THE GEKESEE FAEMER. 



153 



GRANT TH0RBT7EN. 



As a cotemporary well says, one can not but 

 confess a sensation of surprise at hearing of Gkant 

 Thorbuen's death. It is true he was very old 

 (ninety years), but he has been so active, and kept 

 liimself so continually 

 before the world by hia 

 pen — had, in fact, be- 

 come such a fixture in 

 the present age, that we 

 had half forgot that ho 

 was mortal. Now peo- 

 ple meet at the street 

 corners and say, "Well, 

 the old man has gone 

 at last I He was a live 

 man in his day"— and 

 80 he was: a cannie 

 Scot, full of shrewd hu- 

 mor, deep penetration, 

 and an ambition to be 

 something more than a 

 mere stick in the world. 



The London Journal 

 of Horticulture gives 

 the following sketch of 

 Grant Thorburn, " the 

 real Lawrie Todd." 



It was somewhere 

 about the year 1833 or 

 1884, that we met in 

 the quadrangle of Edin- 

 burgh University a wee _ 

 wee man, about 4 feet ,^ 

 10 inches high, clothed ^ 

 in very long garments, '^ 



the skirts of which 

 reached to his ankles, 

 and a very low-crown- 

 ed and very broad- 

 brimmed hat upon his 

 head. His feet, like the 

 brim of his bat, were 

 out ot all proportion to 

 his body, for they were 

 very large and very 

 long ; but beneath that 

 broad brim there shone 

 a beaming countenance, 

 full of intelligence, be- 

 nignity and playful hu 

 mor. It needed not to 

 have his name announc 

 ed, for the world had 

 been made familiar with his 



portrait through 

 Fraserh Magazine, and we had no difficulty in at 

 once recognising the living image of Grant Thor- 



BURN. 



• Our woodcut is a faithful portrait of that origi- 

 nal, and we learned that he was the model fi'om 



whom Gait sketched his "Lawrie Todd." That 

 sketch by no means pleased the model ; it contain- 

 ed, he says, "scraps and mutilated extracts" of his 

 history, and, as he proceeds, "1 have always found 

 that whatever business was laid to my hand, was 

 best done when I attended to it myself:" there- 

 fore, " I think I owe it 

 to myself to state the 

 simple truth ;" and we 

 owe Grant Thorburn 

 no merely customary 

 thanks for having paid 

 that which he consid- 

 ered a debt due to him- 

 self, for he has left 

 more than one most 

 amusing and most iu- 

 structive record how 

 he, an emigrant nailer, 

 "landed on Governeur's 

 "Wharf, New York, with 

 only tln-ee cents in his 

 pocket, and his nail- 

 hammer in bis hand, 

 and rose to have a 

 seedsman's establish- 

 ment tlie most exten- 

 sive in America." This 

 suggests tlie inquiry, 

 How was it brought 

 about?" We will en- 

 deavor to show in his 

 own words. 



" I was born in Dal- 

 keith on the 18th of 

 February, 17Y3. My 

 fatlier was poor, (some 

 are cursed with rich 

 fathers,) honest and in- 

 dustrious, and by trade 

 a nail-maker. He was 

 a very strict Scotch 

 Presbyterian, a Cove- 

 nanter, and like his 

 neighbor and proto- 

 type, Davie, the father 

 of Jeannie Deans, an 

 Iionest man. Our cot- 

 tage stood within two 

 miles of Davie Dean's 

 farm, within three of 

 the Laird of Dumbie- 

 dike's mansion," im- 

 mortalized in the 

 " Heart of Mid-Lothi- 

 an." 



g over the inci- 

 his youth, and 

 erged upon man- 

 hood, he relates, "In 

 tlie ye.fir 1792, when the 

 French Revolution had 

 fairly commenced, .and the pulpit and press were 

 teeming with Reform, I joined the S<icieties of 

 what were then called the ' Friends of the People,' 

 and in London were termed ' The Corresponding 

 Societies,' whose ostensible motive was to obtain 

 the reform of parliament by a more equal repre- 





