vi.J PROFESSORUL LIFE. 149 



Dumfriesshire and Kirkcudbright, of which there remains 

 a diary written in a lighter and more frolicsome vein 

 than was usual with him. Having no glaciers or other 

 great object to study, he amused himself with noting the 

 peculiarities or follies of the natives he met. 



On going to visit the mausoleum of Burns in the 



st kirkyard of Dumfries, he notes : 

 ' If there is anything characteristic in Dumfries, it is 

 the sepulchral magnificence with which the churchyard 

 alxnmds. Scarce a tailor can die without leaving his 

 sure for a stately monument. The only gradation of 

 rank acknowledged in the cemetery is the geological dis- 

 tinction of the primitive granite, which rises over the 

 e of the border chief, and the modern spongy red 

 1 stone, which not less strikingly and more gaudily 

 covers a clockmaker, Mr. - , who was one of the chief 



ites in the year 18 .' 



Again, in journeying up Nithsdale, when they slept at 



Dun score, he notes : ' We had tea, but mine host had 



,iken of something stronger, for he slapped me on 



the back, and was sure that if we came from Edinburgh 



I must be travelling in the grocery line, and be perfectly 



minted with Mr. Brown, the Leith tobacconist 



Bending his best care on us and on our steed, 

 >e mouth he affectionately wiped with his pocket 

 .kerchief, he reluctantly let us go/ 

 In Nithsdalr he amused himself besides with watching 

 meeting of the graywackr and red sandstone. 



journal throughout is written in a more jocular 

 usual with him, here and there forsaking 

 prose narrative for comical verse, like the following : 



The banks of the Xith are both fertile and green, 

 An-1 haymakers merry on all nicies were * -eon. 

 at i I'ul riittsi.nr.s nowhere one can see 

 tho-f \\lii. li has built for his fancy, 



I ile in excellent style; 

 So, paxftinjr the Castle, we drove for a mile, 



r Shaw, 

 at had iiiccetM'c"! in finding the law 



