18 
MEMOIR OF DR. WALKER. 
This predilection was confirmed and directed by 
Sutherland’s “ Hortus Edinburgensis,” published in 
the year 1684. The author is thus characterised by 
Bishop Nicholson, in his “ Scottish Historical Li- 
brary," “ The best advances in botany made in 
Scotland are owing to the extraordinary shill and 
industry of Mr. James Sutherland, the present 
worthy overseer of the Royal and Physic Gardens 
at Edinburgh, whose happy labours and settlement 
in that city are justly registered among the many 
and great benefits for which she will ever be in- 
debted to the memory of Sir Andrew Balfour and 
Dr. Walker mentions this performance “ as a book 
I have some respect for, as it was the first on 
botany I ever perused, when ten years old: con- 
taining a catalogue both considerable and accurate 
for that period.” 
From the Canongate liigh-school he was sent to 
the university, to prosecute that course of study 
prescribed by the Church of Scotland to candidates 
for the sacred ministry within her pale. While 
engaged in these preparatory labours, about the year 
1750, bis attention was attracted by the museum of 
Sir Andrew Balfour, the sight of which first inspired 
him with an attachment to natural history that 
operated powerfully upon his mind and future pur- 
suits, and which he never lost. 
It is melancholy to relate the fate of a museum 
that had cost the collector forty years of unremitted 
attention, and which, after his death, had been de- 
posited in the hall of the old college of Edinburgh, 
