2 DA VID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. i. 



own idea means " son of the grey-headed," but accord- 

 to another derivation, "son of the physician." It has 

 been surmised that the name may have been given to 

 some son of the famous Beatoun, who held the post of 

 physician to the Lord of the Isles. Probably Dr. Living- 

 stone never heard of this derivation ; if he had, he would 

 have shown it some favour, for he had a singularly high 

 opinion of the physician's office. 



The Saxon name of the family was originally spelt 

 Livingstone, but the Doctor's father had shortened it by 

 the omission of the final " e." David wrote it for many 

 years in the abbreviated form, but about 1857, at his 

 father's request, he restored the original spelling. 1 The 

 significance of the original form of the name was not with- 

 out its influence on him. He used to refer with great 

 pleasure to a note from an old friend and fellow-student, 

 the late Professor George Wilson of Edinburgh, acknow- 

 ledging a copy of his book in 1857 : — "Meanwhile, may 

 your name be propitious ; in all your long and weary 

 journeys may the Living half of your title outweigh 

 the other ; till after long and blessed labours, the white 

 stone is given you in the happy land." 



Livingstone has told us most that is known of his 

 forefathers ; how his great-grandfather fell at Culloden, 

 fighting for the old line of kings ; how his grandfather 

 could go back for six generations of his family before 

 him, giving the particulars of each ; and how the only 

 tradition he himself felt proud of was that of the old 

 man who had never heard of any person in the family 

 being guilty of dishonesty, and who charged his chil- 

 dren never to introduce the vice. He used also to 

 tell his children, when spurring them to diligence at 

 school, that neither had he ever heard of a Livingstone 

 who was a donkey. He has also recorded a tradition 

 that the people of the island were converted from being 



1 See Journal of Geographical Society, 1857, page clxviii. |i%jM| 



DSI 



