,
aching with emptiness, and nothing, not even tripe-de-
roche, to be got to thrust into it. However, morning
actually came at last, and I started up to renew my
journey. It was now that I got a view of my lodging,
which was an amphitheatre formed of bare craggy
hills, covered with fragments of stone and white moss
and separated by patches of peat bog. Not a house
was to be seen, nor a sheep, nor even a tree, nor so
much as a blade of green grass. Not a vestige of life
can be found here, thought I ; but I was reproved by
a cry that startled me. The scarlet crest and bright
eye of a moor-cock were suddenly protruded from a
tuft of heather, and I heard with delight the well-known
kok, kok of the "blessed bird," as the Highlanders
call him. It was a good omen ; the night and dulness
had fled, and I limped along as cheerily as I could.
My half-frozen blood soon regained its proper tempera-

144 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

ture ; ere long I reached the base of the rocky
ridge, and after passing some hills, traversing a long
valley, and ascending a mountain of considerable
height, I took out my map, and looking eastward
below me, saw, to my great satisfaction, a rivulet
running for several miles directly in the course
marked. I was assured that this stream, whether the
source or not, ran into the Dee, as it proceeded east-
ward, and therefore I directed my steps toward it.
But here, too, a scene occurred which gave me great
pleasure. Some low croaking sounds came from
among the stones around me, and presently after a
splendid flock of grey ptarmigans, about fifty in
number, rose into the air and whirred past me on their
way to the opposite eminence. On the brow of the
hill I found two large fountains, the sources of the
stream below, of each of which I drank a mouthful,
and proceeded. My friend, however, was not to be
seen ; but it was too early ; and so to pass the time I
explored another of the sources of the rivulet that rose
farther up in the glen. But at length the scene be-
came too dreary to be endured : desolate mountains, on
whose rugged sides lay patches of snow that the
summer's suns had failed to melt ; wild glens, scantily
covered with coarse grass, heath, and lichens ; dark
brown streams gushing among crags and blocks, un-
enlivened even by a clump of stunted willows : and I
followed the rivulet, judging that it would lead to the
river, and the river to the sea. For seven long miles 1
trudged along, faint enough, as you may suppose, hav-

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 145

ing obtained no refreshment for eighteen hours, except-
ing two mouthfuls of cold water ; so that even the
multitudes of grouse that sprung up around me ceased
to give much pleasure, although I had never before
started so many, even with a dog, in a space of equal
extent. At one o'clock, however, I came to a hut,
tenanted by a person named MacHardy, who, express-
ing his concern at my having been out all night,
treated me to a glass of whisky and some bread and
milk. At this place, Dubrach, stood three half-blasted
firs, and about a mile and a half farther down I came
upon a wood, the first that I had seen since I left
Blair. The silver Dee now rolled pleasantly along the
wooded valley, and in the evening I reached Castleton
of Braemar, where, while seated in the inn, at a little
round table, reading Zimmerman on Solitude, which, to
my great joy, I had found there, and sipping my tea,
I heard a rap at the door. " Come in," said I ; it was
my best friend, with whom I spent a happy evening,
in which, I believe, little mention was made of
ptarmigans, grey or brown. — British Birds, vol. i.
pp. 175-179.

2. — MOUNTAIN INSPIRATION.

It is delightful to wander far away from the haunts
and even the solitary huts of men, and, ascending the
steep mountain, seat one's self on the ruinous cairn that
crowns its summit, where, amid the grey stones, the
ptarmigan gleans its Alpine food. There, communing

i,

146 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

with his own heart, in the wilderness, the lover of Nature
cannot fail to look up to Nature's God. I believe it in
fact impossible, in such a situation, on the height of
Ben-na-muic-dhui or Ben Nevis, for example, not to be
sensible, not merely of the existence but also of the
presence of a Divinity. In that sacred temple, of which
the everlasting hills are the pillars, and the blue vault
of heaven the dome, he must be a fiend indeed who
could harbour an unholy thought. But, to know himself,
one must go there alone. Accompanied by his fellows,
he may see all of external Nature that he could see in
solitude, but the hidden things of his own heart will not
be brought to light. To me the ascent of a lofty
mountain has always induced a frame of mind similar
to that inspired by entering a temple ; and I cannot but
look upon it as a gross profanation to enact in the midst
of the sublimities of creation a convivial scene, such as
is usually got up by parties from our large towns, who
seem to have no higher aim in climbing to the top of
Ben Lomond or Ben Ledi than to feast there upon cold
chicken and " mountain dew," and toss as many stones
as they can find over the precipices. — British Birds, vol.
i. p. 204.

3. — FLIGHT OF BIRDS.

The folly of chasing sparrows depends upon the
object you have in view. If the divine wisdom and
power have been exercised in creating them, and the
good providence of God displayed in caring for them,

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 147

it cannot be foolish in us to study their habits, provided
we look upon them with relation to the author of their
being. However, let us go on : they have flown, and
you see that they move about in flocks, that is, are
gregarious at this season, as many species of small birds
are in winter, the lark, for example, linnets, and buntings.
Before us are some birds in the hedge, chaffinches, which,
as you observe, fly in a manner somewhat different from
that of the sparrows. Then, the rooks, which you see
high in the air, moving steadily and sedately along, with
regularly-timed beats of their expanded wings, and now,
as if seized with some sudden panic, or impelled by some
frolicsome propensity, dashing down headlong, crossing
each other, whirling and undulating : how different is
their flight from that of those wood pigeons, which
advance with rapidity, moving their wings with quick
strokes, and making the air whistle as they glide along ;
while the two white gulls, with their outstretched, long,
arched wings, float buoyantly in the clear sky, bending
gently to either side, as they advance from the sea. —
British Birds, vol. i. p. 238.

4. — A LOVER OF NATURE — AUDUBON.

We are all school-boys, or at least scholars, and when
we forget that we are so, we become fools. If we go to
the school of Nature, and study God's providence, we
can be better employed only when in the school of
revelation we study God's grace. Let us ever retain

148 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

our school-boy feelings, so long as they are innocent.
There is a freshness of heart manifest in every real lover
of Nature — a delightful feeling, gratifying not to one's
self only, but to his companions. When it is gone, and
the frost of worldly wisdom has chilled the affections,
the naturalist becomes a pompous, pedantic, stiff-necked,
cold-blooded thing, from which you shrink back un-
wittingly. I have the pleasure of being familiar with
an ornithologist who has spent thirty years in study,
who has ransacked the steaming swamps of Louisiana,
traversed the tangled and trackless woods of the Missouri,
ascended the flowery heights of the Alleghanies, and
clambered among the desolate crags of cold and misty
Labrador ; who has observed, and shot and drawn, and
described the birds of half a continent. Well, what
then ? Has this man the grave and solemn croak of
that carrion-crow, or the pertness and impudence of that
pilfering jackdaw. No, I have seen him chasing torn-tits
with all the glee of a truant school-boy, and have heard
him communicate his knowledge with the fervour and
feeling of a warm-hearted soul, as he is. — British Birds,
vol. i. p. 239.

5. — A TAME ROCK DOVE.

The boys in the Outer Hebrides often attempt to
rear young doves, but their cares are seldom continued
long enough. They introduce the food, dry barley grain,
by the side of the mouth, which occasions inflammation

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 149

and swelling of the basal margins of the mandibles.
When a boy, I had a young rock dove, which I fed for
some time in this manner, until the bill became tumid
and sore, when, in consequence of advice from a friend,
I took a mouthful of barley and water, and introduced
the pigeon's bill, when the bird soon satisfied itself,
flapping its wings gently and uttering a low cry all the
while. It grew up vigorously, shed the yellow down-tips
of its feathers, and began to fly about. Towards the
middle of autumn it renewed its plumage, and assumed
the bright and beautiful tints of the adult male. When-
ever I escaped from the detested pages of Virgil and
Horace, the pigeon was sure to fly to me, and sometimes
alighted on my head or shoulder, directing its bill towards
my mouth, and flapping its wings. Nor did it ever fly
off with the wild pigeons, which almost every day fed
near the house, although it had no companions of its
own species. At length some fatal whim induced it to
make an excursion to a village about a mile distant,
when it alighted on the roof of a hut and the boys pelted
it dead with stones. Long and true was my sorrow for
my lost companion ; the remembrance of it will probably
continue as long as life. I have since mourned the loss
of a far dearer dove. They were gentle and lovely
beings ; but while the one has been blended with the
elements, the other remains " hid with Christ in God,"
and for it I "mourn not as those who have no hope." —
British Birds, vol. i. pp. 275, 276.

150 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

6. — A WINTER BIRD SCENE AT THE MOUTH OF
THE ALMOND.

The tide is out, and on the muddy flat at the mouth
of the Almond you observe vast collections of rooks and
gulls. Small flocks of ducks are swimming about in the
stream, and groups of sandpipers are diligently probing
the mud along its edges. Far away, at a safe distance,
are many curlews and oyster-catchers. But see, scattered
all over the sand, running with a half-hopping motion,
and as they rise on wing displaying the white of their
wings and tail, the beautiful snow buntings. At the
edge of the water stand in a fixed and watchful posture
a pair of herons ; and, out at sea, are seen here and there
a few dark-coloured birds, which may be cormorants or
ducks. A flight of sandpipers is a beautiful sight ; there
they wheel around the distant point, and advance over
the margin of the water ; swiftly and silently they glide
along ; now, all inclining their bodies to one side, present
to view their under surface, glistening in the sunshine ;
again, bending to the other side, they have changed
their colour to dusky grey ; a shot is fired, and they
plunge with an abrupt turn, curve aside, ascend with a
gliding flight, and all, uttering shrill cries, fly over the
stream to settle on the shore that stretches out towards
Barnbogle ruins. I have seen the sand fords of the
Hebrides in autumn, when those birds descend with their
broods from the moors, almost completely covered with
them and the golden plovers.

