/i E R K e I E Y

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF V CALIFORNIA

LIFE

OF

SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON.

VOL. I.

y by fic/cersg til, R A. fry ramtfy Joseph- J3,

LIFE

OF

SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON

BART. ; K.C.B., F.B.S. ; SOMETIME DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

BASED ON HIS JOURNALS AND LETTERS

WITH NOTICES OF HIS SCIENTIFIC CONTEMPORARIES AND A SKETCH OF THE RISE AND GROWTH OF PALEOZOIC GEOLOGY IN BRITAIN

BY AECHIBALD GEIKIE, LL.D., F.KS.

DIRECTOR OF H.M. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF SCOTLAND, AND MURCHISON PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.

IN TWO VOLUMES— VOL. I.

Ellustratetr foitfj portraits anS SSEoolicuts

LONDON

JOHN MUREAY; ALBEMAELE STREET

1875.

Right of translation reserved.

EAR7T

CClENCi

UBRAF

PREFACE.

COMPARED with, foregoing periods of history, the nineteenth century has been marked by the extent and rapidity of its social transitions. These must undoubtedly be ascribed in great measure to the strides made by the physical sciences. Without claiming for Geology any prominent share in them, we may yet contend that this branch of science has done much to open out those wider views of nature and of man's place here, which have so powerfully influenced the tone and tendency of human thought and speculation at the present time. So that the history of a man who was a conspicuous actor in the drama of the establishment of Geology, as a science, may possess more than a merely individual interest.

The life of Sir Roderick Murchison was cast in this time of notable transition. Living on terms of intimacy with not a few of the leading men of his day, he himself bore a part in the leavening of the community with an appreciation of the nature and

294

vi PREFACE.

value of science. For many years he was in the habit of keeping a record of the events which he witnessed, or in which he took part. In the belief that the story of his life might have some interest and usefulness for those who should succeed him, he used now and then during his later years to de- vote his spare hours to the task of reading over his early journals, and superintending their transcrip- tion in whole or in abstract under his own eye. In the course of time a goodly series of closely- written volumes grew under the hand of the amanu- ensis, but their author at length perceived that their details could hardly possess sufficient interest for general readers. In the spring of 1871 he pro- posed to me that I should undertake the task of reducing his memoranda into a connected narrative.

Having accepted the office of biographer, I found that, in addition to the journals, there existed a vast mass of miscellaneous letters and papers going back even into last century. It appeared that Sir Roderick for many years of his life never destroyed any piece of writing addressed to him, — notes of invitation to dinner, and acceptances of invitations given by himself, being abundant among the papers.

To these materials, through the kindness of his friends and correspondents, to all of whom sincere

PREFACE. vii

thanks are due, I was subsequently enabled to add a large series of his own letters.

From the first it appeared likely that no narrative devoted merely to the personal events of Sir Roderick Murchison's life would be satisfactory. And as the work of arranging the voluminous mate- rials proceeded, the desirability of adopting a wider treatment became increasingly evident. His life, closely bound up with the early progress of geology in this country, was one of work and movement. Duly to follow its stages, the surroundings among which it was passed must be constantly kept in view, — notably his comrades, their work, and its relation to his own. Accordingly I deemed it best, while keeping his story prominently before the reader, to give an outline of so much at least of these surroundings as would probably show with adequate distinctness what Murchison was, and what he did. With this view I have sketched some of the more salient features in the rise and growth of the geology of the older formations in Britain, including, at the same time, notices of Murchison's predecessors and contemporaries in the same branch of science. Obviously, however, even such a general outline as was alone admissible into a work like the present could not be continued into the later

viii PREFACE.

years when Murchison ceased to be the same pro- minent worker he had previously been, and when his labours were taken up and extended by others. To this historical aspect of the book, I believed that some additional interest might be given by a selection of portraits of some of the more conspicuous men to whom the establishment and spread of geology in Britain is due, more especially with reference to the study of the older rocks. Some difficulty was necessarily encountered in making the selection, arising in some cases from the want of available materials for the engraver, in others from the limited number of portraits admissible compared with that of the geologists deserving such recognition. Greenough, Fitton, and Lonsdale, for example, among the earlier luminaries, might have been most appropriately included in the list here given. To the friends who have supplied the paintings, drawings, and photographs from which this little gallery of scientific worthies has been engraved, my best acknowledgments are gladly given.

Of Murchison's early contemporaries who outlived him, and from whom assistance was received in the preparation of his biography, two of the most illustrious have since been removed by death.

