136 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



what was still more unusual not only remained at White- 

 house nearly four years, but returned to it again after he 

 had married. 



Charles Black was born on the first of July, 1813, at the 

 Mains of Pitcaple, on the river Ury, not far from the site 

 of the famous battle of Harlaw. He received a fair educa- 

 tion, as schools then went, till he reached his thirteenth 

 year. According to universal custom there, he then took 

 service, first as herd-boy, like Duncan, and afterwards as 

 farm worker, till he was nineteen. Like our hero, however, 

 he thirsted for work more intellectual than clodhopping, 

 and became an apprentice gardener at Cluny Castle. 

 There he remained for two years, gaining great skill in his 

 trade, and leaving it rarely accomplished in its mysteries. 

 His natural endowments were uncommonly high. Ever 

 since boyhood, amidst huge difficulties too long here to 

 tell, he had sedulously cultivated his intellect and character. 

 His determination and self-denial for this end were exem- 

 plary, of which one instance is typical. Receiving no 

 wages whatever as apprentice gardener, he used to get a 

 shilling every fortnight from his father for pocket-money. 

 This he spent, not in purchasing any of the luxuries 

 natural to a boy who had few of them, but in taking out, in 

 parts, " Mackintosh's Practical Gardener." That was then 

 one of the authorities on the subject, a great book that cost 

 two pounds, procured in order to extend his theoretical and 

 practical knowledge of his craft. 



But this was but one step in the professional ladder 

 which he had determined to mount. He must know the 

 science of Botany, on which it stood. No matter that the 

 subject was at that time comparatively little known or 



