HOME- WE A VING. 6? 



tions, which the state of the country had increased. In 

 1818, Queen Charlotte died, and in 1819, the best of British 

 queens was born. In 1 820, " the first gentleman of Europe " 

 took his seat in the royal chair, inaugurating his reign by 

 the cruel trial of his ill-used wife; and in 1822, his visit 

 to Edinburgh turned the heads of the Scotch people, and, 

 not least, that of the Great Wizard himself. But only the 

 faintest ripples of such splashings of the social and political 

 sea reached the canny north-east of Scotland, though there 

 they were watched with the deepest interest by local poli- 

 ticians like our hero, as significant indications of coming 

 popular progress. In 1824, the brilliant, volcanic, but 

 powerful " Manfred " died, an event that caused more than 

 usual sympathy in Aberdeen, whose interest in poetry was 

 certainly not very strong ; for his mother belonged to the 

 county, and in and round the city her son had passed 

 some of his early days and gained many of his happiest 

 inspirations. 



In the same year, John Duncan left Aberdeen to wander 

 over the country which stretches in sight of the mountain 

 that towers so grandly in Byron's poetry, the dark Loch- 

 nagar. After his wife's conduct had so rudely shattered the 

 sweetness of home, he at once broke up his house and fled 

 from the scene which had witnessed his misery -and her 

 disgrace. 



He now commenced a new phase of his life, by adopting 

 a special variety of his trade, that of country weaver. 

 Hitherto, since completing his apprenticeship, his work had 

 been confined to towns, where he had weaved more or 

 less in factories for the home and foreign markets. Now 

 he was to become a household workman. His varied 



