26 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 
arranging for the regular supply of goods of English manufacture, 
such as were then offered by several competing firms in Glasgow. 
But a period of advancing prosperity was darkened by heavy 
domestic bereavements. Mrs. Robertson, while visiting her mother, 
who was sick with fever, caught the disease, and died after a short 
illness. Two children—a son and daughter—had been born of the 
marriage, but both died young, the second child being buried at 
the same time as its mother. Soon after these sad events, Mr. 
Robertson made his home with his partner’s family, with whom he 
continued to reside for a considerable time. Meanwhile the 
business of the firm continued steadily to increase from year to year. 
Among the relatives of the M‘Dougalls was a Mr. Alston, who 
lived in the Isle of Man. “In 1839,” to quote from Mr. Robert- 
son’s biographer, “ Mr. Alston had been left a widower, with an 
only daughter, named Hannah, then aged thirteen. At a still 
earlier period this little girl had become acquainted with David 
Robertson’s name by being bidden to collect shells on the sea-shore 
for the benefit of a great conchological signboard he had been 
making. That she should ever see the man herself she had natur- 
ally then no expectation, nor, for the matter of that, any curiosity 
todo so. In the year 1842, however, it so happened that Mr. 
Alston brought his daughter to Glasgow to be introduced to her 
relatives, the M‘Dougalls. With them also came a cousin. Mr. 
Alston was a very tall man, and when he entered the warehouse 
with a tall young lady on one arm, and his little daughter on the 
other, Robertson’s attention was immediately arrested by the trio ; 
and something apparently besides his attention must have been 
taken captive, for he seems to have made up his mind then and 
there that the little girl, on whom he had never set eyes before, 
should, if possible, become his wife. 
“By some innocent maneuvring, Hannah Alston was induced 
to pay another visit to the M‘Dougalls in Glasgow, coming this 
time without her father. As she had won David’s heart without 
any effort of her own on the former visit, so on this, without much 
trouble, he either won or completed the conquest of hers. The 
M‘Dougalls, who, of course, thoroughly well knew and highly 
valued Robertson, weze, on their part, quite content, and so 
smoothed the path of the lovers that, with the least possible delay, 
they were married on September 11th, 1843.” 
