27 
which, had no plot to speak of, which were at times even a mere 
thread of extravagance, hut in which the characters were so felici- 
tously sketched with touches of such kindly humour, that they 
themselves could only have joined heartily in the mirth which they 
evoked. For this was a marked feature of his genius ; there was 
not a drop of gall in it. If he saw all the oddities of a Glasgow 
bailie, an Airdrie miner, a Paisley shopkeeper, a Highland gillie or 
drover, or minister, “ he handled them as if he loved them,” and, 
* 
indeed, he did like them all the better for the flavour of individual 
character they had. 
I would not be understood as anywise undervaluing his artistic 
powers, which were of no mean order, but they certainly would 
have attained a still higher rank had his canvas been covered with 
many figures representing the men who lived so vividly in his 
stories, and reflecting the dramatic lights in which he could have 
placed them. Most likely this was at first prevented by the res 
angusta domi, and when easy times came his role was already 
determined for him. So he went on painting portraits — many 
of them ; and making warm friends — many of them, too. Art 
naturally drew to him Macculloch, Sam Bough, Brodie, and 
others ; and his rare social qualities as naturally associated him 
with Outram, Glassford Bell, and Herman MacLeod. Brighter 
evenings there were not in all Scotland than those which 
brought together the authors of the Annuity and Billy Buttons 
and Daniel Macnee — and the brightest of them all was Macnee. 
He was the last of them, too, and perhaps this fact, that he had 
been left alone by these, his dearest friends, made him more willing 
at last to leave Glasgow, and take up the burden of the Presidency, 
even when his own health began to be uncertain. 
How he discharged those duties, and commended himself to all 
bis brother artists by hearty kindness and frank recognition of their 
several powers — how he also interested himself in the meetings and 
business of our Boyal Society — how he soon became as valued a mem- 
ber of general society in Edinburgh as he had been in Glasgow ; 
— -all this is known to you all, and all the more is our sorrow that 
bis stay among us was so brief. 
