Dr Thomas Boyle Grierson. 481 



tastes. I do not think it is likely he would have many 

 companions, if any. While other boys would go in for fun, 

 or even boyish mischief, he had his enjoyment in collecting 

 plants, insects, and a variety of other lower animals. In 

 fact, the boy was father of the man. He was a naturalist 

 from his earliest recollection, and all throvigh a many-sided 

 mortal, neither easily understood nor easily described. His 

 general knowledge was extensive, but not minute, and what 

 he did know, he was ready on all proper occasions to com- 

 municate. He was inquisitive in the extreme, erratic, 

 enthusiastic, easily captivated with novelties ; hence a great 

 hobby rider, till something fresh or more original arrested 

 his attention, — very guarded and careful in his speech. His 

 veneration was high, and no man could accuse him of utter- 

 ing anything bordering on unbelief. Nevertheless he was 

 speculative, and preferred to ask questions on any disputed 

 subject rather than express any doubtful opinions. 



During the forty years odds of his practice he was a care- 

 ful collector of antiquities. "While he had an eye to every- 

 thing worth possessing, I do not think he offended anybody 

 in coming into possession of lots of things, when they under- 

 stood that they would be carefully preserved. When I 

 suggested the preservation of the " Old Mortality " white pony, 

 he was most indignant at me for imagining that an animal of 

 such superiority should ever be a spectacle to the public in 

 his museum. 



I saw him several times before his death, and was among 

 the first, if not the first, to tell him I dreaded a fatal issue. 

 While he spoke of the museum as a valuable collection, his 

 mind was more occupied with the conflict through which he 

 was passing, and the solution of the great problem which 

 was near at hand. 



Grierson was a unique, passive rather than combative, 

 sjTnpathetic, original, and peculiar character, and he has left 

 no successor in the midst of us. 



TRANS. BOX. SOC. VOL. XVIII. 2 Y 



