LIFE AND STAR-GAZING AT AUCHLEVEN. 115 



and said, with such trifles, instead of devoting himself, like 

 the sensible folks round him, wholly to his labour. His 

 daughter Mary was then a servant with Mr. Brown, farmer 

 at Drumrossie, close by the village. There John used 

 frequently to visit her, and became in this way intimate 

 with the farmer and his wife, who were very kind to him, 

 and whose daughter, still living in Insch, recalls many 

 interesting memories of the peculiar weaver, both in his 

 astronomical and botanical days. At Drumrossie, he had 

 better opportunities of observing the stars than in Insch, 

 and there he used to use the cart-shed as an observa- 

 tory; for protection from the cold in frosty nights, when 

 the stars are clearest, is necessary even for the most 

 ardent. He was often found there at that work, " when he 

 su'd hae been sleepin'." The general name by which he 

 was known in Insch, was " the star mannie," and the farm 

 servants used to amuse themselves by getting him to point 

 out Jupiter and Saturn and their companions, and then 

 make fun of the peculiar names, if not the peculiar man. 



The Vale of Alford widens out in various parts into 

 lateral valleys, drained by tributary streams that flow into 

 the Don. One of these is the upland region that forms the 

 parish of Tullynessle, on the eastern slopes of the Coreen 

 Hills, drained by the Suie Burn. It is a warm, pleasant 

 hollow, facing the south, its curious name meaning, it seems, 

 in Gaelic, the knoll that looks southwards. It possesses a 

 church and school, and some ruins of departed greatness in 

 the old castle of Terpersie, which overlook it from the west. 



On its higher slopes, known as the Braes of Whitehaugh, 

 there lies a farm called, from its size, Muckletown, close 

 by the hillock of Wardhead, and a short distance south 