PREFACE. ix

Sir Charles Lyell furnished a series of letters on geological topics written to him by Murchison. Professor Phillips, besides supplying a large and most interesting collection of letters, which proved of great service in the preparation of the biography, kindly sent some memoranda of his own, which will be found incorporated in the book. To Mr. Poulett Scrope I am indebted for some interesting and useful notes respecting some of the older geologists of this country.

My friend and colleague, Professor A. C. Ramsay, has laid me under much obligation by the notes and suggestions sent by him as he read over the proof-sheets, and which are incorporated into the text or embodied here and there in footnotes. To Mr. John Murray, Mr. K. R. Murchison, Mr. Tren- ham Reeks, and Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., my thanks are likewise owing for a similar revision.

For the loan of letters written by Sir Roderick Murchison, acknowledgment is further due to Mr. Aveline, His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly, M. Barrande, Dr. Corbet, Lady Denison, Sir Charles Dilke, Sir Philip De Grey Malpas Egerton, Bart. ; Professor George Forbes, who supplied letters written to his father, Principal Forbes ; Professor Johnstrup of Copenhagen, who sent a series of letters

x PREFACE.

addressed to the late Professor Forchhammer ; Cap- tain Grant, Professor Harkness, Professor Hughes, who furnished the letters written to Sedgwick; Professor Huh1, Major-General Sir Henry James, Mr. Martin, Mr. Hugh Miller, who procured a series of letters written to his father ; Mr. K. R. Murchison, Mr. Murray, Mr. Lyon Playfair, C.B., M.P. ; Professor Ramsay, Rev. Mr. Symonds, Mr. Todhunter, from whom came the letters addressed to Dr. Whewell.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

ANCESTRY— SCHOOL-DAYS, 1

CHAPTER II.

FIRST YEARS OF A SOLDIER'S LIFE, . . . .16

CHAPTER III. SIX MONTHS OF THE PENINSULAR WAR, . . . .23

CHAPTER IV. MILITARY LIFE AT HOME, 55

CHAPTER V. ITALY AND ART, 73

CHAPTER VI. FIVE YEARS OF FOX-HUNTING, 88

CHAPTER VII.

RISE OF GEOLOGY IN BRITAIN, . .96

xii CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

CHAPTER VIII.

PAGE

FIRST YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC LIFE AT HOME, . . .117

CHAPTER IX.

FIRST GEOLOGICAL RAIDS INTO THE CONTINENT, . .146

CHAPTER X. THE INVASION OF GRAUWACKE, 172

CHAPTER XI. THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, AND SOCIAL LIFE IN LONDON, 193

CHAPTER XII. THE SILURIAN SYSTEM, 216

CHAPTER XIII.

THE DEVONIAN SYSTEM, 244

CHAPTER XIV.

A GEOLOGICAL TOUR IN NORTHERN RUSSIA, . . .289

CHAPTER XV.

CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN RUSSIA, AND THE URAL MOUN- TAINS, 315

CHAPTER XVI.

THE CHAIR OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, . . .358

LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS IN VOL. I.

PORTRAIT OF SIR RODERICK MURCHISON, from a Por- trait by Pickersgill, Frontispiece.

TARRADALE, ROSS-SHIRE, Sir Roderick Murchison's Birth- place, tofacepage 10

JAMES BUTTON, M.D., from a Portrait by Sir Henry Rae-

bum, in the possession of Sir George Warrender, Bart., „ 98

PROFESSOR ROBERT JAMESON, from a Miniature in the

possession of Dr. Claud Muirhead, Edinburgh, . . „ 108

REV. WILLIAM D. CONYBEARE, from a Photograph in the

possession of the Family, „ 115

WILLIAM HYDE WOLL ASTON, M.D., from a Drawing by

Sir Thomas Lawrence, „ 129

REV. PROFESSOR ADAM SEDGWICK, from a Photograph, „ 138

WILLIAM SMITH, LL.D., from the engraving of the Portrait

by Foureau, „ 190

JOHN MACCULLOCH, M.D., from a Portrait by R. B.

Faulkner, „ 202

PROFESSOR JOHN PLAYFAIR, from a Picture by Sir Henry

Raeburn, „ 225

REV. PROFESSOR WILLIAM BUCKLAND, from a Sketch

by Thomas Sopwith, Esq., „ 309

CHAPTEE I.

ANCESTRY SCHOOL-DAYS.

