The late Andrew Brotherston. 399 



Mr Brodrick joined the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, 

 September 20th 1843, and was President in 1850. His address 

 was delivered at the Anniversary Meeting held at Warkworth, 

 September 18th 1850. (See Club's Hist., iii., pp. 1-8). He 

 contributed a Notice to vol. ii., p. 278, "On a Specimen of the 

 Horned or Sclavonian Grebe, {Podiceps comutus), found near 

 Newton-by-the-Sea. 



Obituary Notice of the late Andrew Brotherston, Kelso. 

 By Mr Thomas Craig. 



It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the loss to the botany and 

 natural history of the Border district caused by the death of this 

 eminent but unpretentious votary of these sciences. His natural 

 aptitude for mastering them, the marvellous amount of accurate 

 knowledge he had acquired in all their departments, and the 

 readiness with which he could summon facts to his aid to 

 demonstrate a principle or illustrate his meaning lay, as it were, 

 on the surface of the man ; and the time and toil which he 

 cheerfully spent in gaining a field rather than a fireside 

 acquaintance with the vegetable and animal life of the district, 

 were only in keeping with the patient prosecution in other ways 

 of the studies in which he took keen delight. His thorough 

 knowledge of these sciences had become so well known, not only 

 in the district, but by many of the foremost men of the day, that 

 he was consulted on all hands ; and he was ever ready to place 

 his knowledge at the service of all, whether on simple and 

 elementary points, or on the more recondite and puzzling 

 questions which arose for discussion or settlement. He was a 

 native of the district he knew so well, and while he made nature 

 his chief study, he was far from being ignorant or indifferent 

 concerning its history, traditions, ballads, and poetry. 



His birth took place on the 28th March 1834, at a cottage 

 called Eccles Shiel, in Eccles parish, but the plough now passes 

 over its site. His parents soon after his birth removed to the 

 neighbouring village of Ednam, with which all his youthful 

 associations and recollections were connected. He attended the 

 parish school there, under the mastership of the late Mr J. G. 

 Smith, whose poetical productions gave him more than local 



