194 EDWARD'S CERTIFICATE. CHAP, x 



the other workmen. The wages paid to her were dis- 

 tinct from the wages paid to Edward. Very often, 

 instead of spending her earnings on clothes or bringing 

 the money home, she would buy for her husband 

 bottles for his insects, wood for his bird-cases, or 

 powder and shot for his gun. None of his advising 

 friends ever helped him in this way. 



And yet Edward did extend his investigations far- 

 ther into Banffshire, and even into Aberdeenshire. 

 With that view he obtained a certificate, drawn up by 

 the Clerk of the Peace, and signed by sixteen Justices 

 of the Peace, enabling him to go over the country with 

 his gun, in search of birds and other things. He al- 

 ways carried this certificate with him ; and when he 

 presented it to a gamekeeper, he was allowed to go 

 wherever he pleased. The certificate was as follows: 



" These are to certify that the bearer, Thomas Edward, 

 shoemaker, who is in height about five feet six inches, has 

 dark eyes and hair, much pock-pitted, round-shouldered, and 

 about thirty-five years of age is, in addition to his other 

 calling, engaged in collecting and preserving various objects 

 of Natural History, particularly those objects which relate 

 to Ornithology (Birds), Oo-ology (Eggs), Entomology (Insects), 

 Helminthology (Worms, etc.), and Conchology (Shells) j 

 That, for the purpose of procuring Ornithological Specimens, 

 he is under the necessity of using a Gun, but in doing so, 

 We, the undersigned, have never heard of a single case of 

 poaching being brought against him, and, as far as we know, 

 he is not in the habit of killing Game of any sort, nor of de- 

 stroying property of any description, which, were he in the 

 practice of so doing, being so frequently out with his Gun, 



