MEMOIR OF THE LATE MR JOHN JUST, OF BURY. 



97 



His vacations were usually spent in pedestrian excursions, 

 in which his love of nature, his taste for agricultural avoca- 

 tions, his eager pursuit of botany, and his keen zest for 

 antiquari^ researches, had full scope of enjoyment. In the 

 midsummer vacation of 1834, he and the friend already 

 referred to, made a pedestrian tour to the Highlands of 

 Scotland, staying a few days at Fort William, on the Cale- 

 donian Canal. This being a convenient starting-point from 

 which to ascend Ben Nevis, it was agreed that the friends 

 should make a nocturnal ascent, so as to witness the sublime 

 spectacle of sunrise from the summit. They left the hotel 

 about seven o'clock in the evening, reached the top in time, 

 greatly enjoyed the prospect, and got back to their hotel 

 between six and seven o'clock on the following morning. 

 Here they found another party preparing to make the ascent, 

 and Mr. Just was so delighted with what he had already 

 seen, and so ready to be useful as guide to the strangers, that 

 before nine o'clock the same morning, after a short rest of 

 little more than two hours, he was again en route for the 

 mountain, actually accomplished the toilsome ascent a second 

 time, and once more reached the hotel between five and six 

 o'clock in the afternoon, apparently not more than com- 

 fortably tired by the extraordinary physical exertions of 

 the twenty-four hours! It is right to add, however, that 

 Mr. Just, on subsequently describing to a friend his two 

 ascents of Ben Nevis, said that on coming down the second 

 time, he walked as it were mechanically, and even seemed to 

 himself to sleep whilst walking. This anecdote may convey 

 a fair impression of the great muscular strength and power 

 of endurance which he possessed, doubtless at times over- 

 tasked by that persevering energy which excited him to 

 overcome every difficulty, and to fulfil whatever he under- 

 took to do, however arduous the labour it involved. 



Mr. Just could not long remain unknown, in his new posi- 

 tion at Bury, and his literary and scientific acquirements soon 



o 



