REMINISCENCES. xli 



he stepped, happy and content, into the carriage. How eagerly we 

 all regarded the treasure ! to us it looked much like the other heaths 

 around, but he assured us that it was not so. 



Often have I told this story since, and I love to think of it 

 now, and to remember that I was a privileged witness of the 

 interesting incident. How delightful was the further drive that 

 day, over the heathy hills, and down to Roundstone Bay, your 

 husband telling of how strange plants have been floated across in 

 the seed from the Spanish Main ; and discoursing of the formation 

 of rocks and boulders — and anon speaking of the foundation of the 

 church and school at Moyrus, that far outlying district of the Irish 

 Church Missions, which we were to visit from Roundstone. The 

 nearest access from the mainland being nine miles across a rough 

 bit of sea, the poor inhabitants had been left in a state of heathen 

 darkness and neglect, till the Irish Church Missions took it up. 

 How interested your husband was, in the reception of school- 

 children, pastor, and people, on that rugged shore, — so wild and 

 lonely and far-away, that everything appeared, as he said, almost 

 patriarchal ; the simple hospitality at the parsonage, the hymns of 

 welcome on the beach, the little children coming to help you to 

 pick up pink cowries and beautiful shells upon the shore. But 

 why do I write this 1 All this, and more, you may so much better 

 recount, only perhaps it may serve as the testimony of one apart 

 from yourself, to the largeness of heart and religious earnestness of 

 character which so enhanced the value of that life, which although 

 a long one has proved all too short, alas, for you, and for those 

 many friends by whom your husband was beloved, honoured, and 

 admired. 



Enthusiastic botanist as he was, he could lay aside his flowers, 

 and give up his search for specimens, to listen to the examination 

 of a bevy of Irish village children on the ' Hundred Texts ; ' he 

 could as sincerely give his mind to the subjects brought forward at 

 a missionary meeting, as to the matter discussed at a meeting of the 

 Natural History Society; and some of my most delightful memories 

 of him attach to a happy visit to your Cambridge home, when, after 

 a breakfast at which various guests had assembled, those guests 

 were invited by the Professor to join in family prayers before they 

 separated. This is the touch which gives the key note to his life. 



With you I truly mourn his loss, — how many must do tljp 

 same ! A valued friend less in the world, one more link with 

 Heaven. God bless and comfort you with that last thought. 



P.S. — His radiant, boyish delight over the scenery and flora, on 

 that delightful drive which you took with us from Braemar to 

 Glenshee, on one of the brightest of bright September days in 

 1888, I cannot forget, — nor I am sure, can you. — B. B. 



