8 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



Robert Barclay, the moral-force Quaker apologist, of his son 

 the founder of new Stonehaven, and of his physical-force 

 grandson, the pedestrian and pugilist, to whom John's mother 

 had probably been nursemaid, for she always called him 

 " my boy " the burial-place of the family in the grounds, 

 called "the Howf," being then a boyish haunt. There were 

 also those never-failing attractions to youth, the Cowie 

 and the Carron, with their shady nooks and minnow pools 

 for "gudling," where boys spent hours together in untold 

 bliss. There were the ruins of St. Mary's Chapel and its 

 churchyard, and the fishing village of Cowie, on the way 

 to them, where the lad watched its strange inhabitants ; and 

 where he once saw a marriage amongst them, full of old- 

 world customs, as he used to tell, when the bride made her 

 affianced swear to be true to her, by her father's house, 

 the fishing boat and the fish he caught. Across the 

 Carron amidst tall trees, there stood the quaint old Kirk 

 of Dunnottar, the parish church of the town, to which his 

 worthy mother regularly took her boy, and where she 

 pointed out the Covenanter's Stone, which was erected for 

 those who had perished when descending the Dunnottar 

 cliff from their foul prison, and at which Sir Walter 

 Scott first saw " Old Mortality," then engaged in reno- 

 vating it, the amiable enthusiast having died when John 

 was five years old. 



Then, last to mention, but first in youthful estimate, 

 there were, still more distant and dangerous, and therefore 

 all the more attractive, the glorious " heughs " and " coves " 

 and " braes," the wild and wonderful cliffs, that guard the 

 bay of Stonehaven on both sides, and stretch away to what 

 seemed illimitable distance a splendid region, rich in 



