1 66 HUTTONIAN THEORY 



to the outside world. Such a feud as that between the 

 Plutonists and Neptunists would be sure to furnish 

 abundant matter for the gratification of this propensity. 

 Turning over the pages of Kay's Portraits^ where so 

 much that was distinctive of Edinburgh society a 

 hundred years ago is embalmed, we find Hutton's 

 personal peculiarities and pursuits touched off in good- 

 humoured caricature. In one plate he stands with 

 arms folded and hammer in hand, meditating on the 

 face of a cliff", from which rocky prominences in shape 

 of human faces, perhaps grotesque likenesses of his 

 scientific opponents, grin at him. In another engraving 

 he sits in conclave with his friend Black, possibly 

 arranging for that famous banquet of garden-snails 

 which the two worthies had persuaded themselves to 

 look upon as a strangely neglected form of human food. 

 More than a generation later, when the Huttonists 

 and Wernerists were at the height of their antagonism, 

 the humorous side of the controversy did not escape 

 the notice of the author of W aver ley ^ who, you will 

 remember, when he makes Meg Dods recount the 

 various kinds of wise folk brought by Lady Penelope 

 Pennfeather from Edinburgh to St. Ronan's Well, 

 does not forget to include those who c rin uphill and 

 down dale, knapping the chucky-stanes to pieces wi' 

 hammers, like sae mony road-makers run daft, to see 

 how the warld was made.' 



Among the names of the friends and followers of 

 Hutton there is one which on this occasion deserves 

 to be held in especial honour, that of Sir James Hall, 

 of Dunglass. Having accompanied Hutton in some of 

 his excursions, and having discussed with him the 



