VISITS TO ABERDEEN FRIENDSHIP. 3/1 



the best and most valuable in the country, munificently 

 gifted by the late Mr. Thomson of Banchory, was to both 

 the centre of wonders stranger than fiction. There John was 

 most fascinated and astonished at the exquisite examples 

 of the flora of the Coal Measures in the geological depart- 

 ment ; being " perfectly overpowered," as his companion 

 tells, " when he looked upon these examples of the mighty 

 past, in the flora that bloomed millions of years ago." 



Behind the museum, was the workshop of its curator, 

 a melancholy reminiscence of the beautiful one he had 

 left behind him at the Craigh, where John had often seen 

 him at work, sadly recalled by both. Then the evenings 

 were spent in the cosy parlour, amidst the bright and happy 

 faces of the home circle, when the music of the past was 

 reproduced by his friend with bow and violin of his own 

 making, to chase dull care away and recall the days of 

 other years. 



Latterly, John's old-world attire and unconventional 

 ways rather disturbed the ladies in the households of the 

 friends he used to visit, as violating the proprieties of city 

 life, to which the sex are so ardently devoted, and the 

 want of which they find it difficult to condone, when they 

 are not strong and pronounced enough to shake off the 

 bondage in special circumstances, as in John's case. Of 

 " the proper," one of the first articles in the female creed 

 standing even before "the right," shall we say? the ancient 

 weaver had not the dimmest glimpse even in the city, and 

 it certainly was not a little trying to feminine nerves to 

 receivejso outre a visitor, whose appearance could not 

 fail to draw the public eye in a way far from soothing to 

 feminine notions regulated by the social demands of " the 



