194 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



Charles Black's return to Whitehouse was a mistake. 

 Had he remained at the Botanic Gardens, he would very 

 soon, no doubt, have obtained a superior situation, if not a 

 high position, more worthy of a man of his character and 

 scientific attainments. But he has always been burdened 

 and obstructed by over-modesty and under-worldliness, and 

 swayed by what most people would call absurd sentiment 

 a poor name for what in him has been something much 

 higher and deeper. 



His chief inducement to return to the Howe of Alford 

 was the poetic desire to renew delightful times spent in 

 friendship and science, and to walk amongst his own people 

 along the sequestered vale of life until its close. But it 

 was an expectation never to be realised. Matters at White- 

 house became less bearable as its mistress advanced in 

 years, and in May, 1842, he left the Howe, never more to 

 reside within its bounds. John was thus once more parted 

 from his more than foster brother, happily, however, to be 

 for a time within easy reach ; but the dear, bright days 

 and charming nights at Whitehouse never again returned. 



After serving for some time as foreman with Reid the 

 nurseryman at Gilcomston, in Aberdeen, Charles settled 

 down at Raeden, not far from that town, in 1842, memor- 

 able for the first visit to Scotland of her Majesty and 

 her consort, Albert the Good. Raeden is a small estate 

 situated on what is called the Stockit Road, or Old Skene 

 turnpike. It occupies an elevated slope commanding a 

 very striking view of Aberdeen, with its numerous churches 

 and chimneys types of the religiousness and the trade that 

 are its distinguishing characteristics and of the open 

 sea beyond. Its former proprietor had become bankrupt, 



