28 MEMOIR OF 



of taste, soon ripened their intimacy into friend- 

 ship. Dr Balfour possessed an excellent library 

 on that subject ; and he pointed out to Sibbald 

 such authors as he thought most worthy of his 

 study. " I had," says the latter, " from my settle- 

 ment here, a design to inform myself of the 

 Natural History this country could afford, for I 

 had learned at Paris that the simplest method of 

 physic was the best, and those that the country 

 afforded came nearest to our temper, and agreed 

 best with us ; so I resolved to make it part of my 

 study to know what animals, vegetables, minerals, 

 metals, and substances, cast up by the sea, were 

 found in this country, that might be of use in 

 medicine, or other arts useful to human life ; and 

 I began to be curious in searching after them, 

 and collecting them, which I continued to do ever 

 since." 



Sibbald introduced Balfour to Mr Patrick 

 Murray, the Laird of Livingston, a great botanist, 

 who had collected many plants, both foreign and 

 indigenous, in his garden, at his country seat, to 

 which the two friends frequently resorted. Stimu- 

 lated by his success, they resolved to establish a 

 garden of their own ; and for this purpose, they 

 rented a plot of ground about forty feet square> 

 in the north yards of the Abbey. And having 

 become acquainted with Mr James Sutherland, a 

 young man, who had acquired a knowledge of 