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 151

What interest one could find in merely describing
the skins of these birds in his closet, it is somewhat
difficult to imagine ; nor is it obvious that the examina-
tion of their structure, without any reference to their
habits, is a much more rational occupation. The mere
closet-naturalist, and the mere anatomist, find little to
interest them in such a sight as this ; and the mere
field-naturalist, however delighted with it, cannot enjoy
that true pleasure which results from a knowledge of the
adaptation of means to ends, by which all these species
have their peculiar spheres of action determined. — British
Birds, vol. i. pp. 301, 302.

7. — ON CLISHEIM IN A SNOW-STORM.

Having in October 1817, as I find by one of my
note-books, left Borve in Harris, in company with the
Reverend Mr. Alexander Macleod, minister of the Forest
district, I crossed the sand ford and hills of Luskentir
to the little Bay of Kindibig, where we lodged with a
farmer, who next day ferried us over Loch Tarbert to a
place called Urga. We remained there for a night, and
then continued our journey, proceeding up a long, craggy,
and bleak valley, in which is a very dark-coloured lake,
famous for a goblin -beast which is seen upon it in summer
in the form of a black mass having three humps. The
wind was exceedingly keen, the hail came in great
showers, and the summits of the mountains were covered
with snow. I left the parson a little above Marig, a

152 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

creek on Loch Seaforth, in which was his dreary-looking
habitation, and having resolved to ascend the highest
hill, in order to witness a Hebridian snow-storm in all
its glory, I proceeded towards Clisheim, the height of
which is estimated at somewhat more than three thousand
feet. In despite of hail and snow, and the furious whirl-
winds or eddying blasts that swept the mountain at
intervals, I made my way, though not without labour,
to the summit ; and well was I recompensed, for there
I enjoyed a very sublime spectacle. I was on the highest
pinnacle of that range of islands denominated the Outer
Hebrides or Long Island, perched, like a ptarmigan, on
a craggy and precipitous ridge. The islands of Uist,
Harris, and Lewis lay, as it were, at my feet. Toward
the east and south, in the extreme distance, appeared
the mountains of the counties of Ross and Inverness,
with the pointed hills and craggy capes and sloping
plains of Skye. Westward, a long series of summits,
commencing with that on which I stood, and forming a
broad ridge, intercepted transversely by deep valleys,
extended for several miles. They appeared to be much
lower than the mountain on which I was, and resembled
heaps of sand formed by pouring it from a vessel. The
snow lay rather deep on them all, and the whirlwinds
that swept along their ridges, scattering it in spiral flakes,
presented an indescribably beautiful and sublime appear-
ance. I was enveloped in one, but it did not prove very
boisterous. The Atlantic was covered with huge clouds,
that advanced in disorderly groups, nearly on a level
with my position, but the waving streams of snow and

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 153

hail that poured from them left no trace on the stormy
waters. Toward the north lay the dreary flats of Lewis,
covered with lakes and flanked with the Park and Uig
mountains. Having gazed upon the splendid scene until
nearly frozen, I descended with considerable difficulty
into a deep valley, where I encountered a fall of snow
so dense as to render me apprehensive of being smothered
by it. I felt too, for the first time perhaps, the benumbing
effects of cold, my feet and fingers having become almost
senseless, and a feeling of faintness having crept over me.
However, by walking and running I soon recovered heat
enough, and after passing the deep glen of Langadale,
ascended an eminence in a kind of pass between two
mountains, whence I discovered tokens of cultivation at
the distance of three or four miles. — British Birds, vol.
i. pp. 306, 307.

8. — CROSSBILLS FEEDING.

In the autumn of 1821, when walking from Aber-
deen to Elgin, by the way of Glenlivet and along the
Spey, I had the pleasure of observing, near the influx of
a tributary of that river, a flock of several hundreds of
crossbills busily engaged in shelling the seeds of the
berries which hung in clusters on a clump of rowan
trees. So intent were they on satisfying their hunger
that they seemed not to take the least heed of me, and
as I had not a gun I was content with gazing on them,
without offering them any molestation. They clung to
the twigs in all sorts of positions, and went through the

154 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

operation of feeding in a quiet and business-like manner,
each attending to his own affairs without interfering
with his neighbours. It was indeed a pleasant sight to
see how the little creatures fluttered among the twigs,
all in continued action, like so many bees on a cluster
of flowers in sunshine after rain. Their brilliant colours,
so much more gaudy than those of our common birds,
seemed to convert the rude scenery around into that of
some far distant land, where the redbird sports among
the magnolia flowers. — British Birds, vol. i. p. 425.

9. — THE RAVEN IN THE HEBRIDES.

The character of the raven accords well with the
desolate aspect of the rugged glens of the Hebridian
moors. He and the eagle are the fit inhabitants of
those grim rocks ; the red grouse, the plover, and its
page, of those brown and scarred heaths ; the ptarmigan
of those craggy and tempest-beaten summits. The red-
throated diver and the merganser, beautiful as they are,
fail to give beauty to those pools of dark-brown water,
edged with peat banks, and unadorned with sylvan
verdure. Even the water-lily, with its splendid white
flowers, floating on the deep bog, reflects no glory on
the surrounding scenery, but selfishly draws all your
regards to itself. There, on the rifted crag, let the
dark raven croak to his mate, while we search for the
species in distant parts of the land. — British Birds, vol.
i. p. 509.

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 155

10. — SCENE ON AN APRIL DAY.

It is a lovely April day. All over the pale blue
sky are scattered fleecy tufts of white vapour, buds of
beauty are bursting from the earth, and the distant
waterfall fills the valley with its soothing murmur. How
delightful the scenery of these wild hills, where from
the rift of the lichen-crusted crag juts out the rowan,
whose elegantly pinnated foliage is fast unfolding ;
where, scattered along the broken steep, are seen the
white-stemmed birches, with their drooping twigs and
glistening leaflets ; while the hillocks are crowned with
blossomed furze ; and the smooth waters of the
deep lake send back the wooded banks and the
heath-clad heights !

High overhead wheels in wanton mazes the joyous
snipe, piping its singular song, and anon drumming on
tremulous wing, as it shoots aslant. The shrill scream
of the curlew is responded to by the wail of the lap-
wing and the melancholy whistle of the golden plover.
Already have these birds desposited their eggs on the
moor, in which they have scraped a slight hollow for
the purpose of receiving them. Should you come upon
one of their nests, you will admire the arrangement of
its four pear-shaped and spotted eggs, the narrow ends
of which meet in the centre. Among the tufts of furze
and sloe hops the lively ring ouzel, newly arrived from
the warmer region in which it has passed the winter ;
and by the pebbly margin of the pool flits the delicate

156 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

sandpiper, whose body is continually vibrating as if on
a pivot.

It is the busy season of Nature. What myriads of
flowers are silently expanding, what rills of vegetable
juices are ascending the stems of the topmost twigs,
what mighty preparations, without confusion or bustle,
are making to secure an abundant produce of fruit and
seed for the support of animal life ! How beautiful the
brooding mystery of that happy raven, seated on her
nesif to impart vital warmth to her newly -fledged young,
while her mate croaks in joy on the projecting crag,
ready to sally forth and drive away the prowling hawk
that may chance to come near his ancient seat, the castle
of his sires 1 For weeks might one wander among those
wooded glens, finding each hour some fresh object to
excite admiration, and warm his bosom with the glow
of gratitude toward the Supreme Power which out of
nothing has called all these wonders into being. But
at present we are mere strolling naturalists, bent on
collecting nests and eggs. — British Birds, vol. i. pp.
616, 617.

11. — SOME OF PROFESSOR MACGILLIVRAY'S FRIENDS.

I remember. Mr. Weir is an enthusiast, a lover of
Nature, and, although a Conservative and a trapper of
birds, a Christian and a scholar. I forgot him when I
boasted of having fought my way with my own claymore.
You shall see presently how efficient his aid has been.

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 157

Other friends too, still dearer, I overlooked, especially
him who now, in some Canadian wilderness, is making
room for himself and his family, beset perhaps with
murderous rebels and renegades, my best and most
beloved friend, William Craigie ; and him too, of sultry
Louisiana, the wanderer of the wild woods, the warm-
hearted and generous Audubon ; and many more, some
of whom I shall have occasion to mention, but above
all, one who will presently welcome us, for here, No. 1
Wharton Place, we end our digression for the present.
— British Birds, vol. ii. p. 13.

12. — THE SONG OF THE BLACKBIRD.

Although the blackbird sings at all times of the day,
it is more especially in the mornings and evenings that
it pours forth its delightful melodies, which, simple as
they are, I am unable to describe in a more effective
manner than by characterising them as loud, rich, mellow,
and much surpassing in effect those of any other native
bird, excepting the nightingale, song thrush, black-cap,
and garden warbler. I have heard individuals singing
most fervently in the midst of a heavy thunder storm,
when the rain was falling thickly, and the lightning
flashing at an alarming rate ; and both this species and
the song thrush seem to regard the summer rains with
pleasure.

The sweet strain, loud, but mellowed by distance,
comes upon the ear, inspiring pleasant thoughts, and

158 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

banishing care and sorrow. The bird has evidently
learned his part by long practice, for he sings sedately
and in the full consciousness of superiority. Ceasing at
intervals, he renews the strain, varying it so that although
you can trace an occasional repetition of notes, the staves
are precisely the same. You may sit an hour or longer,
and yet the song will be continued ; and in the neigh-
bouring gardens many rival songsters will sometimes
raise their voices at once, or delight you with alternate
strains. And now, what is the purpose of all this melody ?
We can only conjecture that it is the expression of the
perfect happiness which the creature is enjoying, when,
uncarked by care, conscious of security, and aware of
the presence of his mate, he instinctively pours forth
his soul in joy and gratitude and love. He does not
sing to amuse his mate, as many have supposed, for he
often sings in winter, when he is not yet mated ; nor
does he sing to beguile his solitude, for now he is not
solitary ; but he sings because all his wants are satisfied,
his whole frame glowing with health, and because his
Maker has gifted him with the power of uttering sweet
sounds. — British Birds, vol. ii. pp. 89, 90.

