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of Edinburgh, Session 1870 - 71 . 
her husband a letter containing a written promise to have the ruin 
protected from further injury; which letter he handed over to the 
secretary of the Society of Antiquaries. 
Professor Simpson made several visits to Northumberland, to 
examine the sculptured rocks at Old Bewick, Doddington, 
and Boughting Linn, as well as to inspect the excavations of 
the British forts, dwellings, and sepulchres on Yevering Bell, 
among the Cheviot Hills. On one of these occasions, he joined a 
meeting of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club—of which club he 
was a member; but not being able to keep up with the party, 
walking through long wet brackens, and over rough moorland, he 
borrowed a horse. Not being a good rider, he soon came to grief, 
in a bog which had to be crossed. The horse finding himself 
sinking, reared, and tumbled the Professor into the mud, out of 
which he was extricated, with some difficulty, and to the no small 
detriment of garments. After getting through the bog, he valiantly 
mounted again, glad to have that method of reaching the top of 
one of the highest of the Cheviots. 
One of the archaeological topics on which Professor Simpson wrote 
an interesting paper, was a history of the Oratory on the island of 
Inchcolm. I understand that he had collected materials for a simi¬ 
lar account of all the islands of the Firth of Forth—on most of 
which there are still traces of ancient ecclesiastical edifices. I 
know also, that he had begun to write an account of the Roman 
Wall, extending between the Firths of Forth and Clyde, as he once 
spoke to me on the subject, wishing to know my opinion of Mr 
Gleikie’s theory, that this district of Scotland had risen twenty 
or thirty feet out of the sea, since the wall was erected. It is to 
be hoped that if his MSS. on these subjects are found, they will 
be put into a proper form for publication. 
Animal Magnetism , Mesmerism , and Biology , were subjects, 
which at an early period, he studied; and for a time he was much 
impressed with the phenomena :—so much so indeed, that he used 
to hold “seances” in his own house, and show that he himself 
possessed a certain strange power over others. I have heard of 
his even performing in the houses of his friends, at evening 
parties,—when selecting some one, whom by a mere glance he 
discovered to be particularly nervous or sensitive, he would show 
