MEMOIR OP DR. WALKER. 
49 
During the whole of his incumbency at Moffat, 
he was under the necessity of keeping house in 
Edinburgh, and enjoyed much the literary social 
parties, which if not more frequent in those days 
than after, were yet of a fashion somewhat different 
from those of later times. Lord Karnes had his 
morning levees; Lord Monboddo, in imitation of 
the ancients, had his learned suppers ; these he held 
once a fortnight during the sitting of the Session, 
and at them Dr. AValker was a frequent guest, along 
with Drs. Black, Hutton, and Hope. Even after 
his presentation to Colinton, Dr. Walker kept up 
his Edinburgh establishment, though he was oftener 
and longer a lodger at his manse, from its nearness 
to town and the attractions of a fine garden. 
As might naturally have been expected, one great 
source of delightful amusement to the Doctor was 
horticulture ; and both the gardens of Moffat manse 
and of Colinton bore ample testimony, in the rarity 
of their plants and the beauty of their arrangements, 
to his taste ; but his successors in each, preferring 
the utile to the duke, delved up the rarities, and 
planted, in their stead, turnip and carrot, kale and 
potatoes. r> 
“ Eheu ! fugaces postliume posthunc 
Labuntur horti !” 
He married, late in life, Jane Wallace Wauchope, 
a sister of Mr. Wauchope of Niddry, who had also 
passed her meridian. For many years Mrs. Walker 
was in good health, and added much to the Doctor s 
enjoyment of life ; at a late period, she was afflicted 
D 
