78 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



resting-place of his bones. Close at hand, flowed the clear 

 stream of the Don, skirted with noble trees and adorned 

 with many a beautiful domain. A few miles distant, nest- 

 ling amid parks of the baronial House of Monymusk 

 famous for its reliquary, was the village of the name, with 

 its ancient priory, its quaint, square old tower, its druidical 

 circles and famous sculptured stone. About a mile farther 

 south, hid amidst its extensive woods, stood old Cluny 

 Castle, where his friend Charles Black was then, unknown 

 to him, an apprentice gardener, from 1832 to 1834, from his 

 nineteenth to his twenty-first year ; the present imposing 

 palace not being erected till 1836. Farther east, rose the 

 old Flemish, turreted Castle Fraser, one of the finest speci- 

 mens of the kind in Scotland. All these places, and many 

 more that beautify the country, were speedily examined 

 by Duncan, and the whole region, hill and hollow, fully 

 explored. 



One day, in returning home after one of his excursions 

 in search of Culpepper's herbs, when daylight was on the 

 wane, he thought he would lessen the distance by taking a 

 short cut through a wood. It was strictly protected by the 

 game-keeping laird, but, at that late hour, it might surely 

 be risked ; and he entered the forbidden domain. He had 

 not gone far when he spied the proprietor coming towards 

 him at a curve in the path, without himself being seen. At 

 once wheeling right about, he began to retrace his steps as 

 if going in the opposite direction. He was immediately 

 hailed, peremptorily called upon to stop, and roughly 

 questioned as to his being there. John pleaded to be 

 excused and to be allowed to proceed, on account of the 

 lateness of the hour and the distance he had to go ; but 



