460 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



brightened." Mr. Taylor then read, with his consent, the 

 third and the fourteenth chapters of St. John's Gospel, 

 which breathed soothing peace to the dying Christian, 

 and whispered to him of the near "mansions" in the 

 " Father's house " which he hoped soon to enter. After the 

 reading was concluded, John remarked, in quiet accents of 

 peace, u I'm very frail, but I hae nae trouble noo ; " words 

 that had, no doubt, a mental as well as a physical reference. 



Some time before his death, he again spoke of his grave, 

 and expressed a desire to be buried in Alford churchyard, 

 without, however, indicating any special spot there. He 

 wished his last resting-place to be marked by " ane o' 

 nature's rough stanes " some natural stone undressed by 

 any tool, like the lover of nature he had been. A similar 

 wish has not unfrequently been expressed by other lovers 

 of nature, both scientific and poetic : amongst others, by 

 Macodrum, the poet of North Uist, who lies in the solitary 

 graveyard of Kilmuir on its far-seen knoll, under a mass of 

 rude, grey, gnarled gneiss, selected by himself ; in the midst 

 of the green " machars " * whose praises he had sung, and 

 within hearing of the solemn requiem of the wild Atlantic 

 that lashes in grandeur the island of his birth. 



John continued gradually to sink. But his tenacity of 

 existence was even yet quite astonishing, and his candle 

 burnt down to the very socket. He became so wasted and 

 light that he could be lifted like an infant. At times, there 

 still recurred paroxysms of strength and almost fierceness, 



* The Gaelic name for those wide flats that face the Atlantic, on 

 the western side of the Uists. The same word for a plain occurs as 

 the name of one of the triple divisions of Galloway, " the Moors, the 

 Machars, and the Rhinns." 



