Flowers and Refinement. 267 



island in the midst of an unsavoury pool, where the 

 .pigs as a rule, and frequently the donkey and cows, if 

 they have any, are fellow lodgers with the family, 

 and where floral decorations seem to be unknown. 

 Yet in this state it must be said they are little more 

 than one step below the peasantry in many parts of 

 Scotland." 



He observes that the peasantry in the Isle of Man 

 take great delight in the tidy appearance of their 

 houses, adorning them inside and out with flowers, 

 and from his varied experience he inclines to draw 

 the general conclusion that a taste for flowers is 

 rarely, if ever, to be found in combination with dirt 

 and slovenliness. 



It was on one of his earlier visits to Ireland that he 

 stayed in Belfast. Two or three years previously 

 Gwyn Jeffreys had been staying a couple of days 

 with him in Glasgow, looking over his shells and 

 visiting some of the post-tertiary deposits in the 

 neighbourhood. Gwyn Jeffreys then advised him, if 

 ever he was in Belfast, to call on a Mr. Stewart, a 

 saddler, and see his collection of shells. 



When in Belfast, Robertson remembered the advice, 

 but could not recall the name of Stewart. 



" Believing," he says, " that there could not be many 

 saddlers in the town, and that there could be little 

 difficulty in finding him, I engaged a clever * young 

 man, who professed to know the town well, to take 

 me to all the saddlers, till I came to the one I wanted. 

 After calling on them all, I found no one of them had 

 done anything with shells, nor did they know anyone 



* Handy or suitable. 