A MONG the Western Highlands of Scotland there is no •*-•"•• wilder tract than that which stretches between the Kyles of Skye and the line of the Great Glen. From the margin of the western sea the ground rises steeply into rugged mountains, which slope away eastward through many miles of rough moorland into the very heart of the country. The bold Atlantic front of these mountains is trenched by deep and narrow valleys, of which the upper parts rise above the sea-level into dark and rocky glens, the lower portions sink- ing under the water and forming the characteristic sea-lochs or fjords of that region. In the shelter of these hollows, alike in the glens, and as an irregular selvage along the margins of the lochs, lie strips of arable land with farm- houses and the cots of the peasantry; but all above and around are the wild rough hills, shrouded for great part of the year in mist, and catching the first dash of the fierce western rains, which seam their sides with foaming torrents. Even now, with all the appliances of modern travel, these tracts of Lochalsh and Kiutail are little known, except in so VOL i. A

2 SIR RODERICK MURCHISON.

far as they can be seen from the sea, or from the few good roads which have been made through them. But some five or six generations back they were to all intents as remote from the civilisation even of the Scottish Lowlands as if they had lain in the heart of Eussia. No roads led across them then. They could be traversed only by bridle-tracks, too little trodden to be always easily traced among the bogs and crags over which they lay. Notwithstanding the noble inlets which bring the tides of the Atlantic far into these wilds, there was then but little navigation, even of the simplest kind. Save the boats used in ferrying the lochs and in fishing, almost the only vessels ever seen were the smacks and cutters which from time to time smuggled ashore brandy and claret for the lairds.

Over this wild region the chiefs of the clan Mackenzie had for a long while held sway — a fierce and warlike race, exemplifying on their territory the curiously mingled merits and defects of the old Highland patriarchal system. In their midst, however, lay one or two smaller septs, some- times in league with the dominant clan, sometimes in open arms on the side of their surrounding enemies. One of these septs went by the name of Mhurachaidh or Macmhurachaidh, that is, Murdoch or Murdochson, or, as it is now corrupted, Murchison. The first of the family must have been a Murdoch. Who he was, however, where he came from, and what he did to distinguish himself from the other abounding Murdochs of that part of Scotland, are questions to which no satisfactory answer seems now possible. . Perhaps he was one of the Mackenzies, or more probably of the Mathiesons, or clan Malghamna, who possessed these tracts before the Mackenzies, and among whom Murdoch was a frequent

ANCESTRY. 3

name.1 He may have been noted above his fellows for some characteristic, so that his posterity came to be called after him.

In the early part of the sixteenth century we find the Murchisons in possession of land in Kintail. In the year 1541, Evin M'Kynnane Murchison was proprietor of Bun- chrew when he obtained a remission from James v. for having taken an active part, together with some of his neigh- bours, in burning the castle of Eilandonan, the stronghold of the Mackenzies, at the mouth of Loch Duich. It has been conjectured by a friendly genealogist, that for such deeds the sept received the soubriquet of " Chalmaon," or " brave ;" and that this title led to their being confounded with certain M'Colmans of Argyleshire.2 There must at least have been a wonderful versatility about the race, for not many years after the raid on the Mackenzies, when the Reformation had already made way through the country, the churches of Kintail, Lochcarron, and Lochalsh were in peaceable possession of different members of the family.3

In the following century (16"34) the Murchisons appear on the Eoss-shire rent-roll as holding land in Lochalsh, of which they had obtained charters from the Crown. By this time,

1 This suggestion has been made to me by Mr. W. F. Skene, who adds that " the small septs are often the remnants of the older popula- tion."

2 In the North-West Highlands the Murchisons are called in Gaelic M'Colman, and have been traced by some genealogists to an origin in Argyleshire, where a sept of that name occurs. The family traditions, however, insist on a more northern origin, as stated in the text.

3 In 1574, James vi. presented John Murchesoun " to the haill com- moun kirk, baith parsonage and vicarage, of Kintail." In 1582 the same King presented Donald Murcheson to the same church, then vacant by the demission of John Murcheson, and Master Murdo Murcheson to the parsonage of Lochalsh and Lochcarron. — Register of Great Seal. For these references I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Skene.

4 SIR RODERICK MURCHISON.

too, they seem to have settled their differences with the Mackenzies of Seaforth, for they then held rank as hereditary castellans of that same Eilandonan stronghold which about a hundred years earlier they had assisted to demolish.