13. — THE SONG OF THE THRUSH.

The song thrush is associated in my memory with
the Hebrides, where it is perhaps more abundant than
in most parts of Britain. There, in the calm summer
evening, such as for placid beauty far exceeds any that

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 159

I have elsewhere seen, when the glorious sun is drawing
towards the horizon, and shedding a broad glare of ruddy
light over the smooth surface of the ocean ; when the
scattered sheep, accompanied by their frolicsome lamb-
kins, are quietly browsing on the hills ; when the
broad-winged eagle is seen skimming along the mountain
ridge, as he wends his way toward his eyry on the far
promontory ; when no sound comes on the ear save at
intervals the faint murmur of the waves rushing into the
caverns and rising against the faces of the cliffs ; when
the western breeze, stealing over the flowery pastures,
carries with it the perfume of the wild thyme and white
clover ; the song of the thrush is poured forth from the
summit of some granite block, shaggy with grey lichens,
and returns in softer and sweeter modulations from the
sides of the heathy mountains. There may be wilder,
louder, and more marvellous songs, and the mocking
bird may be singing the requiem of the Red Indian of
the Ohio, or cheering the heart of his ruthless oppressor,
the white man of many inventions ; but to me it is
all-sufficient, for it enters into the soul, melts the heart
into tenderness, diffuses a holy calm, and connects the
peace of earth with the transcendent happiness of heaven.
In other places the song of the thrush may be lively and
cheery ; here, in the ocean-girt solitude, it is gentle and
soothing ; by its magic influence it smoothes the ruffled
surface of the sea of human feelings, as it floats over it
at intervals with its varied swells and cadences, like the
perfumed wavelets of the summer wind. — British Birds,
vol. ii. pp. 130, 181.

160 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

14. — THE CAROL OF THE LARK.

The mellow song of the merle or mavis is apt to
inspire melancholy, especially if heard in a sequestered
valley toward the close of day, and the feelings
which it excites have perhaps as much of a depressing
as of a soothing tendency ; but the carol of the lark,
like the lively fife, excites pure cheerfulness, and might
with propriety be prescribed as an antidote of dulness.
It is not merely music that we look for in the song of
birds, but variety, and the expression of passions, feel-
ings, and wants. Were all our warblers to tune their
throats according to rule, we should become sickly and
sentimental, fill the valleys with sighs, and groan from
the mountain tops ; but the loud war-whoop of the
eagle, the harsh scream of the heron, and the croak of
the raven, are antidotes to the bewitching melody of
the black-cap and nightingale. I have endeavoured to
trace a repetition at regular intervals in the strains of
the lark ; but its modulations seem to have no rule. In
confinement this bird sings every whit as well as when
at large ; and when rapidly perambulating the square
bit of faded turf in its cage, it enacts its part with
apparently as much delight as when mounting " to-
wards heaven's gate." — British Birds, vol. ii. p. 170.

15. — THE HEN-HARRIER.

Having examined the form, and somewhat of the
structure of the hen-harrier, we are prepared for the

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 161

exhibition of its faculties. Kneel down here, then,
among the long broom, and let us watch the pair that
have just made their appearance on the shoulder of the
hill. Leave these beautiful flowerets to the inspection
of that lank-sided botanist, who drags himself slowly
along, with a huge tin cannister on his back, and eyes
ever bent on the ground. Should he wander hither-
ward, he will be delighted to cull the lovely tufts of
maiden-pinks that surround us ; but we look heaven-
ward, like the astronomers.

How beautifully they glide along, in their circling
flight, with gentle flaps of their expanded wings, float-
ing, as it were, in the air, their half-spread tails inclined
from side to side, as they balance themselves, or alter
their course ! Now they are near enough to enable us
to distinguish the male from the female. They seem
to be hunting in concert, and their search is keen, for
they fly at times so low as almost to touch the bushes,
and never rise higher than thirty feet. The grey bird
hovers, fixing himself in air like the kestrel ; now he
stoops, but recovers himself. A hare breaks from the
cover, but they follow her not, though, doubtless, were
they to spy her young one, it would not escape so well.
The female now hovers for a few seconds, gradually
sinks for a short space, ascends, turns a little to one
side, closes her wings, and comes to the ground. She
has secured her prey, for she remains concealed among
the furze, while the male shoots away, flying at the
height of three or four yards, sweeps along the haw-
thorn hedge, bounds over it to the other side, turns

M

162 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

away to skim over the sedgy pool, where he hovers a
short while. He now enters upon the grass field, when
a partridge springs off, and he pursues it with a rapid,
gliding flight like that of the sparrow-hawk ; but they
have turned to the right, and the wood conceals them
from our view. In the meantime the female has sprung
up, and advances, keenly inspecting the ground, and so
heedless of our presence that she passes within twenty
yards of us. Away she speeds, and in passing the pool
again stoops, but recovers herself, and, rising in a beauti-
ful curve, bounds over the plantation, and is out of
sight. — British Birds, vol. iii. pp. 371, 372.

16. — THE GOLDEN PLOVER.

Many a time and oft, in the days of my youth, when
the cares of life were few and the spirits expansile, and
often, too, in later years, when I had made a temporary
escape to the wilderness to breathe an atmosphere un-
tainted by the effluvia of cities, and ponder in silence
on the wonders of creative power, have I stood on the
high moor and listened to the mellow notes of the
plover, that seemed to come from the grey slopes of the
neighbouring hills. Except the soft note of the ring-
plover, I know none so pleasing from the grallatorial
tribes. Amid the wild scenery of the rugged hills and
sedgy valleys, it comes gently and soothingly on the
ear, and you feel, without being altogether conscious of
its power, that it soothes the troubled mind, as water

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 163

cools the burning brow. How unlike the shriek of the
heron — but why should we think of it, for it reminds us
of the cracked and creaking voice of some village bel-
dame of the Saxon race. The clear, gentle tones of
the Celtic maiden could not be more pleasant to any
one, or perhaps much more welcome to her lover, than
the summer note of the golden plover to the lover of
birds and of Nature. As you listen to it, now distant,
now nearer and near, and see the birds with short flights
approaching as if to greet you, though in reality with
more fear than confidence, with anxiety and apprehen-
sion, the bright sunshine that glances on their jetty
breasts is faintly obscured by the white vapours that
have crept up from the western valley, and presently all
around us is suffused with an opaline light, into the con-
fines of which abird is dimly seen to advance, then another,
and a third. Who could represent the scene on canvas
or card ? — a hollow hemisphere of white shining mist,
on which are depicted two dark human figures, their
heads surrounded with a radiant halo, and these black-
breasted golden plovers, magnified to twice their natural
size, and gazing upon us, each from its mossy tuft. It
is as if two mortals had a conference on the heath with
three celestial messengers — and so they have. Pre-
sently a breeze rolls away the mist, and discloses a
number of those watchful sentinels, each on his mound
of faded moss, and all emitting their mellow cries the
moment we offer to advance. They are males, whose
mates are brooding over their eggs, or leading their
down -clad and toddling chicks among the, to them,

164 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

pleasant peat-bogs that intervene between the high
banks, clad with luxuriant heath, not yet recovered
from the effects of the winter frosts, and little meadows
of cotton-grass, white as the snow-wreaths that lie on
the distant hill. How prettily they run over the grey
moss and lichens, their little feet twinkling and their
full, bright, and soft eyes gleaming, as they commence
their attempts to entice us away from their chosen
retreats. In the midst of them alight some tiny things,
black-breasted too, with reddish backs and black nebs
and neat pointed wings, which they stretch right up,
and then fold by their sides. These are plovers' pages,
which also have their nests on the moor. The mist
rolls slowly away, and is ascending in downy flakes the
steep side of the corrie, whence comes suddenly on the
ear the loud scream of the curlew — pleasing too, but to
the deer startling. The fewer of these birds on the
moors after the 12th of August, the better for the
deer-stalker ; but that day is far distant. — British
Birds vol. iv. p. 97.

17. — COMMON RING-PLOVER.

Were I to describe the manners of this gentle
creature under the influence of the delightful emotions
which the view of it has often excited in me, I .should
probably appear to the grave admirer of Nature an
enthusiast, or an imitator of other men's musings.
Well, let him think as he lists ; but yet lives there

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 165

the man, calling himself an ornithologist, who, quietly
strolling along the bright sandy beach just left bare
by the retiring tide, and aroused from his pleasing
reveries by the mellow whistle of the ring-plover,
would not gaze with delight on the pleasant little
thing that speeds away before him with twinkling
feet, now stops, pipes its clear cry, runs, spreads its
beautiful wings, glides close over the sand, and alights
on some not distant tuft. What are primaries and
secondaries, coecums and duodenums, types and
analogies, squares or circles, to him who thus watches
the living bird ? There is the broad blue sea, on that
hand the green pasture, under foot and around the
pure sand, above the sunny sky. Frown not upon
the cheerfulness of Nature ; shout aloud, run, leap,
make the sand lark thy playmate. Why mayest thou
not be drunk with draughts of pure ether ? Are the
gambols of a merry naturalist less innocent than the
mad freaks, the howlings, the ravings of sapient men
assembled to deliberate about corn-laws, or party
zealots upholding their creed by palpably demonstrat-
ing their total want of charity ? — British Birds, vol. iv.
p. 119.

18.— THE SEA-PIE.

