20 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. T. 



shall pay it a visit ; but you must not form any expectations, as 

 I am not disposed to part with much money in that way.' In 

 spite of the prudent warning, expectations were, no doubt, 

 formed and realized also. One of these ' curiosity shops' was 

 Mrs. Somerville's, in East Eegister Street ; where many a gather- 

 ing of pocket-money was expended on minerals and shells ; the 

 arrangement and naming of which were unfailing sources of 

 pleasure. But the tastes and habits that were then being de- 

 veloped, will be better illustrated by the following letter of the 

 same period : 



1 Tuesday, 24th August 1830. 



' DEAR DANIEL, I was very happy to hear you had begun 

 Botany. I forgot to mention in the letter I sent you that I got 

 the present of Bingley's Introduction to Botany, with coloured 

 engravings of trees, shrubs, flowers, leaves, roots, stems, and all 

 the other component parts of flowers. From it I learn the parts 

 of plants. On Thursday, Philip Eobert Maclagan and I went 

 out to Duddingston. We saw some beautiful dragon-flies. We 

 went on to Craigmillar, where we saw some pretty young foals 

 in a park. We returned home by Liberton, with our boxes 

 filled with plants. On Friday, we set off for Corstorphine ; but 

 falling in with some empty carts at the three-mile stone, we got 

 in, and rode past Corstorphine to a place called " Four Mile 

 Hill" (though it was six miles from Edinburgh). Eeturning, 

 we found a great many small frogs, some half-an-inch long, 

 others less ; we took them to a neighbouring ditch. They swam 

 very nimbly.- -I remain, your affectionate brother, 



' GEORGE WILSON.' 



" A letter of the same holiday time, addressed to his twin- 

 brother, John, records the marvel of ' a heifer exhibiting at 

 Calder, with two heads ; one the shape of a bull's, the other of 

 a cow's. The cow's head was liveliest, but it could eat hay with 

 both mouths. I have read of a sheep with two heads ; and, in- 

 deed, Mr. A. Maclagan saw it at Ayr.' Then follows an account 

 of an elephant which he had missed seeing, though his cousin 

 Catherine had been more fortunate in witnessing it perambulate 

 the streets, on its way to Leith, to take its passage to Newcastle ; 



