IlS JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



and " the nogman." But though he devoted his leisure to 

 study, he did not neglect his work and is still remembered 

 in the place as a capital weaver. His medical practices, 

 not making such an impression on the people as his study- 

 ing the stars, are not so well remembered there by survivors. 



John was delighted, at all times when any one would 

 listen to him, to speak of his studies, and to the willing and 

 intelligent he would pour forth his lore for hours. Especially 

 did he take pleasure in talking to young people, in the 

 hope of leading them to higher things. He used to point 

 out the stars and call them all by their names, to Mr. 

 Wilson's little maidens and to youthful Robbie Barren ; 

 but as Robert now naYvely remarks, he was too young to 

 be able to say whether he did so rightly or wrongly ! 



To escape the annoyance offered to him at the cottar 

 town, John used to go to a distance, especially to the top 

 of the neighbouring eminences, to make his observations 

 and have a wider field of stars. The sides of the isolated 

 Knocksaul, about a mile north of Muckletown, fourteen 

 hundred feet in height, commanding a splendid view of 

 the whole celestial hemisphere, were special haunts of his. 

 There he would remain for hours, often far into the morning, 

 watching the heavens, like the young astronomer Ferguson, 

 a hundred years before, when he lived near Keith, some 

 thirty miles to the west. 



One night, his next-door neighbour, Mrs. Wilson, was 

 attending on a sick cow, about two in the morning, after 

 the rest of the family had long retired to bed. She was 

 sitting with the animal in the lonely byre, which was dimly 

 lighted by a rush lamp, an eerie-enough place at that hour, 

 when the door began to creak on its hinges in the dead 