Should one consider the sea-pie the most beautiful
of our native birds, I should not much censure his
taste. When by the silver Dee, gliding, rapidly along,
amidst corn-fields, pastures, and fragrant birch-woods,

166 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

you hear a loud and shrill cry, and, turning about, see
a pair winging their flight up the country, their glossy
black and pure white plumage contrasting strongly
with everything around, and their long vermilion
beaks giving them a strange and foreign aspect, they
never fail to rivet your gaze. Equally attractive are
they when running about on some grassy meadow,
picking up an insect or a slug, then standing, and
again advancing with quick, short steps, prettily
tripping it among the gowans ; then emitting their
loud alarm-cries, and flying off to a more distant place,
or alighting on a pebbly beach. No creature but man
seems to molest them ; but of his advances they are
always suspicious, as good need they have to be. —
British Birds,, vol. iv. p. 158.

19. — DUNLINS FEEDING.

I, on the 9th of September 1840, walked to
Musselburgh, where I was informed that the sandpipers
were very abundant ; and, having betaken myself to
the mouth of the Esk soon after the tide had turned,
was gratified by the sight of a great number of
dunlins and ring-plovers. In the first place I met
with two flocks reposing, the one among some thin
herbage, composed chiefly of Glaux maritima; the
other on a slightly elevated part of the sand, just above
water -mark. Individuals of both species were inter-
mingled, all lying flat on the ground, and in a crouch-

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 167

ing attitude, with the neck drawn in. Thus, as I
have elsewhere observed, these birds repose during the
period of high water in unfrequented places along the
shore, and generally, especially if there be a strong
wind, in a decumbent posture. On my approaching
them, they dispersed, and began to search for food.
Presently straggling bands flew in from a distance and
alighted on the shore. The dunlins on such occasions
come gliding on outspread wings, which in alighting
they extend and elevate a little. They then run a
few steps, and stand a short time, or at once commence
their search. These bands were remarkably intent on
seeking for food, so that I was allowed to walk up to
about fifteen paces from one of them. In this flock
of about fifteen, two limped, apparently having had
one of their legs damaged by shot, yet they seemed
scarcely less active than the rest. Being in a muddy
place, which probably afforded a good supply of food,
they did not run much, but yet moved quickly about,
with their legs a little bent, the body horizontal, the
head a little declined, and the bill directed forwards
toward the ground at an angle of about forty-five
degrees. I observed that they seemed in general
merely to touch the surface, but also sometimes to
introduce their bill into the mud for about a fourth of
its length ; but this always with a rapid tapping and
somewhat wriggling movement, and not by thrusting
it in sedately. This flock having flown away, I
observed another of about twelve individuals alight at
a little distance on the other side of the mill-stream.

168 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

Being very intent on tapping the mud, they allowed
me to approach within ten paces, so that I could see
them very distinctly. I was surprised to hear from
them a very gentle warble, which was composed of
feeble notes somewhat resembling the syllables pee-
pee-pee, continually repeated, and with more frequency
when the individuals came very near each other.
These notes could not be heard at a greater distance
than twenty yards, and would thus be entirely lost to
the casual observer. All at once I heard a singular
noise, which might be likened to a cough, shrill and
feeble as it was, and presently found that it came from
one which, having picked up something too large for its
gullet, stood endeavouring to swallow it by repeated
jerks, at each of which it emitted a sharp wheezing or
hissing sound. The rest paid no attention to the
distressed bird, which in about three minutes got the
morsel down, and resumed its search. While thus
busily employed, and quite regardless of me, although
so near that I could see their little dusky eyes, and dis-
tinguish by its tints one individual from another, a sand-
piper, Totanus hypoleucos, came silently gliding over
them at the height of not more than three feet. It was
beautiful to see how they all rose simultaneously on wing
to the height of from two to four feet, and, finding that
they had no cause of alarm, immediately re-alight. I now
struck my note-book against my hand, when they all
rose, but alighted about five yards off, and three of them
came within ten paces of me. As nothing more was
to be seen, I examined the marks made by them in

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 169

the mud. Although it was soft, very few footmarks
were left ; but the place was covered with numberless
small holes made by their bills, and forming little
groups, as if made by the individual birds separately.
Of these impressions very many were mere hollows
not larger than those on a thimble, and not half a
twelfth of an inch deep ; others scarcely perceptible,
while a few were larger, extended to a depth of two-
twelfths ; and here and there one or two to the depth
of nearly half an inch. On scraping the mud I could
perceive no worms or shells. It is thus clear that
they search by gently tapping, and it appears that
they discover the object of their search rather by the
kind of resistance which it yields than by touch like
that of the human skin. — British Birds, vol. iv.
p. 210.

20. — THE COMMON SNIPE.

Beautiful are those green woods that hang upon the
craggy sides of the fern-clad hills, where the heath-fowl
threads its way among the tufts of brown heath, and the
cuckoo sings his ever -pleasing notes as he balances
himself on the grey stone, vibrating his fan -like tail.
Now I listen to the simple song of the mountain
blackbird, warbled by the quiet lake that spreads its
glittering bosom to the sun, winding far away among
the mountains, amid whose rocky glens wander the wild
deer, tossing their antlered heads on high as they snuff
the breeze tainted with the odour of the slow -paced

170 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

shepherd and his faithful dog. In that recess formed
by two rnoss-clad slabs of mica-slate, the lively wren
jerks up its little tail, and chits its merry note, as it
recalls its straggling young ones that have wandered
among the bushes. From the sedgy slope, sprinkled
with white cotton-grass, comes the shrill cry of the
solitary curlew ; and there, high over the heath, wings
his meandering way the joyous snipe, giddy with excess
of unalloyed happiness.

There another has sprung from among the yellow
flowered marigolds that profusely cover the marsh.
Upwards slantingly, on rapidly vibrating wings, he
shoots, uttering the while his shrill two -noted cry.
Tissick, tissick, quoth the snipe, as he leaves the bog.
Now in silence he wends his way, until at length,
having reached the height of perhaps a thousand feet, he
zigzags along, emitting a louder and shriller cry of zoo-
zee, zoo-zee, zoo-zee, which over, varying his action, he
descends on quivering pinions, curving toward the earth
with surprising speed, while from the rapid beats of his
wing the tremulous air gives to the ear what at first
seems the voice of distant thunder. This noise some
have likened to the bleating of a goat at a distance on
the hillside, and thus have named our bird the air-goat
and air-bleater. The sound, I think, is evidently
produced by the rapid action of the wings, which, during
its continuance, are seen to be in tremulous motion. It
comes on the ear soon after the bird commences its
descent, and ceases when, having gained the lowest part
of the curve, it recovers itself, and ascends with a

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 171

different and ordinary motion of its wings. I have never
heard it under any other circumstances. Were it pro-
duced by the voice, it might be emitted when the bird
is on the ground, or during its ordinary flight ; but
should one hear it on the moor, he will invariably find
that it proceeds from on high. In this manner the snipe
may continue to amuse itself for, perhaps, an hour or
more ; and sometimes, in the clear sky, one may trace
it until at length it mounts so high as to be no longer
perceptible.

This drumming noise of the snipe commences in
April and is continued through the summer. It is
altogether a solitary act, although several individuals
may often be heard at the same time, and may be an
expression of the happiness of the bird, or an intimation
of its presence to its mate while sitting upon her eggs.
We have no means of ascertaining its object, nor has it
been determined whether it be performed by the male
only, or by the female also. When the bird has gone
through his evolutions, he descends, often with astonish-
ing velocity, on partially extended and apparently
motionless wings, diminishes his speed a little as he
approaches the ground obliquely, and alights abruptly.
— British Birds, vol. iv. p. 371.

21. — THE GREY HERON.

Far away through the green valley winds the silver
Tweed, now rolling its waters over the white pebbles,

172 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

then gliding placidly between banks covered with fresh
herbage and gaudy florets of many hues. The hum of
the wild bee draws your eye toward those beautiful tufts
of purple trefoil ; the weet-weet, ever vibrating its body
as if delicately balanced on its slim legs, runs along the
sunny beach, spreads out its pointed wings, and skims
over the pool. There, in the water, nearly up to the
knees, is the heron, patiently waiting an opportunity of
seizing some giddy trout. Those ducklings that swim
so beautifully, and dive with such marvellous quickness,
he seems to eye with hungry glance ; but their watchful
protectress is in the midst of them. That wary old
water-rat is equally safe, as he nibbles the grass at the
mouth of his hole, and at intervals trims his whiskers
with his little paws. In short, go where you will, in
summer or in winter, to the shores of the sea or the far
inland lake, the source of the estuary of the hill-born
streams, you may here and there find a solitary heron.
— British Birds, vol. iv. p. 445.

22. — THE GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL.

It is a lovely night in June ; the moon slowly emerges
from behind the distant mountains, the northern horizon
is still red with the glare of the departed sun, the winds
have sunk to rest, and no sound is heard save the faint
murmur of the waves that clash over the distant reefs.
Yet, hark ! the terns are abroad, and their shrill cries
come faintly on the ear, from the far-off* sand -point,

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 173

where, no doubt, they are engaged with a shoal of
launces. Listen again ! The oyster- catchers intermingle
their clamorous and curiously modulated cries ; and now,
louder than all, is clearly heard the call of the black-
backed gull, faintly seen in the dim light. Here is one
of his breeding-places, a turf-crowned crag, torn, as it
were, from the rocks, and forming an inlet inaccessible
to human feet. Creeping stealthily among the crags,
we faintly perceive the birds as they sit on their nests ;
but some of them have observed us. All spring on their
feet, and a few launch into the air, uttering loud cries,
which alarm the birds around. It is vain, you perceive,
to try to surprise them by night or by day. Wander
as long as you will in these places, what more can you
see? Perhaps a more acute observer may. — British
Birds, vol. v. p. 534.

23.— GOD'S WORKS.

Let us then humble ourselves, that in contemplating
God's works, we may ever see Him in the midst of them.
If, in this temper, we traverse the valley of the Dee,
and ascend the mountains from which the sources of
that beautiful river gush forth, even if we discover little
that may be of interest to science, we shall find much
that may benefit our spiritual nature. And what would
it profit a man were he to solve half the mysteries of
external Nature, and yet be ignorant of the higher
relations of his own being ? Strange adventures, perils

174 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

among rocks and floods, wonderful discoveries, or
magnificent theories, cannot be expected from a quiet
journey to be made in one pair of shoes, with no other
weapon than a hammer. — Natural History of Deeside,
p. 23.

