A MEMOIR. II 



tic. At the same time his sister, Mrs. McDougal, says 

 that a utilitarian instinct was very marked all through" 

 his school-days, and relates that in the last six months 

 of his school life having a chance to take up Latin, 

 while he embraced the opportunity, he grumbled con- 

 siderably, because as he said, he could see no practical 

 use for it. 



His mother died when he was eight years old, and as 

 his father never married again, the boys, James and 

 Peter, were cared for by their sister. His elder brother, 

 Mr. James Henderson, who was an unusually popular 

 and genial man, died in J ersey City in 1 85 7 . Of the three 

 children bom to James Henderson of Pathhead, Mrs. 

 McDougal alone remains, a venerable and cultured lady, 

 now in her seventy-fifth year, of whom her illustrious 

 brother was wont to say, " that as long as he had known 

 her he had never heard her make an unkind remark of 

 any human being." 



The amusements of country lads in the south of Scot- 

 land at that date were limited, their spare time being 

 mostly spent in hunting for birds-nests and for the eggs 

 of jack-daws, (a small species of crow.) The ruins of 

 Crichtoun Castle, so graphically described by Sir Walter 

 Scott in his poem of Marmion, is but a short distance 

 from where Peter Henderson passed his boyhood's days. 

 " Crichtoun ! though now thy miry court, 



But pens the lazy steer and sheep, 



Thy turrets rude, and tottered Keep, 

 Have been the minstrel's loved resort. 

 Oft have I traced within thy fort, 



Of mouldering shields the mystic sense, 



Scutcheons of honor, or pretence. 

 Quartered in old armorial sort. 



Remains of rude magnificence." 



The old ruin was a great resort for jack- daws in his 

 time, and he was ever fond of telling of the dangerous 

 risks he and other youngsters ran in hunting there for 

 their nests. Another diversion out of which serious conse- 

 quences often flowed, were the battles with stones that 

 occurred between contending factions of the village lads. 



