54 The Scottish Naturalist. 



banker, and especially by bank clerks as their holiday friend, is 

 one of the most hard-working naturalists of the present day, and 

 is the author of many classical works on entomology and other 

 branches of science. 



Young of Kelly, though he was an old man and a millionaire, 

 was as keen a student of chemistry to the end as he was when he 

 discovered the shale oil ; and from what I have heard him say, I 

 am sure it would have been easier for him to have parted with all 

 his wealth than with his love for science. 



The late Dr. John Fleming, first Professor of Natural History 

 in the Free Church College, one of the foremost naturalists of his 

 day and the author of many valuable works, was a parish minister 

 in Fife, but was none the less faithful to his duties, though his en- 

 thusiasm for natural history was so great that on one occasion, 

 while walking from the manse to the church robed in gown and 

 bands, he gave full chase to a rare butterfly which came across his 

 path. 



Nearly forty years ago, I knew a lad in a country bank, who 

 spent his leisure in collecting British birds, and studying their 

 habits. He now holds one of the most trusted offices in one of 

 our largest Scotch banks ; but he is also one of our foremost orni- 

 thologists, and it is not long since I had the pleasure of attending a 

 meeting of the Royal Society, under the chairmanship of my old 

 friend. To come nearer home, do you suppose the late John 

 Simpson of Marykirk, who was a perfect encyclopedia of know- 

 ledge, neglected his patients or did his work as a surgeon less 

 efficiently, because his pockets were generally crammed with 

 mosses, shells, beetles, or some other vermin which he had picked 

 up in the course of his wanderings ? or, that the respected Free 

 Church minister of the parish of Craig, is less earnest in his eccles- 

 iastic duties, because he is one of the highest authorities on the 

 fishes of the old red sandstone ? or that John Robertson, though 

 he is an astronomer, is less attentive to his duties as a railway 

 porter, especially in calling out, " Coupar Angus, change here for 

 Blairgowrie ? " 



No station in life is too exalted, and none too humble, to bar 

 the student from drinking from the fountain of knowledge. A 

 Prince Consort may draw from it as freely as, but not more so 

 than, Hugh Miller the mason, Thomas Edwards the shoemaker, 

 or our own Alexander Croall the joiner, who, fifty years ago, took 



