XXIV LIFE OF 



Brodie saved him from farther embarrassment as a publisher. He 

 contributed several pieces, in prose and poetry, to the Glasgow 

 Magazine, and wrote " The Solitary Philosopher," % as a specimen, 

 for the Bee, under charge of Dr Anderson, hoping, by its merits, to 

 gain farther employment. The character of the singular being who 

 formed the subject of this memoir, — a "botanist, philosopher, 

 naturalist, and physician," is thus sketched ; and I have transcribed 

 a part, as I consider the intimacy of a young man with secluded 

 characters, possessing such eccentricities as the philosopher and 

 Tippenny Eobin, f must have cast their influence over his after 

 feelings, and laid the first shade in his love for seclusion. 



" On the side of a large mountain, in a little hut of his own rear- 

 ing, which has known no other possessor these fifty years, lives this 

 strange and very singular person. Though his general usefulness, 

 and communicative disposition, require him often to associate with 

 the surrounding rustics, yet, having never had an inclination to 

 travel farther than to the neighbouring village, and being totally 

 unacquainted with the world, his manners, conversation, and dress, 

 are strikingly noticeable. A little plot of ground that extends 

 round his cottage, is the narrow sphere to which he confines him- 



* Published first in the Bee, and afterwards in a " Collection of Ancient and 

 Modern Characters," printed at Paisley in 1805, p. 250. 



f This very eccentric character, whom Wilson had discovered during his 

 rambles, and frequently visited, was an Irishman, named Robert Carswell, 

 and received his nickname from the circumstance of his never accepting more 

 than twopence for a day's work, except during harvest, when he allowed it 

 to be doubled. He lived in a small thatched house, at the Kaim, on the 

 Calder ; but was very anxious to possess another dwelling, objecting to that 

 in which he lived, on account of a loft, which he said prevented his prayers 

 from reaching heaven. The inside was very dirty, filled with peats and 

 potatoes, and was never allowed to be swept, unless by himself. He had 

 hoarded up some money, which was kept in paper parcels, of a few shillings 

 each, generally scattered about the floor, and which, at his death, he bequeathed 

 to the parish poor. His dress was a plain plaiding doublet, the waist girt with 

 a rope of straw or tow, in the one side, of which was always hung the key of 

 his door, and in the other stuck a bountree sheath, for holding his knitting 

 wires. Notwithstanding these habits, he had received a better education, 

 could read and write, and possessed a considerable number of books : he 

 could also fence. He was a Cameronian ; and every Friday left his house 

 early for some wild elevated ground, carrying with him a creelful of books, 

 and remained abroad the whole day. 