It is not, however, until the troublous times of 1715 that any member of the Murchison sept comes notably forward in Highland history. Up till that period the people of these wilds remained under the same clan-system which had prevailed from the earliest times. The word of their chiefs was their law, and they had but a feeble notion of any higher rule or greater authority outside the dominions of the clan. While this ancient obedience and attachment con- tinued on the part of the vassals, the chiefs themselves were more or less influenced by somewhat similar feelings towards the old line of the Stuarts. A new race of sovereigns had been installed by Southern and Saxon hands. It was re- garded by these mountaineers with distrust and fear. They had no great cause to look back with satisfaction to their treatment under the sway of the fallen house. But there appeared more risk than ever of molestation from the new and alien rulers ; and so, partly from loyalty to the Stuarts, and partly from distrust of the Hanoverian dynasty, there existed at this time among the Highlanders a wide-spread disaffection and longing for a restoration.

At last these feelings found vent in open insurrec- tion, and the outbreak of 1715 began. Among the chiefs who appeared in arms came the Earl of Seaforth, head of the Mackenzie clan. With him marched a gallant company of Murchisons, including two of note, John and Donald, uncle and nephew, the former bearing a commission in the Prince's army, and bringing with him all the men he

ANCESTRY. 5

could muster in Lochalsh, the latter holding rank as colonel, his commission having been sent over by the Pretender himself in a quaint large ivory " snuff-mull," inscribed with the words " JAMES EEX. FOKWARD AND SPAEE NOT." l

Among those who fell in the disastrous battle of Sheriff - muir was the great-grandfather of the subject of this bio- graphy. Colonel Donald, however, made good his escape, and soon afterwards appeared in his native district, where, amid narrow inlets and bays, rough glens and lonely moors, he could bid defiance to the conquerors.

Donald Murchison was certainly one of the most remark- able Highlanders of his day.2 Bred a lawyer at Edinburgh, he united to the usual warlike virtues of the clansman a shrewdness and knowledge of the world, which gave him considerable influence as the agent and friend of the Earl of Seaforth. After the battle of Sheriffmuir, when the Earl went into exile in France, Donald appears to have gone back to the mountains of Kintail. Doubtless, in 1719, he took his share in the rude fortifying of Eilandonan Castle, of which, as we have seen, his family had been here- ditary castellans, and saw with dismay its walls battered to pieces by the guns of three English war -vessels. Nor was he likely to be absent from his chief when the luckless expedition of Spanish auxiliaries and Highlanders, marching eastward for the invasion of the country, encamped in Glen-

1 This box was in the possession of Sir Roderick up to the time of his death, and is now one of the family heirlooms in the keeping of his nephew and heir, Mr. K. R. Murchison. It forms a conspicuous feature in the picture of " Donald Murchison gathering Seaforth's rents in Kin- tail," painted for him by Sir Edwin Landseer, and bequeathed by him to the National Gallery at Edinburgh.

* For an account of him see Chambers's Domestic Annals of Scotland, vol. iii.

6 SIR ROBERT MURCHISON.

shiel. Seaforth escaped wounded, and Donald was not among the prisoners.

The Seaforth estates were forfeited, but they lay in so remote and inaccessible a region that the Commissioners of the Forfeited Estates only in 1721 were able to procure a factor bold enough to march westward to take possession of them. Donald Murchison, however, had been intrusted with their keeping by him whom he and all the native popu- lation still regarded as the rightful laird. Hearing of the approach of the new factor with a body of the King's troops, he attacked them as they toiled through one of the savage glens of the district, and not only stopped their further pro- gress, but compelled the factor to give a bond of £500 that he would never again attempt to carry out his duties in that quarter. That he might have additional sanction for his own proceedings, Donald even extorted authority from the unfortunate official to act as deputy-factor for the Com- missioners of Forfeited Estates, so that he could draw his rents for the Earl either as the agent of the one Government or of the other, as might be needful in each case.

Again, in the following year, a still larger party of sol- diers made another attempt to gain possession of the rebel- lious country. But once more Donald proved himself not unworthy of the colonel's commission and the ivory snuff- mull. By a clever piece of strategy he discomfited this new invasion, and forced it to retire to its starting-place at Inverness.

