MISUNDERSTANDINGS UNDER WHICH HE LIVED. 329 



upon him as " the mad baker." As one of his friends who 

 used to accompany him in his rambles says : " When John 

 began botany, he was looked upon as a half-wit about 

 Tough, and persistently attacked by hundreds who were 

 in every way his inferiors, except perhaps in personal 

 appearance ; and the poor man had to endure no end of 

 ' chaff.' " But John's philosophy was such that he " never 

 once saw him lose his temper " under the stings of these 

 small flies, whose attacks were most numerous when he 

 first began to botanise. By-and-by they became less so, as 

 they got accustomed to the novelty and found the object of 

 their petty attentions imperturbable to their attacks, or too 

 clever for themselves. Ere long his unretaliating meekness 

 and remarkable enthusiasm in what seemed to them thank- 

 less studies, gained their increasing respect. On John's 

 removal to new districts, he had to undergo the same 

 misunderstandings and to conquer a place in their esteem, 

 and in the end he always achieved a high one. But even 

 then and to the last, in regard to his studies, which were 

 a puzzle to them, he was reckoned by most of his neigh- 

 bours as at best an innocent phenomenon. 



His uncommon style of dress, and near-sightedness, 

 combined with his constant habit of poking by the high- 

 ways and hedges as he passed along, caused even the 

 children to notice him and count him queer. One day 

 some boys were returning from school at Tullynessle, when 

 one of them shouted out in alarm; " A madman ! a mad- 

 man ! " At once they all scampered over the dike for 

 protection, to wait the advancing terror. It was only John 

 who was taking home a web under his arm, and beguiling 

 the time by looking for plants in the bottom of the roadside 



