2IO JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



May was astonished at his pedestrian powers, and can give 

 details of his long evening walks, which extended late into 

 the night. He was struck with his desire to avoid giving 

 offence to any one, in his calls at the big house, where he 

 used to bring new grasses and ferns to show them to his 

 friends ; and with his extreme modesty, his geniality, and 

 his power of giving and taking a joke, combined with quick 

 though quiet resentment of any attempt to take undue 

 advantage of him, suppressing all such with pointed and 

 telling rebuke. 



In the parish of Tough, there seems to have existed at 

 that time more than common intellectual activity. The 

 circulating library, which was kept in the house of an 

 intelligent merchant at Torries, was well selected, and 

 contained in it, by-and-by, after some rigid opposition, 

 such astounding innovations as Scott's and Dickens' novels. 

 Mr. Beveridge urged John to join it in vain, for John said 

 it did not have the books he wished. " I hae a leebrary o* 

 my ain," he would say, " and what money I can spare will 

 gae to increasing it ; that's my way." 



There also lived then in the district several very in- 

 telligent men, such as Beveridge, Barclay, McCombie, of 

 Cairnballoch ; the parish schoolmaster, Mr. Ingram, who 

 sent forth many good pupils ; the plasterer, Murray ; the 

 merchant, Matthews ; the blacksmith of Torries, William 

 Law, a self-taught and successful veterinary surgeon, who 

 could assist the boys with their Latin exercises ; the farmer 

 of Boghead, Moses Copland, and his son and successor, 

 who was college bred ; and the genial and highly respected 

 parish minister, Mr. Gillan, the promoter of every good 