For ten years Donald Murchison administered the Sea- forth estates. Even after his successful resistance to the royal troops, such was his boldness that he would go per- sonally to Edinburgh to see after the proper transmission

ANCESTRY. 7

of the rents to the banished and attainted Earl. General Wade, in reporting to George I. in 1725, writes that "the rents [of the Seaforth lands] continue to be collected by one Donald Murchison, a servant of the late Earl's, who remits or carries the same to his master into France. . . . The last year this Murchison marched in a public manner to Edin- burgh to remit £800 to France, and remained fourteen days there unmolested. I cannot omit observing to your Majesty that this national tenderness the subjects of North Britain have one for the other is a great encouragement for rebels and attainted persons to return home from their banish- ment." l

Though the " Coarnal/' as Donald was called then, and as he still lives in old Eoss- shire story, preserved the estates for the Seaforth family, risking often his life in the service of his master, the Earl, on regaining his position in his native country, treated his faithful ally with injustice and neglect. Taking advantage of the lawlessness of the time, he seized the charters and lands of the Murchisons. Donald, finding reparation hopeless, and despairing of success in any appeal to a Government which had no strong reason to be very active on behalf of a man who had given it so much trouble, retired to the east side of the island, and died of a broken heart, childless and in poverty.2 He was buried by the Conon, but the memory of his deeds still lingers among the hills which he guarded so long and so well Nearly a

1 Wade's Report, in Appendix to Burt's Letters, 2d edit. (1822), ii. p. 280.

2 For these particulars I am indebted to Dr. Corbet of Beauly, whose grandfather was a grandson of Colonel Donald's brother, and who has made the family genealogy a matter of investigation. See also Chambers, op. cit., and Anderson's Scottish Nation, vol. iii. p. 731.

8 SIR RODERICK MURCHISON.

century and a half after he had passed away, a monument was raised to him by his kinsman, Sir Eoderick Murchison ; and now, as the tourist sails through the narrow Kyles of Skye, and marks on one hand the mouldering barracks of the Hanoverian soldiery, on the other the crumbling walls of the castle of Eilandonan, a granite obelisk on one of the headlands of Lochalsh recalls to him the deeds of one of the most disinterested men of that wild time.

Donald's brother, Murdoch, raised an action at law for recovery of the charters ; but the renewed outbreak of 1745 came on. He took part in it, and died from the effects of wounds received at Culloden. Thus the action disappeared, and so did the ancestral property of the Murchisons.1

John Murchison, farmer at Auchtertyre, in Lochalsh, Sir Eoderick's great-grandfather, has been already referred to as one of those who fell at Sheriffmuir. Traditions still linger in the north as to his feats of strength; one large stone, in particular, weighing about half a ton, being pointed out as having been carried by him for some distance to form part of a wall which he needed to build on his farm.

Of Alexander, grandfather of Sir Eoderick, little has been handed down. He continued to rent the farm of Auchtertyre,

1 Sir Roderick was never able accurately to trace his relationship to Colonel Donald. He seems to have regarded the hero as his great-grand- uncle, but the connexion was yet more distant. His grandfather was a third cousin of the Colonel, so that his own kinship was of that shadowy kind in which Highland genealogists delight. Sir Roderick belonged thus to an offshoot from the main stem of the Murchisons in whose hands the little paternal property had been. His grandfather's great-grandfather had owned it. — Information from Dr. Corbet.

Both Boswell and Dr. Johnson, in their narratives of their tour in the Hebrides, refer with gratitude to the attention shown to them by a Mr. Murchison, factor for the laird of Macleod, in Glenelg, who sent them a bottle of rum, and an apology for not being able to entertain them in his house.

ANCESTRY. 9

and had to struggle with but slender means ; yet, like his predecessors who had not fallen in fight, he reached a good old age, living on even till he was ninety-nine, and saw the fortunes of the family retrieved by his eldest son, Kenneth, whom he actually outlived.

It was in the year 1751 that this Kenneth came into the world at Auchtertyre. He studied Medicine at the Colleges of Glasgow and Edinburgh, took the diploma of the Eoyal College of Surgeons in London, and while still a young man went out as surgeon to India, where he remained for seventeen years. A lucrative appointment at Luckiiow enabled him to amass a competent fortune, with which, coming home again about the year 1786, he not long afterwards purchased from his maternal uncle, Mackenzie of Lentron, the small estate of Tarradale, in the eastern part of the county of Eoss. He appears to have been a man of much force of character, a thorough Celt, generous, yet with enough of worldly wisdom to keep him from losing his possessions as his forefathers had done. He wrote his journals in Gaelic, but used the Greek characters, which he held to express the sound of his native tongue better than Eoman letters could do. Having gratified the ambi- tion, so common in Scotland, to become a laird, he kept up old Highland ways, and as long as he lived at Tarradale had as one of his retainers a piper, who also played the harp. Fond of antiquities, he devoted himself to those of Tarradale and its neighbourhood, and made a collection of urns and other objects found in tumuli and elsewhere on the estate. He was one of the original members of the Highland Society of London, and a warm friend of the scheme of the British Fisheries for the employment of the people of the Western

