BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THOMAS EDWARD. 601 



nounced that lie must be either mad or drunk. At the intercession 

 of some ladies, the punishment of his heinous offense against the mili- 

 tary majesty of his country was remitted. 



When about twenty years of age Edward left Aberdeen, and went 

 to Banff (a pleasant country town about fifty miles away, standing 

 upon a gentle slope inclining to the sea), to work at his trade. Wages 

 were low, and he was confined many hours in the shop, but he con- 

 tinued to make his natural-history collections. When twenty-three 

 years old he married, and was fortunate in finding a woman of com- 

 mon-sense, who sympathized with his peculiar tastes. She had noth- 

 ing, and they began to keep house on his earnings, which were 9s. 6d. 

 per week. But he now, for the first time, had a place and room for 

 his specimens. His education had been very limited, he could hardly 

 write, he knew next to nothing of books, did not possess a single work 

 on natural history, or know the names of the birds and animals 

 that he caught. He also knew little of the nature and habits of the 

 creatures he went to seek, or where or how to find them But he had 

 this great advantage, that he was compelled to observe for himself, to 

 think for himself, so that the knowledge he acquired was his own. 

 He was modest, self-depreciating, and shy, and as his fellow-mechanics 

 were an ignorant and brutal lot, with whom he associated very little, 

 he was alone and friendless, which again favored the absorption of his 

 mind in natural objects. He got compensation, for he was an in- 

 tense lover of Nature, and to be in the fields, the woods, the moors, 

 was always a great delight. When he had been married about a 

 year, he began to make a collection of natural objects. He bought 

 an old gun for 4s. Gd., but it was so rickety that he had to tie the 

 barrel to the stock with twine. This, with his powder-horn and shot- 

 bag, a few insect-bottles, some boxes for moths and butterflies, and a 

 book for putting plants in, constituted his equipment. He had a two- 

 story hat, the upper chamber of which was a useful receptacle, while 

 the crown served for sticking in and carrying his entomological pins. 

 He carried no cloak or umbrella, and his food was a bit of bread, or a 

 little oatmeal, which he washed down with water from the nearest 

 spring. He never rambled on Sunday, but made it a day of rest, 

 which was fortunate, as, without this break, he could hardly have con- 

 tinued his overstrained and exhausting life. 



Mr. Edward had to support his family by piece-work, which occu- 

 pied him from six in the morning to nine at night, and his wages were 

 so small that he could not abridge his working-hours. But he was a 

 man of invincible determination, and he resolved never to spend a 

 moment idly, or a penny uselessly. Closely occupied during the day, 

 the night was all that remained for " leisure," and that he divided be- 

 tween sleep and night-wanderings after animals. On returning home 

 from his work at night, his usual course was to equip himself with his 

 tools, and start for some one of his locations for observing. It mat- 



