70 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



being the fifth son of Mr. J. W. Alston of Stockbriggs.* He was 

 never robust, even as a child, and for many years continued in very 

 delicate health, so that he was never sent to a public school, but 

 was entirely educated at home. How well he made use of his early 

 opportunities is abundantly shewn by his subsequent literary and 

 scientific work, although it entirely depended on his own self- 

 teaching and self-study. 



In the summer of 1862 he went to Germany with the intention 

 of learning the language under the roof of the Rev. Herr Dubbers, 

 Parish Clergyman of Daudenzell. Soon after his arrival he was 

 taken seriously ill with asthma, a complaint which had troubled 

 him very greatly up to this period of his life, but by the careful and 

 assiduous attention of an old friend he recovered sufficiently in a few 

 weeks to allow of his return home. After this attack he rapidly 

 gained strength and seemed to throw off much of the delicacy of 

 his boyhood. A visit which he paid subsequently to Norway, in 

 1871, along with his friend, Mr. Harvie-Brown, appeared still further 

 to invigorate him, leaving his health apparently fully established. 



About this time Mr. Alston lived in Glasgow and for a few months 

 he attended business in the mercantile house of Mathieson and 

 Alston. During summer and autumn he lived in the family re- 

 sidence at Stockbriggs, and there found many opportunities of 

 studying the habits of animals. For this purpose he kept various 

 tame examples of British Mammals — such as the Hedgehog — and 

 devoted much attention to the fauna of the county of Lanark. 

 Evidences of his early love for natural history pursuits and for 

 literary work are at this time shewn in the pages of The Field and 

 The Zoologist. A volume of his "Early Letters" to these periodicals 

 has, under date of Jan. 9th, 1858, his first contribution to The Field 



* Dr. Thos. Alston of Eddlewood, related to the noble family of Hamilton, 

 was great-grand-uncle, twice removed, of this gentleman. Besides other chil- 

 dren Dr. T. Alston had a son — Charles — who between 1738 and 1769 was 

 Professor of Medicine and Botany in the University of Edinburgh, and was 

 also King's Botanist, dying in the latter year. A carefully prepared — though 

 now faint and difficult to decipher — MS., contained in a volume of letters to 

 Prof. Chas. Alston, dated 1720-1760, and at present in the Library of Edin- 

 burgh University, gives very full material for a family tree dating back for 

 many generations. By this MS. it appears that there were Alstons of a very 

 old family of Cambusbarron in Stirlingshire, and of Cauder in Lanarkshire, 

 and there was one "Hugo de Aldston, dominus de Cauder." The descent of 

 Dr. Chas. Alston from these old families is fully and clearly shewn. 



