MEMOIR. 25 



In the year 1848 young Graham went on a visit to the Eev. 

 D. M'Vean, the Pree Church minister of the island of lona. 

 This visit extended far beyond what was originally intended, 

 and he remained for some years at this wild residence. He did 

 not pass the time in idleness. He devoted himself to boating 

 and wild-fowl shooting, and to a study of the antiquities of the 

 ancient church of St Columba, the crumbling remains of whose 

 monuments he rescued from oblivion in a work published by 

 him in 1850, containing faithful and carefully- drawn plates.^ 

 This work was dedicated to the Duke of Argyll, and was very 

 well received by antiquarians and by the public in general. 



He also devoted much attention to natural history, especially 

 to the ornithology of the western islands of Scotland. This led 

 to his corresponding with some naturalists, such as Sir William 

 Jardine and Mr "Wood of Yorkshire, and to his being made a 

 Corresponding Member of the Natural History Society of Glasgow, 

 for which society he wrote the letters now published after so 

 many years. 



Mr Graham's own words, quoted from his diaries of these 

 years, best describe his lona life : — 



"Came to lona on the 24th January 1848, after two days' 

 journey across Mull in a severe snowstorm. Arrived at the 

 Free Manse at night. For the first few days employed in sur- 

 veying the ruins and exploring the island. I almost immediately 

 began to take drawings of the tombstones to exhibit to friends 

 at home ; but I had not the least idea when commencing these 

 that they would ever have been engraved and brought before the 



^ Antiquities of lona. Day & Son, London. 1850. 



