184 EMINENT NATURALISTS. 



he may be said to have received the only systematic 

 education he ever obtained. Being destined for the 

 army, he was next sent to the University of Edinburgh 

 for a few months, after which he was removed to the 

 Royal Military College at Great Marlow. With not 

 a little difficulty he succeeded in the rather indifferent 

 examinations of the time, and in 1807, being then only 

 fifteen years of age, he received a commission as ensign 

 in the 36th Regiment of Infantry. He joined the 

 army in the Peninsula under Lord Wellington, carried 

 the colours of his regiment and was present at the 

 actions of Roriea and Vimeiro, earning for himself the 

 reputation of an able officer. Many years afterwards 

 the Duke of Wellington said to him, " What, were you 

 that chubby-faced boy who held up the colours when I 

 halted the 36th after Yimeiro ? ' Subsequently under 

 Sir John Moore, he took part in the retreat to Corunna, 

 and took part in the final battle there. These six 

 months of active service formed the only part of his 

 military career in which he was exposed to the hardships 

 and dangers of actual warfare. After serving in Spain 

 and Portugal, he was removed to the staff of his 

 uncle — Sir Alexander Mackenzie — in Sicily. He also 

 served at the siege of Cadiz, and afterwards in Ireland 

 as a captain in the Enniskillen, or 9th Dragoons. The 

 defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo seeming to close the 

 prospect of advancement in the army, Murchison, after 

 eight years of service, quitted the military profession. 

 In the year 1815, he married the daughter of General 

 Francis Hugonen, of Nursted House, Hampshire, and 

 spent some time on the Continent, particularly in Italy, 



