204 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



productions so interesting to both, for, as he tells, the 

 weaver was then in the heyday of life, full of vigour, 

 physically and mentally. The boy also made Charles 

 Black's acquaintance, and was shown by him through his 

 well-kept garden and greenhouse, and he retains the 

 liveliest recollection of the man. 



John visited his father's house, and never passed it 

 in his rambles without calling there and being hospitably 

 entertained. When he came to the door, he was accus- 

 tomed to announce his presence with the bright exclamation 

 " Here's the weyver ! " On his return from plant-hunting 

 on the braes of Tough, he frequently stayed for the evening. 

 The family would then cluster round him, to look at the 

 plants he had gathered and listen to his dissertations upon 

 them, and his many stories connected with his wanderings, 

 to which, Mr. Beveridge says, they were never indifferent. 

 As neighbours dropped in for the Craigh was a pleasant, 

 hospitable house Willie would take down his fiddle, and 

 speedily, under his inspiriting strains, the lasses would 

 fling aside their knitting and take to the floor in their 

 wincey petticoats and short wrappers, mingling with their 

 partners in the mazy dance. Though John, as his friend 

 says, held in derision " the capers of a dancing-master and 

 the light fantastic toe," yet, roused by the spirit of the merry 

 scene, he would by-and-by rise to his feet quite abruptly. 

 Calling to the fiddler, " Come, then, Willie, play up ' Jenny, 

 dang the weyver ! '" he would go through the reel with the 

 greatest spirit, to the intense amusement of beholders. 



At the Craigh, there was a well-stocked, well-kept 

 garden, tended by the son, who made a hobby also of 

 breeding bees. The hives were placed between a long row 



