188 HIS CORRESPONDENCE. 



Wardie, where Edward Forbes died. South Cottage, 

 though only 200 yards from the sea, was quite 

 hidden by other dwellings, and as a low -roofed, 

 inconvenient and dingy residence, was quite unfit 

 for an invalid like Goodsir. In 1862 — and the fact 

 is mentioned to show that so late as that year, he 

 was still aiming at a life of labour, around which 

 greater domestic comfort should be associated — he 

 bought a feu, or bit of ground, at Wardie, to build 

 a house upon, and from which he could always com- 

 mand the sea. The house was to be based on new 

 architectural principles, and the designs given by 

 Goodsir interested Mr. Cousin, the city architect of 

 Edinburgh, exceedingly ; indeed, the designs were 

 nearly completed when his growing infirmities came 

 in the way and superseded all earthly constructions, 

 but the fame and honours attached to science. 



Professor Goodsir was in the habit of receiving 

 letters from every man of note in anatomy and the 

 natural sciences in Europe. He was viewed in an 

 amiable light by all of them, and not a few showed 

 him cordial friendship, if not the most confidential 

 intimacy. Considering his reluctance to the epistolary 

 form of writing — for he was a much worse example 

 than Talleyrand in the way of putting off his replies 

 from day to day and month to month — his cor- 

 respondence is strikingly curious as coming from all 

 sorts and conditions of men — e. g. Canongate artisans, 

 country surgeons, English and Irish naturalists, and 

 Scotch noblemen. The majority wrote him on ana- 



