

MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. XI 



placed him in what for a man of his simple habits were inde- 

 pendent circumstances. Upon this he removed to Edinburgh, 

 where he stayed for several years, attending the ordinary classes 

 of the medical curriculum, and giving special attention to Botany 

 and Physiology. Just as he was going up for his examination 

 his health broke down, and he was not able to go up for his 

 degree ; and, as he did not wish to practice, he never took it. 

 After travelling about for some time he purchased, about 1835, a 

 small house (which he afterwards enlarged) with a pleasant 

 garden and orchard attached to it, a short distance south of the 

 village of Thames Ditton, a stone's-throw from the point where 

 the branch to Hampton Court leaves the main London and South 

 Western line ; and here he lived for the remainder of his life. 

 He never married, but was fortunate in that the same house- 

 keeper who came to him when he first settled down in a house of 

 his own remained with him for the whole forty- six years, and 

 nursed him through his last tedious illness. 



During his Edinburgh studentship he took great interest in 

 the lectures of Professor Graham, whom he accompanied in an 

 excursion into Sutherlandshire. Amongst his Edinburgh con- 

 temporaries who took special interest in Botany were Dr. Balfour, 

 Dr. Greville, Dr. Patrick Neill, Sir Walter Trevelyan, and Mr. 

 Embleton ; and in those early days when he first settled down 

 definitely into botanical work no one did more to help and 

 encourage him than Sir William Hooker, to whom Dr. Graham 

 gave him an introduction, who was then in full tide of his pro- 

 fessional career at Glasgow. He accompanied Sir William and 

 his class upon several of their Highland excursions, and dedi- 

 cated to him ' The New Botanist's Guide,' which he published in 

 1835. 



The following is what George Combe wrote of Mr. Watson 

 in 1846, when he was a candidate for one of the Professorships 

 in the four Queen's Colleges, then just established in Ireland : 

 " Mr. H. C. Watson became known to me nearly twenty years 

 ago, when he studied in this city, and my acquaintance with 