10 SIR RODERICK MURCHISON. [1792-5.

Highlands and Islands. In those days doctors were scarce in the Highlands, hence Dr. Murchison's house formed a centre of attraction to the sick and maimed for many miles round. As he took no fees, his popularity became more wide-spread than was wholly pleasant, so that in the end he set on foot an agitation which resulted in the erection of the present Northern Infirmary at Inverness.

In the year 1791 he married the daughter of Mackenzie of Fairburn, lineal representative of the Kory More or Big Eoderick Mackenzie to whom these estates had been granted by James V. She — as well as her brother, of whom more will be told in later pages — was born in the old tower of Fairburn, the characteristic Highland fortalice of the sept, guarding the entrance of one of the glens which open upon the lowlands of the Black Isle.

The first-fruits of this marriage appeared at Tarradale, on the 19th of February 1792, when the subject of this memoir saw the light. He received the name of Eoderick, after his maternal grandfather, Eoderick Mackenzie of Fairburn, a jolly old laird, who lived for more than ninety years, al- though, as he used to say of himself, in regard to whisky, claret, or other potations, he was " a perfect sandbank."1 A second name was given to the boy — that of Impey, after Sir Elijah Impey, an intimate friend of his father's.2

For three years the family continued to reside at Tarra-

i This expression has been handed down by Sir Roderick Murchison. With reference to it Dr. Corbet informs me that he is himself in posses- sion of old Fairburn's silver quaich or drinking-cup, and that it does not hold more than an ordinary wine-glass. But of course the size of the cup tells us nothing as to how often it was replenished.

* In one of Sir Roderick's journals the following notice occurs bearing upon this period of his life : — " Old John Gladstone's wife was the dearest friend my poor mother had. She was a Miss Annie Robertson, daughter

jiri.ge 10.

TARRADALE, ROSS-SHIRE

THE BIRTHPLACE OF SIR RODERICK MURCHISON.

1792-5.] ANCESTRY. 11

dale. This period, however, was too brief to fix any early Highland impressions on the memory of the future geologist, although he used afterwards to say that he ought to have his Celtic proclivities fully developed, for he had been nursed by the " sonsie " miller's wife of Tarradale, who hushed him to sleep with Gaelic lullabies, and no doubt, after the fashion of the country, gave him now and then, when he whimpered, a taste of the famous whisky distilled on the adjoining lands of Ferrintosh.

These three years of infancy formed the only prolonged residence which Sir Eoderick Murchison ever made in the Highlands. His later visits were only for a few weeks at a time in summer or autumn. That early stay at Tarradale might have been indefinitely prolonged, so as to change the whole tenor of his life, had his father's health continued good. A delicacy, however, brought on probably by his Indian experiences, induced Mr. Murchison to quit his northern home for a milder residence in the south of England.

Among the earliest recollections which his son Eoderick retained was one dating from the time of this southward migration. These were the days of highwaymen, and the party had journeyed armed. The father, always anxious that his son and heir should be a manly little fellow, pre- sented one day a pistol at his head, bidding him stand fire. His wife, fortunately, was sitting by and snatched away

of the Provost of Dingwall, Ross-shire. When my father married he pro- posed that the bride's great friend and bridesmaid should stay with them. Finding that she was in very delicate health, he attended to all her ail- ments for a year or more, and when I was brought into the world, the first young lady's lap on which I was dandled was that of the mother of the present Chancellor of the Exchequer. She has often told me this herself, and has expressed how much she owed to my father for his kind medical attention."

12 SIR RODERICK MURCHISON. [1792-5.

the child, when the pistol, which was not supposed to be loaded, went off, and a volley of slugs passed through the window.

In a jotting found among his papers, and bearing date August 14th, 1854, the son thus recalls the memory of his parents : — " My father was a good violin-player, and had a fine Cremona, on which he brought out his native and Jacobite airs with much feeling ; whilst my mother, dear soul, though never a skilful musician, played her reels on the harpsichord with so much point and zest that even now I can bring her full to my mind's eye whilst I was dancing my first Highland fling to the tunes of ' Caber Fey ' or < Tulloch Gorum.'"

