80 THE LIFE AND WORK OF GEORGE DON. 
His companions were readers, and met regularly to discuss books, 
politics, and general news in “Nanny Dagetty’s,” a small public- 
house in the East High Street, and there he sometimes surprised 
his comrades by coming in from some long expedition hungry 
and tired, and speedily clearing the table of all provisions. His 
comrades, drawn together by. a similarity of opinions, were 
sympathisers with the French Revolution and were losing heart 
at the form of religion as then taught in many Scottish pulpits. 
They were clear-headed and intelligent, and their testimony to 
Don’s qualities is complete and emphatic. Two letters from 
his friends which Mr. Knox has published bear this out, and the 
testimony is the more to be valued owing to the suggestions of 
moral turpitude by inaccurately recording plants which one or two 
botanists in later years have made against him, but which 
I trust the evidence produced in this article may do much to 
qualify. The first letter is from his friend William Roberts of 
Forfar to David Booth of Newburgh, and is dated Forfar, 
January 18, 1814. 
Dear Sir,—Mr. Rodger [a well-known Forfar lawyer] says he 
wrote you yesterday communicating the unpleasant news of the 
death of our friend George Don, but had omitted to request you to 
write a short sketch of this singular and celebrated botanical genius, 
and to cause a sketch to be published in one of the English diurnal 
newspapers. To stimulate you to this is my chief object in writing 
at present. A man of eminence in an art or science is entitled to 
notice, and when he leaves the world it argues a degree of inexcus- 
able insensibility to devote no attention whatever to his memory. 
George was not only a self-taught man of science, but he was our 
particular friend. I therefore expect that you who knew every trait 
of his character will not delay a moment in taking up your able 
pen to celebrate his memory. Your description will aid a bene- 
volent plan which a number of your acquaintances here have 
formed in behalf of the unhappy orphans left by our friend. Judge, 
then, how anxiously we will look for the effusion of your pen to 
departed genius and modest worth. 
George’s family consists of five sons and one daughter. The 
two elder sons, George and David, have studied botany under their 
father, and have made considerable proficiency, They know the 
greater part of the immense variety of plants in the botanical garden. 
The second son, David, is a fine boy of about sixteen years of age, 
