Il6 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



of a hill crested with trees, called from its shape Knock- 

 saul, the hill of the barn. This farm is only some five 

 miles over the ridge from Auchleven. Here John Duncan 

 lived for some years, weaving for the farmer, Robert 

 Barren. Robert had a holding, and a weaving shop, in 

 which he worked himself and employed some journeymen. 

 Besides being weaver and farmer, he had some local fame 

 as butcher, veterinary surgeon, and sportsman. He was 

 intelligent, keen, practical, and vigorous, and could show 

 considerable temper when roused. He was bright and 

 blithe, even after he got his leg broken, and followed the 

 plough on his wooden stump, whistling and singing as he 

 went. 



John boarded with this good man, and weaved in a 

 shop, now in ruins, behind his house. It had three looms, 

 lighted by three small windows, looking to the road that 

 ran past the door. Above the workshop, there was a 

 garret formed by the low triangular space under the sloping 

 rafters, which was reached by ladder, through a trap-door 

 in the ceiling at the upper end of the shop, opposite John's 

 loom. This upper room had no ventilation whatever, 

 except through the thatch, and no light but what came 

 up "accidently " through the small trap-door. With what 

 ill-lighted, unventilated places were our forefathers satisfied, 

 really little in advance of the underground dens and caves of 

 the prehistoric times ! Yet up here often slept, night after 

 night, three men in the three box or " stockit " beds that 

 were fitted up in the stifling, darksome den, in some ways 

 worse than John's solitary " philosopher " at Auchleven. 



Here at Muckletown, John also carried on his astro- 

 nomical studies, and many memories of his eccentricities 