The change from Tarradale to the south of England did not avert the malady from which the invalid was suffering. He died in the year 1796. Of his closing days the follow- ing notes have been penned by his son : — " A recollection of him, doubtless often since brought to my memory by my dear mother, is that while my father was in the last stage of the disorder (liver- complaint and dropsy) of which he died, my little brother and self were sent from Bath to the then sequestered village of Bathampton, where he took leave of us. The opening of the red damask curtains of the lofty old-fashioned bed, the last kiss of my dying parent, and the form of the old-fashioned edifice to which the invalid had been removed, have been stereotyped in my mind."

On the death of her husband, Mrs. Murchison moved with her two boys to Edinburgh, where she took the house No. 26 George Street.1 As soon as age allowed they were

1 The younger son, Kenneth, became Governor of Singapore, and after- wards of Penang.

1799.] SCHOOL-DAYS. 13

placed under the instructions of Bishop Sandford. Most of the Jacobites being either Catholics or Episcopalians, she found herself among friends in the small gathering which the disestablished Church could muster at that time in the metropolis of the north. Two years before his death her elder son revisited the little chapel near Charlotte Square to which his mother used to bring him. The lapse of more than seventy years had not wiped away the recollection of these early days, and he could yet recall how, one Sunday, their fat little cook Peggie, having incautiously ventured westward to her mistress's chapel, returned abruptly to the house, inveighing with indignation at the profanity of an organ, " for she cou'dna bide to hae the house o' God turned intil a playhouse."

The widow, still young and attractive, was not long in finding a second husband in Colonel Eobert Macgregor Murray, one of the younger brothers of the Chief of the Macgregors. He, as well as his brothers, had been on inti- mate terms with Mr. Murchison in India, so much so that the Chief and his brother, Colonel Alexander, with Sir Elijah Impey, were left as guardians to the two boys.

The marriage of his mother broke up the home -life of young Eoderick. Her husband was called to Ireland to aid in suppressing rebellion there, and as she determined to accompany him, it became necessary to place the boy, now in his seventh year, at school. Accordingly, in the year 1799, he was sent to the grammar-school of Durham.

More than half a century afterwards he spoke of the pang of the parting from his mother, and from Sally, the Dorsetshire lass, to whose tuition he used to attribute the English accent which he retained through life. Before

14 SIR RODERICK MURCHISON. [ITW-

leaving Edinburgh he could already read the newspapers with emphasis, and recite various pieces of verse.

But now a new and strange life opened out to him. At Durham he was domiciled, with some twenty other boys, in the house of one Wharton — a kindly man, who taught them French, and who, though himself a strict Catholic, never attempted to taint any of his pupils with a bias towards Popery.

Six years passed away at Durham. They could hardly be called years of study. The boy, indeed, toiled in some fashion into the sixth book of the Iliad, crossed the "pons" in Euclid, and picked up a little French, besides the ordinary rudiments of an English education. But the somewhat morose and severe manners of the head -master were not of a kind to make learning pleasant. Nor in the discipline of the school, stern enough in its way, and often aided from a bundle of hazel rods, was there check sufficient to control the waywardness of the wilder boys. Among these Eoderick, or " Dick," as they called him, was always a ringleader. Breaking bounds was the least of his offences. Many an expedition did he lead against the town boys, and when not engaged in actual offensive warfare, he would be found drilling his school-fellows in military exercises.

Pranks, too, of the dare-devil kind were a favourite pastime. At one time he would be seen sitting on a pro- jecting ornament or corner-spout of the highest tower of the Cathedral, to the horror of his comrades, who lay down in abject fright upon the "leads." He filled up more than the usual list of boyish escapades with gunpowder and on treacherous ice. The broken ground on which the

1805.] SCHOOL-DAYS. 15

romantic old city of Durham stands lent itself eminently to such feats. There was one exploit which deserves a pass- ing mention, since it was, perhaps, his earliest attempt to explore what lies under ground. Just beyond the archway leading to the Prebends' Bridge lay the open mouth of a drain which had its other end on the banks of the Wear, some hundred yards below. It had been a boast among the boys to get down to the bottom of the vertical mouth. But " Dick" one day undertook to force his way down the whole length of the conduit to its farther opening at the side of the river. Having dropt into his hole he soon found, as he advanced on hands and knees, that to turn was impossible. So, scaring many a rat by the way, he crept down, and at last, with scratched skin and torn raiment, and probably with what Trinculo styled " an ancient and fish-like smell," he emerged to the light of day, amid the hurrahs of his expectant school-fellows.