24. — PROMISE OF A BRIGHT DAY.

The dawn of this 7th of August gave promise of
a bright day. How beautiful is the quiet valley as it
basks in the sunshine. The corn-fields, some nearly
ready for the sickle, others yet green, are spread out
by the margin of the river, which glides along in its
winding course, emitting a pleasing murmur, except-
ing which the ear catches no sound ; for the air is
still, and even the hair-grass waves not its slender
panicle. The cattle are feeding on the after-grass ;
here and there a peasant is seen in the fields, or near
the few cottages scattered over the valley ; but other-
wise all is very still, and in the gentle beauty of the
scene one hardly sees a place for human wickedness.
If it is not a paradise we gaze upon, it is a scene
well fitted to remind us of how much happiness our
earthly habitation might yield were it always illumin-
ated by a sense of the Divine presence. — Natural
History of Deeside, p. 49.

25. — LOCHNAGAR.

Still onward, amidst woods and mountains, and
here and there fields, yielding the staple food of the

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 175

Scot. Let us again look southward, " o'er moors and
mosses mony," to the never-tiring glories of Lochnagar,
which is now much nearer to us than when we first saw
it. Like Edinburgh, it may be viewed with interest from
any station. For my part, I could gaze a quarter of
an hour on either every day of the year without getting
tired. There, proudly pre-eminent over all around,
just as it settled when it was heaved up from the
abyss, it stands in solemn grandeur, its ridges wreathed
in white vapour. Lochnagar has more dignity than
any of our hills, except Ben Nevis. — Natural History
of Deeside, p. 55.

26. — VIEW FROM INVERCAULD BRIDGE.

At length we stand on the lofty mid-arch of Inver-
cauld Bridge. Before we pass on, let us pause once
more — not because we are weary of travel or of the
world. Here the bed of the Dee is obliquely inter-
cepted by a broken ridge of slaty rock, passing from
south-west to north-east. The stream is broken by
it into a succession of little falls and rapids, and then
glides away over its stony bed to wind afar amidst
pine-clad hills. Beautiful scene ! I almost weep when
I look upon thee ; for tears flow from the pure
fountain of happiness as well as from the troubled
springs of sorrow. How unlike, in thy quiet loveli-
ness, to the fierce rudeness of human nature ! Not a
living creature is to be seen but a lad whipping the

176 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

water. The western sun shines in full splendour in
a sky unobscured, although scattered flakes of white
vapour glide slowly eastward in its upper region.
Long shadows are projected from the tall pines, while
the hill-tops, purpled with flowering heath, or grey
with lichen-crusted stones, are lighted with the blaze.
Far away up the wooded glens is still seen the scarred
ridge of Lochnagar. Not a breath stirs the tiny leaf
of the birch, nor a sound is heard but from the waters.
Ought not he to whom Providence has allotted all
this to be happy ? The scene is mine and thine ;
but happiness comes not from without. Yet, O
Invercauld ! thou hast a patrimony of beauty. May
it long be enjoyed by thee and thine. I see nothing
wanting but scattered homes of happy tenants, and
little patches of yellow corn, and cows feeding by the
river, and sheep on the hills. — Natural History of
Deeside, p. 56.

27. — THE RAVEN — POOR BIRD !

It is now beginning to get dusky. The croak
of the raven seems to warn us of the approach
of night. Poor bird ! he has little cause to harbour
friendly feelings towards us ; for fearful has been
the persecution which he and his race have suffered,
if not at our hands, yet at those of our kindred.
Very seldom now is a raven to be met with, even
in this wild tract of mountain and glen : gamekeepers

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 177

and sheep -farmers, with guns and traps, have left
but a very scanty residue of a once prosperous
and respectable race. The same inconsiderate
selfishness which has cleared Van Dieman's Land
of its aboriginal population has destroyed our magni-
ficent eagles and sagacious ravens. It is indeed a
rare pleasure to hear the barking and yelping of that
distant bird which from the red crags to the right
calls aloud to his mate, perched behind us on that
rugged ridge. — Natural History of Deeside, p. 83.

28. — ANOTHER NIGHT VISIT TO THE SOURCES OF

THE DEE.

In September 1819 a poor student of King's
College, Aberdeen, ascended to the sources of the Dee
on his way to Kingussie and Fort William. From
his journal I make the following extract : — " About
three or four miles above the Linn, the Dee is joined
by a river equal in size, namely the Geaully, the source
of which I had explored in 1816, when I came across
the mountains from Blair Atholl. Hitherto I had
travelled in a westerly direction, but now proceeded
northward, following the river. There are no houses
beyond the junction mentioned. About a mile above
it, I came in sight of a most magnificent rock, with a
mountain peak behind it of greater elevation. When
I reached this rock, I learned by the light scarlet
colour of the clouds on the ridges that the sun was

N

178 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

setting. Passing the rock, I entered a valley bounded
on both sides by very lofty and rugged mountains,
and terminating in a vast mass, towering above the
whole. Before I reached the upper end of this
magnificent, though wild and desolate valley, night
fell. About this time I saw a deer not far from me.
Near the upper end of the valley the stream which
I had followed separated into two. It was with great
difficulty that I clambered to this part to see which
was the largest, that I might follow it. Having
ascertained that the largest stream came from a valley
which branched off at a right angle from the extremity
of the main one, I entered this valley and proceeded
about three-quarters of a mile. It was by this time
completely dark, and I determined to rest myself."

The narrative goes on to state that the night was
passed here, in a sheltered place, but with little sleep,
some shivering, and many melancholy thoughts : —
" About midnight I looked up and saw the moon and
some stars. They were at times obscured by masses
of vapour, which rolled along the summits of the
mountains. I had now a better view of my situation.
I was near the upper end of a high valley, completely
surrounded by enormous masses of rock. Behind me,
my face being towards the mouth of the valley, there
rose at its upper end a high mountain involved in
clouds ; on the right hand was another, in the form
of a pyramidal rock, and, contiguous with it, a peak
of less elevation ; on the left hand, a high ridge
running from the mountain in the north-west, and

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 179

terminating at the mouth of the valley in a dark
conical mass ; and, straight before me, in the south-east,
at the distance of nearly a mile, another vast mountain.
The summits of all were at times enveloped in clouds.
The wind, which blew from the west, was not keen,
and the night was such as, in comfortable circum-
stances, might be called warm. Yet on awakening
from my slumber I felt chilly, and soon after began
to shiver. I then rose, and gathered a few large stones
and a good deal of grass and short heath, with which
I formed a somewhat snug sort of couch. Unloosing
my pack, I took a night-cap and a pair of stockings
from it, which I applied to their proper use, for my
feet had been wetted in crossing a brook, and my
hat alone did not keep my head warm after the per-
spiration it had undergone. Then, eating a little of my
scanty store of barley bread, and drinking two or three
cupfuls of water from a neighbouring rill, 1 lay down,
put heather and my knapsack over my feet, placed
myself in an easy posture, and fell asleep.

"I awoke fresh, but weak, about sunrise. The
stream which I had followed here divided into two,
and I chose the largest. It led me to a magnificent
corrie, in the form of a deep hollow scooped out of
the great ridge, on the left of the glen, as described,
but now on my right hand in ascending it. The sides
of this corrie were formed of sloping rocks of vast
height. The rivulet came tumbling down the centre
in the form of a cataract. Here the rocks were most
abrupt; but I had determined to proceed, at least to

180 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

attempt the ascent. Before I reached the base of the
rocks, I felt very weak, and was obliged to halt every
now and then. However, I proceeded, and at length,
being well accustomed to rock-climbing, found my-
self on the very summit of this vast mass of rock. It
was covered with mist, which rolled rapidly along the
ridges. The sun now and then appeared through it.
The view through the corrie, which I had just ascended,
was delightful — dreadful it might have been to some
— the whole glen, the deep corrie just beneath, with
its fearful rocks, the opposite mountains with an Alpine
lake before me. The scene was truly sublime, and I
contemplated it with great delight.

" I had now reached the rounded summit of the ridge,
and proceeding along the streamlet, which was the prin-
cipal object of my research, I traced it to two fountains
and several smaller springs. I took a glassful from
each of the larger, and drank it to the health of
my friends. Near these fountains, which were
among coarse granite sand, I saw a covey of ptarmi-
gans, and a small bird, which I took for Alauda
pratensis. The only phsenogamous plants which grew
on the summit of the mountain were Silene acaulis
and Salix herbacea, both in abundance, the former
still in flower.

" Descending on the northern side of the mountain,
I came upon a precipitous corrie, down which I did not
venture, and farther on found myself on a precipice,
from which I had a view of a deep valley, with a lake
and a stream, ending in a plain partially covered with

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 181

fir. The view from this place was vast, and I thought I
distinguished the sea ; but of this I was not certain, as
the mist obscured the view at times. In my descent I
saw a considerable number of ptarmigans, and some
specimens of crystallised quartz, though not very fine.
On the northern side of the mountain some Alpine
lakes occurred, in which I could not find anything but
Sparganium natans, and a few poor specimens of Caltha
palustris, which plant I also saw in the rivulets. Hold-
ing still a northerly direction, I crossed a broken plain,
and ascended a gentle acclivity, at the end of which I
found a larger plain, which I also crossed. At the end
of this plain I came to an opening which led into a deep
valley, bounded by rocks and rapid gravelly slopes.
Descending by this valley, which I found very long
and very rugged, into a plain which led to a stream of
considerable size, and evidently a tributary of the Spey,
I at length reached the low ground, and directed myself
westward."

