FAME, PAUPERISM AND WEAKNESS. 407 



entered the house, finding John sitting by the fire with his 

 back to the door, he caught him by the shoulders and held 

 him till he laughed and guessed who it was. With his 

 friend's good cheer and hearty company, the old man 

 greatly revived, and talked brightly of old days at White- 

 house. Despite his inherent reticence, though with diffi- 

 culty, he also gave his friend details on certain points of his 

 early life and domestic experiences, confided to few, which 

 Charles had asked him to get for him, and which have 

 been utilised in this history. 



In the following year, 1878, on the first Sunday of 

 May a favourite month of the old botanist's, as it was to 

 Chaucer, and as it has been to all lovers of nature, for then 



" The floures gynnen for to spring " 



he set out for church, climbing the hill above the cottage 

 that lay between him and the Howe of Cushnie where it 

 stood. The way was long four miles to go and the road 

 steep and trying to the aged. But the day was smiling, 

 the tender spring flowers thrilled him with their opening 

 beauties and countless memories, and he gathered as usual 

 some of his favourites to lay before him in church. 

 When he reached the top of the hill, he sat down on a stone 

 to rest, and gazed on the familiar prospect over hill and 

 dale that stretched all round him, as he had often done 

 before. It was a sweet Sabbath morning that sent its 

 soothing peace into the good man's silent and receptive 

 heart, and breathed a benison on him and on all nature, 

 linked to the man by subtle ties of knowledge and sympathy, 

 which few of the other church-goers could understand. 

 Like Wordsworth's Wanderer 



