HIS CHARACTERISTICS AND CHARACTER. 479 



before depositing his precious hat upon it, old and worn 

 though it was oblivious that the lady of the house might 

 be of opinion that it was his hat that required brushing and 

 not her chairs in her best room ! The success is simply 

 beyond praise with which he preserved the frail contents of 

 his herbarium, without any of the means now abundantly 

 available to botanical students under such miserable 

 and seemingly impossible conditions, amidst the constant 

 and virulent attacks of insects, specially potent in such 

 confined thatched cottages, their choicest nurseries and 

 habitations. 



John's unusually reticent and retiring disposition made 

 him, to a great extent, shy and distrustful of strangers, and 

 indeed of all but his intimates ; so that he seemed to 

 outsiders "a terrible distant cretur," as Mrs. Allanach felt 

 -even to the end. He never blossomed out, never opened 

 his sensitive affections, except amongst his most trusted 

 and congenial friends ; and it was only then that the real 

 depth and kindly warmth of his heart made itself fully 

 felt. This backwardness in the presence of others checked 

 the outward expression of his feelings even to his friends, 

 unless when strong emotion compelled utterance, as at 

 my last interview with him. At these times, such exhibi- 

 tions surprised and pained himself, as they always do 

 beings of that type, especially in Scotland ; feeling as 

 if the holy of holies had been forcibly violated and opened 

 to vulgar gaze. 



His natural secretiveness had also been greatly in- 

 creased by the bitter need he had, during the most of his 

 life, of hiding the domestic griefs which preyed on his heart, 

 and which might have led to questionable indulgences 