Not knowing by name a single one of the localities
mentioned in the above narrative, I had not been aware
of my having passed up Glen Dee to the base of Ben-
na-muic-dhui, and slept in the Glen of the Garrachory.
But the journey of 1850, performed under circumstances
in some respects more favourable, has shown me that I
had in 1819 visited the so-called sources of the Dee on
the ridge of Braeriach, and crossed the range to the
valley of the Spey. The description above given, brief
and without ornament, is perfectly correct and quite
intelligible. My condition at that time was very

182 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

different from my present state ; but the lapse of thirty
years has not diminished my enthusiasm, nor in the least
impaired my faculties, physical or mental. — Natural
History qfDeeside, p. 99.

29. — OBJECT OF THE STUDY OF NATURE.

Our objects in examining the stone, the rock, the
lichen, the moss, the flower, the fruit, the insect, the
bird, or the quadruped, is to exercise our faculties by
learning how beautifully, and with what wisdom all
things have been constructed, how wonderfully they are
formed with relation to each other, and how manifestly
they display a power of which we could form no con-
ception were we not to attend to its working as
exhibited by them. It is true, we cannot fully com-
prehend the complicated relations of the most common
objects, much less understand the ordination of the
universe, or even of our own world ; but we labour in
hope ; we are studying — some of us, no doubt, very
superficially, others more profoundly — the works of the
Deity ; and the more progress we make, the more we
glorify Him by an intelligent, not a vague, admiration.
There are some who aim at the knowledge of general
laws, some who seek simple facts. Both parties will
find enough to engage their faculties, and neither will
do the work of the other efficiently. There is no reason
why one should despise the other. Contempt of any-
thing but vice indicates an unsound mind, a defective

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 183

judgment, an ignorance of the relations which men have
to each other and to their Creator, an undue self-
estimation, and a contempt of the rights of other men.
He who measures the orbit of a comet has not, there-
fore, higher faculties than he who examines the cyto-
blast of a fungus ; and there is far more to be seen by
us in a beetle than in a planet ; upon that granite
mountain opposite, at the distance of nine or ten miles,
than in the sun and in the moon and the stars. —
Natural History of Deeside, p. 120.

30. — THE SCENERY OF BENABUIRD.

On reaching the summit, I found it to be a long,
broad, rounded ridge, covered with stones, some of
which were rounded, others angular. Here were a few
mosses and a considerable quantity of Carex ngida.
The scene which here presented itself was exceedingly
striking and impressive. All around, mountains
appeared behind mountains, with their rocks, ridges,
and valleys. A solemn stillness prevailed ; nor was a
living creature to be seen ; the clouds rolled their dusky
wreaths along the ridges. The beams of the setting
sun darted here and there through the clouds, which
exhibited a hundred ever -varying shades. In one
direction a vast livid mass hung over the ridges of a
mountain, its lower fringed margin beautifully tinged
with deep crimson. In another place the white vapour
which clung to the summits of the mountains assumed,

184 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

where opposed to the sunbeams, a roseate hue of the
greatest delicacy. From a small lake in a rocky corrie,
five or six miles distant, a white streamlet poured down
an Alpine valley bounded by precipitous crags. In the
west, through an opening of the clouds, was seen a
range of lofty mountains, rising behind each other, the
most distant being probably fifty miles off. To the
west and north - west the mountains continued un-
diminished in size as far as the eye could reach, but to
the east they rapidly diminished. The desolate ranges
of Braemar have a solemn grandeur independently of
atmospheric drapery, but partially enveloped in massy
clouds, or overhung with a wavy curtain of gorgeously
tinted vapour, their glories are superbly enhanced.
But by degrees the purple and burnished gold and
roseate hues faded away into dull bluish grey, dimness
crept over the mountains, and my home was eight miles
distant. — Natural History of Deeside, p. 124.

31. — AGED BIRCH TREES.

In ascending a valley towards the higher grounds,
and after passing through a birch wood, you come upon
scattered trees, having an aged aspect, and stunted
dimensions. Some are yet vigorous in their old age ;
others, gnarled and knotted, with torn and ragged bark,
partially denuded and decayed wood and thinly -clad
branches. Many vicissitudes have these aged denizens
of the forest seen : sunshine and gloom, calm and

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 185

tempest ; the enlivening heat of summer and the
cramping frosts of winter have come over them — how
often one cannot tell. In the midst of them has the
half-savage Celt of the olden time shot his arrow into
the stately stag ; and but yesterday has the smooth-
faced and trimly-clad Saxon sent from his rifle, as he
leant against one of their trunks, the whizzing messenger
of death to the herd that reposed in peace upon the
mossy knoll. Farther on, many trees lie prostrate on
the hillside among a scattered group of melancholy
survivors ; and yet farther up the valley the ground is
covered with trunks, erect, but decayed, broken down,
shaggy with moss and lichen, rotten to the core, and
crumbling under the action of the weather. Said I not
well, that trees harmonise with human feelings ? He
who for the hundredth time could pass by such a scene
and not experience its depressing effect must have a
heart unfit for any gentle emotion. A trumpet could
not more forcibly proclaim the inevitable death of all
organic being than do these lifeless and silent monu-
ments of ruin. — Natural History of Deeside, p. 169.

32. — THE WIND IN THE BEALLACH-BHUI
FOREST.

Once more in the Beallach-bhui forest, I seat myself
on a mossy bank and gaze around. I am in the middle
of a seeming amphitheatre of hills, formed of ranges
extending from Craig Clunie, on the right, up to the

186 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

crags of Lochnaneun, on the shoulder of Lochnagar,
and a ridge descending, on the left, from that mountain
down to the Dee. Beyond the river, northward, is seen
the rugged and partly wooded face of a brown hill,
forming a kind of corrie, and a pine wood extending
from it. But that all on that side may be excluded
from the scene, we turn from it.

There is a sprinkling of birch in the lower parts of
the forest, and here and there along the hills ; but pines,
stately and solemn, rear their columnar stems around,
some of giant stature, but the greater number of ordinary
size ; all, however, healthy and vigorous. Here, in the
wood, the sunbeams glance upon us ; for there is no
continuous obscuration of the sky by the foliage ; but
far up the valley, and along the hills, the trees seem
crowded into masses of dark verdure. The breezes, as
they sweep over the woods, sound like the noise of the
ocean- wave, as they dash upon a distant rock. Suddenly
a rushing sound is heard coming from afar. It advances,
and, as it passes by, resembles the roar of a mighty flood.
A blast from the mountain -pass has swept over the
forest, bending the stiff tops of the lofty pines. Were
a hurricane, or even a winter tempest, to invade the
valley, rending off the massy limbs, and prostrating the
old trunks, the scene would be terrific. We may fancy,
too, the magnificence of a protracted thunder-storm —
impenetrable gloom over all the forests, lightnings
blazing, and thunders crashing ; but I have never found
imaginary scenes so instructive as real occurrences, and
that chiefly because they are radically unreal, and one

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 187

knows them to be so. The wind has ceased, and the
forest rests in solemn stillness. You can see far away
into the forest, between the stems, which are destitute
of branches to a great height. Here the ground is
covered with luxuriant tufts of heather in full bloom ;
there the stones are coated with moss and lichens ; and
on that low knoll the continuous verdure is due to the
yet fresh leaves of the Vacdnium myrtillus. — Natural
History of Deeside, p. 178.

33. — MERRY-MAKING OF BIRDS.

The sun sent a gleam of light through the Pass of
Ballater into the plain, and illumined the hill-tops on
the western side, while their shadows spread far over
the fields. The hill along the base of which I walked
is covered with pines, and, partly, opposite the village,
with birches. Great numbers of chaffinches flew along
from tree to tree, apparently enjoying the sunshine,
occasionally chasing each other, and engaging in mimic
conflicts. I was drawn into the wood by hearing a
singular chorus of many shrill voices in the trees, and,
looking up, observed a multitude of little birds of several
species frisking about in great glee. Most of them
were coal-tits, ringlets, blue tits, and willow-wrens ; but
there were also many chaffinches, and some common
linnets. Great numbers of ringlets occurred in other
parts of the wood. I was amused with the movements
of a pair of coal-tits, which separated from the rest, and

188 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

betook themselves to an excavation in the diluvium,
from the turf margin of which there hung a number of
slender tree-roots. One of the tits flew in among them,
frisked from one to another, clung to a long filament,
and appeared to enjoy the motion, as it swayed back-
wards and forwards. The other bird then joined it, and
they seemed content for a while to amuse themselves
apart from their companions. There was a general
merry-making among the little birds. They seemed,
after the labours of the day, old and young together, to
indulge in frolic before retiring to rest.

Many species of mammalia, birds, and fishes, evi-
dently pass a portion of their time in sport. Young
animals are especially addicted to romping, as may be
seen in foals, calves, and especially lambs and kids, as
well as puppies and kittens. The same is observed in
birds, wild and domestic, in hawks, rooks, finches, and
poultry. No birds are more gracefully sportive than
ducks of all kinds are on the water. Not the gentle
only, but also the ferocious, enjoy themselves in this
manner. Eagles and ravens I have often seen wheeling
and gliding through the air in sport, while they gave
expression to their delight in loud and modulated cries.
— Natural History of Deeside, p. 184.

34. — THE HIGHLAND Moon.

