Sir W. Elliot on Denholm and its Vicinity. 323 



temperament, he shrank from the public exercise of his calling, 

 and it was not till several years after the completion of his 

 clerical studies that he reluctantly, at the solicitation of his 

 friends, applied to be licensed as a preacher in the national 

 church, when he was appointed to the newly established 

 parish of Teviothead, formed out of the parishes of Cavers 

 and Hawick. This step, which he took contrary to his own 

 better judgment, embittered the remainder of his days. The 

 public exercise of his sacred functions involved a constant 

 struggle with his retiring disposition, which not only marred 

 his success as a preacher, but led to the adoption of habits 

 which obliged him eventually to retire into private life. 



Like many other men of genius he mistook his calling. 

 Had he allowed free course to the original bent of his mind, 

 he would probably have earned a higher reputation and cer- 

 tainly achieved a greater amount of happiness. The interval 

 between the termination of his college career and his appoint- 

 ment to Teviothead was chiefly given to private tuition and 

 to the pursuit of natural history. He early took to the 

 study of botany, and was a favourite pupil of Dr. Graham, 

 whom he accompanied in many of his excursions. He next 

 turned his attention to entomology, and prepared a catalogue 

 of the Coleoptera near Edinburgh for the Wernerian Society, 

 which formed the basis of the "Entomologia Edinensis; 

 Coleoptera,"* still the standard local work on the subject, 

 which he brought out in conjunction with the late amiable 

 and talented James Wilson, who contributed the introduction 

 and notices of habits, but the nomenclature, arrangement and 

 description of species were almost wholly the work of Duncan. 

 After this he furnished Sir William Jardine with the seven 

 volumes of entomology included in the series of the Natural- 

 ists' Library, and treating of the Orthoptera, Coleoptera, 

 British Butterflies and British Moths, Foreign Butterflies, 

 Bees and Exotic Moths, with an introductory treatise and 

 biographies of the most eminent entomologists. f 



On his retirement from clerical duty, he returned with 

 renewed zest to his favourite pursuits and was employed on 

 various tasks by some of the first Edinburgh publishers, par- 

 ticularly by Blackwood and the Blacks. For the former he 

 ■wrote several articles on scientific agriculture, to three of which 

 the Highland Society awarded their gold medal, twice for his 



* Edin. Blackwood, 1834. 



t Vols. 1 to 7 of Entomology, forming vols. 33, 35, 39, 40, 36, 38, 37 of the 

 general series. 



