l6o JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



to Droughsburn, the innkeeper accompanied a surviving 

 son and his family to America, and, for some reason, all 

 the books were sold. John Duncan was at the sale to 

 watch the fate of the memorable volumes, and, if possible, 

 to rescue them from unappreciative hands ; and they 

 were knocked down to him for the large sum of one 

 shilling ! Thus each volume brought the price of one 

 of the costly libations they used to pour to Bacchus 

 or shall we not rather say to Flora or Minerva? to 

 obtain a sight of them ! 



Fortune does occasionally indulge her wayward fancy 

 to dispense poetical justice, if she does not make abundant 

 recompense, sometimes almost humorous, for bygone un- 

 kindness, as in this instance. Certainly, the reader will 

 agree, the books could not have fallen into better hands. 

 John got them strongly bound in calf a pardonable ex- 

 travagance and they were carefully preserved in his chest 

 all his days, a proud possession and a pleasant memory. 



After Davidson's departure, in 1852, Mayfield ceased 

 to be an inn, and not a stone of this old haunt of our 

 botanists now remains ; the thatched cottage having been 

 replaced by a bran-new slated house, and the present 

 trees that adorn it being recent like the dwelling. 



But in their early botanical struggles, our students did 

 not sail in the smoothest of seas even inside Whitehouse 

 itself, less from the difficulties of steering amongst the 

 greater rocks of the "big folks" themselves, than from 

 those persistently thrown in their way by a woman. When 

 the family went to Aberdeen for the winter, the place was 

 left in charge of a vigorous housekeeper and Charles Black, 