Leaning against a cairn constructed of angular stones
of grey porphyry, supplied by a heap close at hand, I

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 189

survey an extensive tract of mountain and moor. The
sun, shining clear in a cloudless pale blue sky, gives
some warmth to my right side, while a breeze from the
north-east comes whirling at times round the cairn,
chilling me with its piercing blasts. It is the 4th of
September, near sunset. I stand in the midst of a
region which might be thought one of stillness and
desolation, were it not that symptoms of human life are
seen in five little patches of cultivated land, and a group
of black huts in a hollow, from one to two miles distant.
Yet the range of vision is not less than fifty miles in one
direction. Just behind me are the summits of a hill
range, not more than a mile distant, beyond which
nothing is to be seen ; and therefore I have turned my
back upon them. To the left is a rounded hill, running
down into a smooth ridge, over a depression in which
are seen the hills beyond Ballater, topped by the conical
summit of the more distant Mount Keen, singularly
white in the pale rays of the western sun. Low ranges
extend from it, until there rises, in the south, the massive
form of Lochnagar — both its corries conspicuously dis-
played ; the western illuminated, the eastern in deep
impenetrable shade, veiled by a filmy grey vapour. A
most beautiful undulated ridgy descent leads the eye to
the Glen Ballater mountains, the Beallach-bhui, and the
Braemar hills as far as the upper part of Glen Ey. The
great mountain stands conspicuous in its massy breadth
and towering height, as if upheaved beyond its ordinary
elevation. At its base, near Loch Muic, is a large
rounded hill ; but elsewhere, all down to the Dee, the

190 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

ground seems low, presenting only some undulations,
which, although really of some considerable height, are
scarcely noticeable from our present station. On this
side of the Dee, the position of which is known only by
recollection, is a range of low hills, undulated in its
outline, but high enough to prevent us from seeing
those hills that seemed mountains to us as we traversed
the valley. Where the Braemar mingle with the Atholl
ranges in the extreme distance, the horizon is next
bounded by a roundish hill, only about five miles distant.
Then Ben Aun rising behind, with its long unwaved,
but curiously knobbed ridge, leads us to the blaze of
the western sun, just passing behind the broad head of
the Bho-dhoun, which, at only the distance of two miles,
seems continuous with the hill on which we stand. The
long shadows cast upon the grey and brown moors by
the many prominences of the Lochnagar group have a
singular and rather perplexing effect ; for they give the
well-known tract an aspect different from any under
which we have contemplated it, whether in the sunshine
of noontide, the diffused light of a cloudy day, or when
the summits, involved in vapours, hid themselves from
our view, and the bases of the mountains seemed more
massy than they ever do when their entire forms are
disclosed.

But now, over the ridge of Ben Aun, creeps a thin
and flaky mass of vapour, glowing on its northern side
with a roseate tint ; purplish rays diverge from behind
the brown hill to our right ; the white summit of Mona-
Chuine has assumed a roseate hue, and Lochnagar is

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 191

tinged with a pale purplish blue. Beautifully delicate
are the tints of the few fleecy cloudlets that rise in the
north-west ; but the setting sun assumes no imposing
glory, and as he passes on seems to smile a gentle good-
night on the brown moors of Glen Gairn.

The red grouse call to each other on the hill-side ;
here, a solitary grey hare bounds quietly among the
short heather, stops to listen and look around, then
pursues its way ; some hooded crows, that have been
prowling about, are flying down the little valley ; dimness
envelops the low grounds, then the bases of the hills,
creeping upwards, slowly, imperceptibly, but surely, like
age and time, ever moving onward, and involving all
things in darkness. There is now no sound but the
sighing of the breeze ; and as we descend over the long
smooth declivity, clad with thick heather, we pause not
to listen to the hum of distant waterfalls, or the shriek
of the white owl, for no torrents rush over these moors,
nor ruined towers rise on the brown hills, where the
gor-cock (Lagopus scoticus), escaped from the gun of
the unpitying sportsman, crouches with the remnant of
his family. — Natural History of Deeside, pp. 207, 208.

35. — THREE PINE TREES.

Three stunted trees among rubbish have a most
singular effect. One can hardly believe his eyes when
they tell him they are pines. How came they there ?
What is their purpose ? Why are there not more of

192 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

them ? How old are they ? Very easy it is to ask
questions which nobody can answer. A fourth tree
has grown there also, but it lies overthrown, unbarked,
and rotting. Their bent and rugged trunks indicate
poverty and old age. Many storms of wind and rain
have burst upon them ; the sun has blazed fiercely
upon their tufted foliage, and the parched crags have
sent back his rays upon their spreading branches.
The snows of winter have pressed them down, and
the sapless soil has refused them nourishment in
summer ; their kindred have perished one by one ; the
last of their brethren lies prostrate beside them ; they
are the remnants of a once numerous and prosperous
race, and when they perish there will be no monument
but this passing notice to indicate that they once
were. — Natural History of Deeside, p. 239.

36. — RAVENS — POOR FELLOWS !

The path leads along the base of the furrowed and
stony declivities, which are of granite, coarse and
reddish, like that of the opposite side. All along this
passage it was very pleasant to hear the ravens, in
the crags of the opposite side, talking to each other
in a great variety of accents, one answering the call of
another. Poor fellows ! if the glen were mine I would
give strict orders not to molest them ; for, next to
the eagle, now altogether destroyed, the raven is the
greatest ornament of such a scene. They continued

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 193

croaking, barking, yelping at a great rate until I had
passed the end of the rock. — Natural History of
Deeside, p. 252.

37. — HOME.

But it is now getting toward six o'clock, and, as my
resting-place is a good way off, it is time to proceed.
When I ascended the valley of the Dee, in the end
of July, the woods rejoiced in the warm breezes, and
spread their green foliage to the sun. Now, in the
middle of September, they seem preparing for the
winter; their discoloured and sapless leaves, smitten
by the night-frosts and seared by the drought, show
no gladness, but speak of decay — beautiful in its
gradations, like the passage of the aged Christian to
the grave, and very pleasing to the sobered and con-
templative mind. I have this year seen these woods
of Crathes, when their twigs bore nothing but buds,
when their tender leaves were unfolding, when their
foliage covered them as a mantle ; and now, in passing,
I observe them streaked and patched with the yellow
tints of autumn. Winter will again strip them of all
their vesture ; but they " will hear the voice of spring
and flourish green again." So shall we, whose life is
Christ.

An easterly wind, not cold and penetrating, brings
up the clouds successively from the Celtic sea. But
scarcely any rain falls, and at intervals the moon is

o

194 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

seen dimly defined through the grey vapour. Farmers
are returning in carts and gigs from the market,
it being Friday ; but otherwise the road is dull, it
being much less frequented at any time than that on
the north side.

Not an inn nor a shop could I find anywhere, and
having neither eaten nor drunk since twelve o'clock,
I resolved, on reaching Maryculter, to make applica-
tion for tea and bread, the favourite food of sedentary
people, and assuredly the most invigorating of all to
the wearied pedestrian. How much refreshed I felt
after an hour's rest and a plentiful meal, any one
may understand who has an elastic temperament.
The milestones which I had been counting were no
longer consulted ; and as little of the well-known
scenery was visible under the faint light of the moon,
veiled by the grey vapours, I mused on many things
as I walked quickly along.

The Divine Providence has rendered my path
pleasant to me in the rugged corrie, in the thick
wood, and in the green valley ; has prepared friends
to forward my views, to protect me under their
hospitable roofs and instruct me by their conversation ;
has restored me to health, and preserved it to me ;
has enabled me to accomplish the purpose of my
journey, and filled me with gratitude now that I
approach its termination.

Kind reader I it is time to bid thee " Good-night."
— Natural History of Deeside, p. 305.

BIRD LIFE, ETC. 195

38. — SCENE AT TORQUAY.

It is well that the observations from which these
descriptions have been prepared were made many
years ago, when I was full of enthusiasm, and enjoyed
the blessings of health and freedom from engrossing
public duties ; for I am persuaded that now I should
be in some respects less qualified for the task, more,
however, from the failure of physical than of mental
power. Here, on the rocky promontory, I shiver in
the breeze which, to my companion, is but cool and
bracing. The east wind ruffles the sea, and impels
the little waves to the shores of the beautiful bay,
which present alternate cliffs of red sandstone and
beaches of yellow sand, backed by undulated heights
and gentle acclivities, slowly rising to the not distant
horizon, fields and woods, with villages and scattered
villas forming — not wild nor altogether tame — a pleas-
ing landscape which, in its summer and autumn
garniture of grass and corn, and sylvan verdure,
orchard blossom and fruit, tangled fence -bank and
furze-clad common, will be beautiful indeed to the
lover of Nature. Then the balmy breezes from the
west and south will waft health to the reviving
invalid. At present the cold vernal gales sweep along
the channel, conveying to its haven the extended
fleet of boats that render Brixham, on the opposite
horn of the bay, one of the most celebrated of the
southern fishing-stations of England. High over the

196 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

waters, here and there, a solitary gull slowly advances
against the breeze, or shoots athwart, or with a beautiful
gliding motion sweeps down the aerial current. At
the entrance to Torquay are assembled many birds of
the same kind which, by their hovering near the
surface, their varied evolutions and mingling cries,
indicate a shoal, probably of atherines or sprats. On
that little pyramidal rock, projecting from the water,
repose two dusky cormorants ; and, far away, in the
direction of Portland Island, a gannet, well known by
its peculiar flight, winnows its exploring way, and
plunges headlong into the deep. But neither time
nor place are favourable to the observation of the
wading tribes, although the country around supplies
the greater number of those found in Britain. — British
Birds, vol. iv. p. viii.

VII
LIFE'S WORK ENDED

CONCLUSION.

