LIFE AND STAR- GAZING AT TULLYNESSLE. 1 1/ 



still survive amongst the aged people in Tullynessle. One 

 of these, a daughter of Andrew Wilson, a farmer who lived 

 next door to the weaving-shop, was then a little girl about 

 ten years old. Her young imagination was taken with the 

 queer little weaver and his peculiar ways, and her excellent 

 memory has well preserved the things she then saw and 

 heard with her sharp eyes and ears. 



Nearly opposite the workshop, on the other side of the 

 road, stood Robert Barron's byre, from which a long dike 

 stretched right in front of the shop and parallel to it. 

 Along the top of this dike, John used -to place his dials. 

 Each of these consisted of a piece of slate, with a central 

 stile inserted in the middle, which formed the famous 

 " nogman," of which his contemporaries made such fun. 

 While here, he also possessed and used a small telescope, 

 or " looking-glass," as they naturally and correctly called it, 

 a translation of the poetic " optic glass " of Miltonic poetry 

 and Galilean renown. This he also adjusted on the dike, 

 to examine the stars. On clear, frosty nights, John made 

 his observations along the dike, returning at a run, to save 

 time and to keep up his temperature, to the weaving-shop 

 just opposite, where he registered his observations and 

 consulted his books and almanacs. It was in connection 

 with this dike that the practical jokers of the place used to 

 thrown down his dials and play other pranks upon the 

 absorbed and short-sighted astronomer. Andrew Wilson, 

 whose house as next-door neighbour he used to frequent, 

 would not allow his daughters to make sport in any way 

 of the odd little man, but tried to inspire them with some 

 of the respect his studies should have roused in every one. 



In Tullynessle, he was also known as the " star-gazer " 



