CHAP. II.] GLENLAIR CHILDHOOD. 33 



by (at ten years old) to ride his pony after his father's 

 phaeton ; to learn from the men " how to pickfork the 

 sheaves into the cart," l to witness a ploughing-match, 

 to slide on the Urr in time of frost (January 7, 1841), 

 to leap ditches, to climb trees " of sorts," to see them 

 felled and " have grand game at getting upon them 

 when falling/' 1 to take wasps' nests on hot days in 

 July; 2 to blow soap bubbles and marvel at their chang- 

 ing hues ; to scramble up the bed of the eddying stream 

 that " flowed past the smiddy to the sea," and mark 

 the intricate tracery of holes and grooves which, in 

 rolling the shingle, it had worn and carved in the hard 

 rock; or to watch the same river in a " spate" rushing 

 and whirling over those " pots " which it had wrought, 

 and piling up the foam into mimic towers, like the 

 cumuli of the sky ; or to gaze into the wan water 

 when in a milder mood, and drink in the rich brown 

 colour tinged with green reflections from the trees; 

 such were some of his delights, as I may confidently 

 infer from what he loved to show me afterwards. For 

 in that constant soul the impression once made was that 

 which remained and went on deepening " as streams 

 their channels deeper wear." I well remember with 

 what feeling he once repeated to me the lines of Burns 



" The Muse, nae poet ever fand her, 

 Till by himsel he learn'd to wander ; 

 Adown some trottin' burn's meander, 

 An' no think lang." 3 



1 From a letter of J. C. M. to his aunt, Miss Cay, of 18th January 

 1840 (M,. 8J). 



2 At ten years old this animosus infans took four in one day. 



3 From the Epistle to William Simpson, the schoolmaster of Ochil- 

 tree, May 1785. 



D 