I HAVE finished one of the many difficult and laborious
tasks which I had imposed upon myself. Twelve
years have elapsed since the first three volumes of
this work were issued to the public, and I had
scarcely hoped to see its completion, when I was
most unexpectedly encouraged to revise the manu-
script of the two remaining volumes, containing the
wading and swimming birds, of which the history,
in so far as I am acquainted with it, is now given on
the same plan as that adopted for the land birds.
Commenced in hope, and carried on with zeal, though
ended in sorrow and sickness, I can look upon my
work without much regard to the opinions which
contemporary writers may form of it, assured that
what is useful in it will not be forgotten, and knowing
that already it has had a beneficial effect on many of
the present, and will more powerfully influence the
next, generation of our home-ornithologists. I had

o2

198 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

been led to think that I had occasionally been some-
what rude, or at least blunt, in my criticisms ; but I
do not perceive wherein I have much erred in that
respect, and I feel no inclination to apologise. I have
been honest and sincere in my endeavours to promote
the truth. With death, apparently not distant, before
my eyes, I am pleased to think that I have not
countenanced error through fear or favour. Neither
have I in any case modified my sentiments so as to
endeavour thereby to conceal or palliate my faults.
Though I might have accomplished more, I am
thankful for having been permitted to add very con-
siderably to the knowledge previously obtained of a
very pleasant subject. If I have not very frequently
indulged in reflections on the power, wisdom, and
goodness of God, as suggested by even my imperfect
understanding of His wonderful works, it is not be-
cause I have not ever been sensible of the relation
between the Creator and His creatures, nor because
my chief enjoyment, when wandering among the hills
and valleys, exploring the rugged shores of the ocean,
or searching the cultivated fields, has not been in a
sense of His presence. "To Him who alone doeth
great wonders " be all glory and praise. Reader,
farewell ! — British Birds., vol. v., " Conclusion."

" Serbant of ffiotj, focll fcone "

VIII

SUBSCRIBERS FOR THE MEMORIAL TO
PROF. MACGILLIVRAY

Rev. Patrick Beaton, 12 Rue de Presbourg, Paris.

Mrs. Beaton, daughter of Professor MacGillivray, 12 Rue de Pres-
bourg, Paris.

Miss MacGillivray, daughter of Professor MacGillivray, Melbourne,
Australia.

Miss MacGillivray, granddaughter of Professor MacGillivray,
Bendigo, Australia.

Miss Marion MacGillivray, granddaughter of Professor Mac-
Gillivray, Bendigo, Australia.

William L. MacGillivray, Esq., nephew of Professor MacGillivray,
Eoligarry, Barra.

Murdoch N. MacGillivray, Esq., nephew of Professor MacGillivray,
Eoligarry, Barra.

Rev. Dr. Mair, The Manse, Earlston.

Rev. Dr. Mitchell, North Church, Dunfermline.

Rev. Dr. Farquharson, 47 Mardale Crescent, Edinburgh.

Principal Sir W. D. Geddes, LL.D., The University, Aberdeen.

John Forbes White, Esq., LL.D., Craigtay, Dundee.

Sir John Struthers, LL.D., 15 George Square, Edinburgh.

Professor J. Cossar Ewart, M.D., F.R.S., The University, Edin-
burgh.

200 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

Rev. Dr. Mitchell, South Leith Manse, Leith.

J. A. Harvie Brown, Esq., of Dunipace, Larbert.

Professor Trail, F.R.S., The University, Aberdeen.

William MacGillivray, Esq., W.S., 4 Rothesay Place, Edinburgh.

Alexander Fraser,Esq.,Wimmera, 65 Bruntsfield Place, Edinburgh.

P. Neill Fraser, Esq., Rockville, Murray field, Edinburgh.

John Lyall Grant, Esq., 11 Albyn Terrace, Aberdeen.

Rev. John Michie, M.A., The Manse, Dinnet, Aberdeenshire.

Alex. Whyte, Esq., Botanic Gardens, Uganda, British East Africa.

Sheriff ^Eneas J. G. Mackay, LL.D., K.C., 7 Albyn Place, Edin-
burgh.

Rev. John Haggart, The Manse, Lochcarron, Ross-shire.

Professor Newton, Cambridge.

Dr. Watson, Waverley House, Colinton Road, Edinburgh.

Professor Sir William Turner, The University, Edinburgh.

A. Stuart, Esq., of Inchbreck, Laithers, Turriff.

Thomas F. Jamieson, Esq., Ellon, Aberdeenshire.

J. Badenoch Nicolson, Esq., of Glenbervie.

James Auldjo Jamieson, Esq., W.S., 14 Buckingham Terrace,
Edinburgh.

Dr. Playfair, 5 Melville Crescent, Edinburgh.

Rev. W. F. Aitken, British Linen Company Bank House, Clyde-
bank, Glasgow.

Rev. Dr. Spence, Arbuthnott Manse, Fordoun.

Dr. P. Davidson, Blairforkie, Bridge of Allan.

Professor Duns, New College, Edinburgh.

Rev. John Fleming, 38 Craigmillar Park, Edinburgh.

Professor Chiene, The University, Edinburgh.

Professor E. Ray Lankester, F.R.S., Director of the Museum of
Natural History, Kensington, London.

J. W. Barclay, Esq., 5 Clarendon Place, Hyde Park Gardens,
London.

Principal Donaldson, LL.D., St. Andrews.

SUBSCRIBERS FOR THE MEMORIAL 201

T. A. W. A. Youngson, Esq., Advocate, Southfield, Cults, Aber-
deen.

Sir Douglas Maclagan, M.D., Edinburgh.

Colonel R. G. Wardlaw Ramsay of Whitehill, Rosewell.

Mrs. James Ogston, Kildrummie, Aberdeen.

John A. Brooke, Esq., Fenay Hall, Huddersfield.

Middleton Rettie, Esq., LL.D., Advocate, 16 Great King Street,
Edinburgh.

John Johnston, Esq., Wisconsin Marine Bank, Milwaukee, U.S.A.

J. H. Gurney, Esq., Keswick Hall, Norwich.

Dr. R. A. Neil, Pembroke College, Cambridge.

William Tait, Esq., LL.D., Broomend, Inverurie.

Rev. H. L. Mitchell, New Brompton, Kent.

Rev. A. Martin, 6 Lansdowne Road, Glasgow.

Dr. Cathcart, Conservator of the Museum, College of Surgeons,
Edinburgh.

T. E. Buckley, Esq., Rossal, Inverness.

R. J. Mackay, Esq., East Ridge, Totteridge, Herts.

T. Maxwell Durham, Esq., of Boghead, Linlithgow.

George Ogilvie, Esq., LL.D., 11 Hartington Place, Edinburgh.

Professor Macdonald, Dalhousie College, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Rev. J. M. Crombie, Ash, Aldershot.

Robert Walker, Esq., Registrar, The University, Aberdeen.

Duncan MacCaskill, Esq., Montreal, Canada.

The Hon. H. M'Donald Henry, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Miss M'Donald, New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.

Miss Helena Henry, Halifax, Nova Scotia. I

Miss W. A. Henry, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Rev. Dr. Wisely, Malta.

Rev. George M'Irvine, Mauritius.

A. M. M'Donald, Esq., Advocate, Thornlea, Aberdeen.

Rev. Dr. Davidson, The Manse, Coldstone, Aberdeen.

Sir John F. Clark, Bart., of Tillypronie, Dinnet, Aberdeenshire.

202 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE

Rev. Professor Pirie, The University, Aberdeen.

Professor Reid, M.D., The University, Aberdeen.

Rev. Professor Davidson, LL.D., The University, Aberdeen.

Professor Cash, The University, Aberdeen.

Professor Dove Wilson, LL.D., The University, Aberdeen.

Professor M'William, M.D., The University, Aberdeen.

Professor J. A. Thomson, The University, Aberdeen.

Professor Matthew Hay, M.D., The University, Aberdeen.

William Ferguson, Esq., of Kinmundy, LL.D., Aberdeenshire.

The Right Hon. J. A. Campbell, of Stracathro, LL.D., M.P.,
Brechin.

Ruthven Deane, Esq., Chicago, U.S.A.

T. Scott Anderson, Esq., of Shaws, Selkirk.

Rev. Dr. Smith, The Manse, Newhills, Aberdeen.

F. Taylor Garden, Esq., Advocate, 4 Rubislaw Terrace, Aberdeen.

William Dey, Esq., LL.D., 32 Hamilton Place, Aberdeen.

Sir George King, late of Calcutta.

Miss Cruickshank, Rose Street, Aberdeen.

Rev. Professor Paterson, D.D., The University, Aberdeen.

Rev. Alexander Young, The Manse, Chapel of Garioch, Aber-
deenshire.

A. M. Ogston, Esq., of Ardoe, Aberdeen.

James Milne, Esq., of Kinaldie, Aberdeen.

A. Macfarlane, Esq., 8 Bayview Road, Aberdeen.

Colonel Allardyce of Culquoich, LL.D., Aberdeen.

Lord Provost Fleming, Aberdeen.

P. Duguid M'Combie, Esq., of Easter-Skene, Aberdeen.

Alexander Copland, Esq., 78 Dee Street, Aberdeen.

Gray C. Fraser, Esq., Advocate, 13 Bridge Street, Aberdeen.

Sir Thomas Sutherland, Chairman P. and O. Company.

J. G. S. Anderson, Esq., Upper Berkely Street, Portman Square,
London.

Angus Macgillivray, Esq., M.D., Dundee.

SUBSCRIBERS FOR THE MEMORIAL 203

Professor Hamilton, M.B., 2 Queen's Road, Aberdeen.

James Murray, Esq., Glenburnie, Aberdeen.

Sir William Henderson, LL.D., Devanha House, Aberdeen.

James Duguid, Esq., 13 Bridge Street, Aberdeen.

George Collie, Esq., Balnagarth, Pitfoddels, Aberdeen.

William Dunn, Esq., of Murtle, Aberdeen.

James Forbes, Esq., 1 Albyn Terrace, Aberdeen.

Rev. J. Johnston, M.A., U.F. Manse, Belhelvie.

Dr. Angus Eraser, Aberdeen.

Andrew Murray, Esq., Inverdon, Aberdeen.

John Edmond, Esq., Eastbourne, Sussex.

Joseph Ogilvy, Esq., LL.D., 3 Queen's Gardens, Aberdeen.

J. W. Crombie, Esq., M.P., 91 Onslow Square, London, S.W.

J. E. Crombie, Esq., Parkhill, Aberdeen.

Emeritus Professor Bain, LL.D., Aberdeen.

John F. M'Lennan, Esq., Advocate, 20 Heriot Row, Edinburgh.

FINIS

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