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Obituary Notice of David Milne-Home, Esq., of Milne- 

 graden and Wedderburn, LL.D., V.P.R.S.E. By Ralph 

 Richardson, F.R.S.E, Edinburgh. 



Whilst Berwickshire saw the early labours of the Father of 

 Scottish Geology, James Hutton, it found in David Milne- Home 

 a man of science who worthily followed in Hutton's footsteps. 

 He was born at Inveresk near Edinburgh on 22nd January 

 1805, and was the eldest son of Admiral Sir David Milne, G.C.B. 

 Called to the Scottish bar in 1826, Mr Milne rose to be an 

 Advocate Depute, but he preferred the paths of science to those 

 of the Law ; and not long after his marriage to Miss Home, 

 heiress of large Berwickshire estates (when he assumed the 

 name of Milne- Home) he gave up the Bar, and devoted 

 himself to county business and his favourite scientific pursuits. 



In 1835 he contributed the first Prize Essay of the Highland 

 and Agricultural Society "On the Geology of Berwickshire."* 

 In this Essay he minutely describes the rocks occurring through- 

 out Berwickshire, and gives a Geological map of the county. 

 The beautifully finished maps of the Geological Survey of 

 Scotland are, of course, more elaborate and perfect, but Mr 

 Milne's Essay and map must be recognized as among the earliest, 

 and, for an amateur Geologist, most laudable attempts to survey 

 geologically a Scottish county. In this Essay he also enters into 

 the close relations between Agriculture and Geology, and 

 explains why "trap hills afford better pasture than the grcjwacke 

 (Silurian) hills," and why the Red sandstones produce excellent 

 crops, whilst the Carboniferous rocks are often marked by a bleak 

 and sterile soil. His Essay is thus additionally valuable as a 

 contribution to our knowledge of Economic Geology. He was 

 Chairman of the Highland Society's Standing Committee on 

 Geology, as well as a great landowner and Convener of the 

 county of Berwick. 



Mr Milne-Home's well-known paper on the " Mid-Lothian and 

 East-Lothian Coalfield" was read in 1837, and is printed in the 

 14th volume of the Transactions of the Royal Society of 

 Edinburgh. This Memoir met with the warm approval of that 

 eminent Edinburgh geologist, Charles Maclaren, and of the 



* Prize Essays and Transactions Highland Society, vol. xi. (1837). 



