CHAPTER XXVI. 



SETTLEMENT AND WORK AT DROUGHSBURN. 



JOHN DUNCAN remained at Auchleven for three years. 

 While he sojourned there, an event took place in 1851 

 which roused his highest interest, the first Great Exhibition 

 in London, that wonderful world show a happy prognostic 

 of the Brotherhood of Mankind, seemingly more distant now 

 than it was thought when its crystal dome was reared. That 

 year also, the country lost two of its great benefactors 

 Robert Peel, one of John's heroes in the political world ; and 

 William Wordsworth, the greatest interpreter of the higher 

 influences of nature on man the world has yet seen. 



John had long been connected with the Vale of Alford. 

 He had lived for years in its north-west angle, at Tullynessle, 

 had wandered and worshipped on its north-east side, about 

 Benachie and Brindy, and had settled above a dozen years 

 in its south-east corner at Tough ; and now, in 1852, in his 

 fifty-eighth year, he removed to its south-west chamber, in 

 the valley of the Leochel, and there spent the remainder of 

 his days. 



After leaving, the village of Alford at its west end, a 

 country road runs past the parish church amidst its tall 

 trees, crosses a small stream called the Leochel,* which 

 * Pronounced Loch! -el, with the guttural ch. 



