306 The Naturalist of Cumbrae. 



neat-handedness, as are all your mountings. I fear 

 it would be hopeless to attempt to get them made by 

 a manufacturer." 



A little earlier he had written to the same effect : 



" I break the tenth commandment horribly when I 

 see your ' type ' slides. I am afraid I cannot get 

 them made for money. I have not the skill to make 

 them myself. Could you spare me a dozen ready 

 prepared that I could use in these Valorous things, 

 if so, I should be extremely obliged." 



It may here be properly and conveniently stated, 

 that, if comparatively few quotations, or in some 

 cases none at all, are drawn from the voluminous 

 correspondence which at different periods Robertson 

 carried on with George Stewardson Brady, Alfred 

 Merle Norman, W. Percy Sladen ; with H. W. Cross- 

 key and Henry John Carter ; with Dr. Thomas 

 Wright, of Cheltenham, and T. Rupert Jones ; with 

 Henry Brady, Gwyn Jeffreys, and Dr. John Murray, 

 of the Challenger, and with many others, including the 

 present biographer ; the chief reason is that the letters 

 preserved are for the most part filled with details 

 of natural history inquiry and research, which have 

 either been since utilized in print, or which could 

 not without too elaborate an explanation be made 

 intelligible and entertaining to the general reader. 



It seems to have been ever with Robertson, not so 

 much a point of honour and of courtesy, as a matter 

 of course to answer letters with business-like punctu- 

 ality and unreserved frankness. 



The story goes that some years ago a prelate in 



