DISCIPLES AND SYMPATHISERS AT DROUGHSBURN. 341 



He visited the weaver at all spare hours, and went 

 systematically into the study by reading books which John 

 lent him. When John gave him the loan of any book, he 

 was accustomed to say, "Noo, Johnnie, lad, dinna be 

 over weel-fashioned wi't ; be ill-fashioned. Look in atween 

 the brods and see fat's in't. There's some fowks sae weel- 

 fashioned wi' books that they never open them." 



In the mid-winter of 1873, John went to his garden and 

 brought his scholar a Christmas rose, saying, " Tak' that i' 

 yer han', and gin ony o' the ploughmen chiels speir fat it 

 is, say it's Hellebores niger, and ye'll sta' them wi' sic a 

 name." 



The following summer, Taylor made his first collection 

 of plants, of considerable number, which he named and 

 arranged according to Linnaeus. He now paid weekly 

 visits to Droughsburn. His delight in plants so increased 

 that, to have as much time as possible with the botanist, 

 he used to leave the farm at once without supper when 

 work was over a bowl of milk and bread being, however, 

 placed by the kindly kitchen-maid to wait his late return, 

 in the hay-loft where he slept. 



At these visits, they used to hunt for plants in the long 

 summer nights, John telling their common and technical 

 names, peculiarities of structure, and medicinal and other 

 properties, and seasoning his talk with much fun and 

 humour, stories of his adventures, and good advice. This 

 pleasant intercourse continued for several years, and Taylor 

 says he never brought a plant to John which he was 

 unable to name and describe. John's remarkable memory 

 struck him, as it did all that knew him, with his familiar 

 knowledge of the localities where he had found plants. 