His stepfather and his mother, during part of his stay at Durham, rented Newton House, near Bedale, in the North Eiding, whither, in vacation-time, he repaired to exhaust him- self in the delights of a pony and terriers. There, too, it was that the military life distinctly shaped itself in his mind. His maternal uncle, General Mackenzie of Fairburn, seeing his active habits, told him that in due time he would make a good soldier. "From that day," he remarks, "I read and thought of nothing but military heroes."

CHAPTEE II.

FIRST YEARS OF A SOLDIER'S LIFE.

THE six years' schooling at Durham, such as it was, formed all the connected general education which Murchison received, though he tried to supplement it after a fashion a couple of years later at Edinburgh. It was thought to be amply sufficient as a groundwork for the profession of a soldier ; the more special training needed for the military life could be obtained elsewhere. Accordingly, in the year 1805, being now thirteen years of age, he was taken to the Military College of Great Marlow. Late in life he could recall how his stepfather sang amusing songs to cheer him on the way ; how, on arriving in London, they " were quartered at the Spring Gardens coffeehouse;" and how surprised he was to see, " in the box next to us, gloating over his beefsteak and onions, the corpulent John, Duke of Norfolk."

At Marlow his aptitude for study was not more marked than it had been at Durham. His six books of Homer and the Latin which had been flogged into him were no help in aiding him to solve even simple questions

1805.] FIRST YEARS OF A SOLDIER'S LIFE. 17

in geometry and arithmetic. He was rejected, or, in the language of his comrades, " spun," and sent back to " mug," or study. " I could not do," he says, " the commonest things in geometry, and was a bad arithmetician — a foible which has remained with me."

When at length he had passed as a Cadet, he continued to introduce a fair amount of frolic among his not very arduous duties. C. 26 — for that was his number in the third com- pany— became as conspicuous a ringleader among the boister- ous youths at Marlow as he had already been among the boys at Durham. He succeeded, however, at the same time, in acquiring some military habits, and a slender knowledge of tactics and drawing. He now, for the first time, had to learn subjects really interesting to him, and, as he had been formerly in the habit of drilling his school-fellows for mere amusement, it was now a congenial and not very diffi- cult task to become a good drill-serjeant. From this time, too, dates the development of that singular faculty he had of grasping the main features of a district. His exercises in military drawing at Marlow first drew out this faculty, and led to the future rapidity and correctness of his " eye for a country," to which, in his scientific career, he owed so much.

As a reminiscence of these Marlow days he writes : — " As each cadet cleaned his own shoes and belts, and black- balled his own cartridge-box, we really knew what a soldier ought to do. French polish was then unknown, and the blacking which we bought of old ' Drummer Cole' required much elbow-grease to bring out the shine ; so that I shall never forget, when the Duke of Kent (the father of our gracious Queen) reviewed us, how I admired his highly-

VOL. I. B

18 SIR RODERICK M URCHISON. [isoe.

polished, well-made Hessian boots, and his tight-fitting white leather pantaloons."

Those who remember the veteran geologist in his later days, and recall the military bearing which marked him up to the last, will readily appreciate how strong an impress these Marlow days left upon him. While a cadet he was also somewhat of a dandy. He preserved memoranda of the names of the titled people he met when he paid a visit ; how he delighted in the " smart curricle" of one distinguished acquaintance ; how he rode " the well-conditioned hunters or chargers" of another; how he dined at a fine old mansion one day, and played at whist with the young aristocracy of the place the next. He had good opportunity for indulging these tastes during a visit which he paid in 1806 to his uncle, General Mackenzie, who was at that time command- ing a militia force at Hull. And yet other qualities of his nature were also developing themselves. His uncle, who kept a diary, made the following entry on 29th January 1806 : — " This day my dear nephew Eoderick left me. He is a charming boy, manly, sensible, generous, warm-hearted — in short, possessing every possible good attribute. I think he has also talents to make a figure in any profession. That which he has chosen is a soldier. He goes back to Marlow College on the 3d of next month."

The following year, at the age of fifteen, he was gazetted Ensign in the 36th regiment, but did no regimental duty for some time after his appointment. He writes of this epoch in his life : — " For the first six months after I became an officer I was supposed to be completing my studies ! In reality I was amusing myself with all sorts of dissipation at Bath, where I passed my holidays driving ' tandems' and wearing clanking spurs.

i8os.] FIRST YEARS OF A SOLDIERS LIFE. 19