FURTHER INTERCOURSE WITH CHARLES BLACK. 189 



ciphered and pressed, amidst a thousand delightful memories 

 of the dear Vale of Alford. 



The sight of books in the booksellers' windows was a 

 sore temptation to the weaver. In Edinburgh, however, 

 he withstood it well, for he bought only one volume, on 

 Botany, which he found on an old bookstall in the street. 



That Edinburgh visit remained with him one of the 

 bright chapters in his life, and shone with a happy light in 

 his after years when other things became dark. 



He returned by steamer from Leith to Aberdeen, walk- 

 ing thence to his old home at Netherton. There his advent 

 caused his friends to flock to the weaving shop and the 

 shoemaker's, " to hear the news and ca' the crack," as at 

 " the Rockin' " at Mossgiel, and to learn all about Edin- 

 burgh, the very name of which was a charm in that rural 

 region and, not least, about their old favourite, Charles 

 Black, and about his young wife. 



Charles returned to Whitehouse as gardener once more, 

 in the year after John's visit to Edinburgh, and renewed old 

 work and old associations in the Vale, botanical and 

 friendly. When the Farquharsons were in town during 

 winter, he occupied the " big house," Mrs. Black doing the 

 duties of housekeeper ; in summer, when they retired to the 

 country, he removed to a house of his own at the offices 

 behind. Charles had come back to his old quarters in the 

 vigour of manhood, in his thirtieth year, with immensely 

 increased knowledge of Botany and other subjects, and a 

 splendid collection of native plants. These he set himself, 

 during the winter of 1840, to classify according to the 

 Linnsean system, then the only one in vogue in the country, 

 and the one on which all our botanical text-books were 



