37O JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



used to cross the hill to see his old friends round Netherton. 

 As he says, " I knew far better then the value of the man, 

 and always laid aside work when he came, to get the good 

 of him ; though, alas, I never profited equally to the many 

 opportunities I had after all." After William removed to 

 Aberdeen, in 1873, and became curator of the Free Church 

 College there, his heart was still in the dear Vale of Alford. 

 He never took to city life, he sadly says, for the green 

 fields and wild nature were always more to him than all 

 the art of man. The sense of injury received at his harsh 

 severance from the home of his fathers still frequently 

 disturbs him, and he feels and ever will feel, as he expresses 

 it, " like a tree transplanted after it is old, which still holds 

 on a kind of life, but never regains the freshness and vigour 

 of its original situation." 



Hence John's visits were all the more prized by him in 

 Aberdeen, and " his honest face was like a blink of sunshine 

 in the dust and din of the city," as he gratefully expresses 

 it. John as fully enjoyed his pleasant society, and used to 

 speak of his friend with high esteem. To both, the dear 

 and delightful memories of the past, which they used to 

 " con with meikle care," were singularly refreshing, and 

 welled up into the poetry of life, an invigorating and 

 strengthening charm. Then William could show his old 

 friend many things new and interesting to him, which he 

 could not have done in Tough. He had still a very fine 

 garden, that recalled the old one at the Craigh where John 

 used to sit with strange immunity among the clustering 

 bees ; and there John could always walk, admiring its floral 

 beauties. The college museum, which contains the 

 splendid collection of Natural Science specimens, one of 



