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of Edinburgh, Session 1876 - 77 . 
truth. Complaints have sometimes been made of his want of 
lucidity as a lecturer, but the fault here may have been rather on 
the part of the student than on the part of the professor; for where 
the mind has not been previously trained to processes of thinking, 
the most lucid exposition of doctrines which are speculative and 
abstract will fail of conveying to the hearer a clear and just concep- 
tion of the teacher’s meaning. Dr Laycock’s lectures were always 
thoughtful and instructive, and if they often required an effort of 
close attention and thought on the part of the student to appre- 
hend them, this was never rendered without great advantage to the 
student thence accruing. 
In outward manner Dr Laycock was somewhat cold and formal, 
and there was in his addresss what had the appearance, though 
slight, of hauteur. But under all this there lay an extreme kindli- 
ness of disposition, which manifested itself in many acts of gene- 
rous beneficence and tender sympathy. 
For some years before his death Dr Laycock’s health had begun to 
fail. In 1857 he had been visited with a threatening of phthisis; and 
though he seemed entirely to recover from this, the insidious malady 
continued lurking in his system. In 1866 disease of the left knee- 
joint rendered amputation of that limb necessary; and this gave a 
shock to his system from which he never wholly recovered. He was 
able, however, in the enjoyment of an apparently fair measure of 
health and strength, to continue his ordinary avocations and to fulfil 
his professorial functions up to the close of last winter session, when 
an accession of his old malady laid him aside. As the summer 
advanced pulmonary consumption gradually extended its ravages in 
his frame, and on the 21st of September he breathed his last. 
Dr Laycock became a Fellow of this Society in 1856, the year 
after his appointment to the Chair in the University. 
George Hay, Marquis of Tweeddale, was born at Yester House, 
on the 1st of February 1787 ; and succeeded his father as eighth 
marquis in 1804. In the same year he entered the army, and he 
was engaged in active service during the whole of the Peninsular 
War. He served as aid-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, by 
whom he was highly esteemed as a brave soldier and an able officer. 
He afterwards served in Canada. He was wounded at the battle of 
