44 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



be able to put a boy through " the Gray," an old treatise on 

 arithmetic, in a single winter. These few evening hours 

 were all that the school ever did for John Duncan. 

 Becoming gradually more independent of external 

 assistance in his literary studies, he used to retire to the 

 garret in which he slept, to pursue them undisturbed ; and 

 many an hour was spent by the ardent scholar deciphering 

 the typographical maze with his short-sighted eyes. He 

 did so aloud in a kind of humming tune, and every page 

 was read and read again till fully conquered in word and 

 thought a peculiar thoroughness remarked by all that 

 knew him. His progress was rapid ; as one of his old 

 friends said, "he learned himself a great heap," His 

 strong memory, which was one of the faculties character- 

 izing him throughout life, was specially noted, and he used 

 to surprise his friends in Drumlithie by reciting verbatim, 

 on his return home, great portions of the sermon he had 

 heard. 



His study of external nature began now to be more 

 actively and extensively pursued. One of his friends, 

 James Sinclair, now an intelligent old man of eighty, 

 residing at the Kirktown of Fetteresso who is emphatic as 

 to John's excellent character and disposition, and the high 

 estimation in which he was held in the village tells how he 

 sometimes accompanied John in the rambles that his close 

 confinement allowed him, especially in the Den of Kinmonth, 

 close by the church of Glenbervie, a short distance from 

 the village, where runs the Drumlithie Burn. In these 

 journeys, he said, there was scarcely anything they saw 

 which John did not seem to be familiar with, and to be 

 able to say something about. 



