XXXI 
Glasgow, 1820-1840. 
During the twenty years of my father’s Glasgow residence 
his life was one of continuous but congenial labour. For the 
first fifteen years or so he gave only one course of lectures, 
from May 6 to the middle of July, in the Botanical Gardens ; 
but towards the end of his professorship a winter course was 
given in the College buildings. These and the examinations 
in botany for degrees were his only professional duties ; the 
rest of his time was devoted to his botanical studies, drawings, 
and publications, the increase and keep of his herbarium, and 
rapidly accumulating botanical correspondence. Except for 
short visits to London, Yarmouth, or the Highlands, botanizing 
with Greville or Arnott, and once to Paris, he rarely left 
home. He was at his desk with pen or pencil by 8 a.m., 
and never left it much before midnight. The late summer 
and autumn weeks were frequently passed with his family at 
watering-places on the Clyde, usually at Helensburgh, where 
he enjoyed the society of two neighbours of scientific tastes 
and culture, James Smith, Esq., F.R.S., of Jordan Hill 1 , and 
Lord John Campbell, afterwards Duke of Argyll, father of 
the late Duke, who inherited his parent’s scientific tastes. In 
1837 he purchased a cottage with an acre of ground, ‘ Inver- 
eck 2 ,’ near Kilmun, on the Holy Loch ; a lovely spot where 
he could indulge his fondness for gardening. In the touring 
season he received many English and foreign friends, who 
took Glasgow on their route for the Highlands, both to visit 
him and to avail themselves of his experience of roads, con- 
veyances, and accommodation. 
My father’s reputation as one of the foremost botanists in 
this country was confirmed by his success in the Glasgow 
Chair, and rapidly rose as his successive publications appeared. 
Very soon he had but one compeer in Great Britain, 
Dr. Lindley, for Robert Brown towered above both as 
4 Botanicorum facile princeps.’ It was a happy augury for 
1 Eminent as a geologist, and as author of The Voyage and Shipwreck of 
St. Paul. 
2 - The site of the cottage is now occupied by a castellated mansion in the Scottish 
style of architecture. 
