22 MEMOIR OF DR. WALKER. 



she never failed to remind him of these poor peti- 

 tioners and their claims, in which, to say the truth, 

 she took great interest herself. She was an ad- 

 mirable woman, and seconded all her husband's 

 useful plans." 



In 1759 he met Benjamin Franklin, who visited 

 Lord Kames that year, and received from him, in 

 conversation, the account of the pines and the hic- 

 cory, and other trees of America, mentioned in his 

 tract, " Remarkable Trees in Scotland ;" a tract for 

 which he must have been collecting materials at 

 this time. And to this period, from internal evi- 

 dence, though it has no date, I feel inclined to place 

 his " Mineralogical Journal from Edinburgh to El- 

 liott," the tenth of his tracts. 



At Glencross he also had the good fortune to be 

 introduced to Mr. Tytler of Woodhouselee, after- 

 wards Lord Woodhouselee, whose friendship he long 

 enjoyed, and who, in his " Life of Lord Kames," 

 when noticing the Doctor's death, says, that he lost 

 in him one of his earliest and most valued friends. 



In the year 1762 he was presented to the parish 

 of Moffat by the Earl of Hopeton, and settled there 

 on the 13th of July, where he continued unremit- 

 tingly to pursue his favourite employments, improv- 

 ing himself, silently but not unobservedly, till 1764, 

 when he was recommended by Lord Kames to the 

 Commissioners of Annexed Estates, as a person most 

 eminently qualified by his uncommon natural talents 

 and scientific acquirements to make a survey of the 



