If I can give you any further information on the subject in which you are interested, I shall be most happy to do so. I am, dear Sir, yours very truly,

Dr CRAIGIE."

B. C. BRODIE.

In July 1831 I accompanied the late Dr Herbert Mayo to visit the theatre and other apartments in Great Windmill Street. The Museum was then in a transition state as to its contents, which were undergoing the process of being conveyed to the building then erecting for King's College. The greater part the preparations, especially those most delicate, had been removed, and only the most bulky, chiefly skeletons of animals, remained; the last relics of what had been left after the transference of the Bell Collection to Edinburgh. But even with all this dilapidation and desertion before and around me, it was impossible to avoid thinking with esteem and veneration on the talent, the zeal, and the energy of the man who, singly and unaided, had been able to establish a place of instruction, the influence of which was so powerful, so extensive, and so beneficial.

NOTE Y, p. 674.

On the condition of Ormiston Hill at the time (1778), at which Dr Cullen acquired that property, the following observations are made by the Rev. William Cameron, minister of the parish of Kirknewton, in the first Statistical Account; and as Mr Cameron was a personal observer of what he describes, his testimony may be regarded as well-founded.

"He (Dr Cullen) was a great master in the scientific branches of husbandry; a consummate botanist; and possessed a fullformed and correct taste in the fine arts. These attainments appeared conspicuous in his operations at Ormiston Hill. In the year 1758 the Doctor, after finishing his course of chemistry, delivered to a number of his particular friends and favourite pupils nine lectures on the subject of agriculture. In these few lectures he, for the first time, laid open the true principle

concerning the nature of soils, and the operation of manures. These were discoveries entirely his own, and which have since been made known to the world by a variety of channels, though without any notification of the source from whence they proceeded. The justness of these principles he demonstrated by his practice on the lands of Ormiston Hill, which, though naturally of an ungrateful soil, rendered worse by immemorial bad management, and situated in an unfavourable climate, he raised in a few years to a surprising degree of culture and fertility. 、 Early in life he was a proficient in botany, and was the first person in Scotland who understood the Linnæan system, and recommended the study of it to his pupils at a time when it met with much opposition from others. In his gardens and. pleasure-grounds at Ormiston Hill he formed an extensive collection of rare trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants. The cultivation of these, and the accurate determination of their species, afforded him always an agreeable relaxation from the more serious studies and labours of his profession."*

Since the time of Dr Cullen,-since 1792, when Mr Robert Cullen disposed of the property of Ormiston Hill, nearly sixtyseven years have elapsed; and during that time, and especially of late years, several important changes have taken place at Ormiston Hill. Though the present proprietor, Archibald Wilkie, Esquire, who is also possessor of Ormiston, continued to occupy, till 1852, the old mansion inhabited by Dr Cullen, and had built an extensive establishment of coach-house, stables, and other offices, he erected, about six hundred yards to the westward, on the elevated western bank of the Dingle, which overlooks the Caledonian Railway and the country beyond to the north, a large, commodious, and tasteful mansion in the modernized Tudor style of architecture, and which forms the finest object in the landscape in that neighbourhood. old house has been since entirely given up to be occupied by

servants.

The

* The Statistical Account of Scotland. Drawn up from the communications of the Ministers of the different Parishes. By Sir John Sinclair, Bart. Volume Ninth. Edinburgh, 1793. P. 416.

Over the Dingle or ravine, also, a substantial stone bridge has been thrown, so as to connect Ormiston Hill on the east, with Ormiston on the west of the ravine. From this bridge the spectator obtains an excellent view of the Dingle upwards to the south, and downwards to the north, though in the latter direction the view is limited by the winding nature of the ground; and he may see that it is justly entitled to be called a Bosky Bourne, as it forms the boundary between the two properties.

This is the proper place to remark, as the circumstance tends to throw light on some features in the character and habits of Cullen, that on a gate at the northern and lower outlet of this Dingle, Cullen had affixed from the soliloquy of the usurer ALFIUS, in the second Epode of Horace, the words "PROCUL NEGOTIIS," evidently showing how closely he participated, not in the hypocrisy of Alfius, but in the praises of the country life, which the poet has in language so expressive put in the mouth of this person. It is, indeed, evident that Cullen was an intelligent admirer of the Venusian bard, and entered warmly into the sentiments, didactic, moral, and æsthetic, which that skilful observer of mankind and their manners has painted so truly and accurately.

It was characteristic of the same disposition, that he placed over the front door of the house, when he took possession of Ormiston Hill, from the eleventh of the First Book of the Epistles of the same author, the words, "EST ULUBRIS." Rev. Mr Cameron, the former minister of the parish of Kirknewton, the author of the old Statistical Account, assigns as the reason for this inscription the fact, "that everything about the place was in such a ruinous state, so comfortless, and so unpromising, that he placed over the front door of the house" the words now quoted. The House may have been ruinous and comfortless; and the general aspect of the place may have been unpromising; but this was not the meaning of Dr Cullen, when he affixed the words EST ULUBRIS. Mr Cameron has altogether mistaken both the original meaning of these words and the application by Cullen. To any one who understands the lines, and the Epistle, at the close of which these words are introduced, it must be superfluous

to observe, that what Horace meant was, that discontent and dissatisfaction, restlessness and murmuring, are not alleviated or removed by changing place and residence; but that in the most deserted and solitary places, such as was Ulubræ, an obscure town in the marshy districts of Latium, if the mind is right, tranquil, and properly trained, happiness is within every one's reach. The lines are :—

"Coelum non animum mutant, qui trans mare currunt;
Strenua nos exercet inertia: Navibus atque

Quadrigis petimus bene vivere, Quod petis hic est;
Est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit æquus."*

As if he had said, "You need travel neither to France, to Spain, to Germany, nor to Italy, in steamships or by railway, to seek to live properly. What you seek is here, at Ormiston Hill, or wherever lot or circumstances may place you, if the well-balanced mind fail you not."

These are probably small matters. Yet they may not be wholly insignificant, if they illustrate the habits and character of a man such as was Dr Cullen.

While we contemplate this history of rational and sober relaxation from the cares of active life, one unpleasant thought arises and disturbs all. It is not a matter of doubt, that considerable sums of money had been spent in reclaiming Ormiston Hill from a state of nature, in improving it, and making it what it was left by Dr Cullen. More, indeed, was spent upon it than there could be any well-founded expectation of seeing returned during the lifetime of Dr Cullen.

In the hands of the present possessor, Ormiston Hill is still more highly improved and more completely and profitably utilized, than it was nearly seventy years back. But upon this subject it is quite unnecessary to say anything.

NOTE Z, p. 679.

Repeated reference was made in the first volume (pp. 110, 262, and 461) to the late Dr John Fleming, long a member of

* Q. Horatii Flacci Epistolarum. Lib. I. Epist. XI. Ad. Bullatium. 3 B

Lin. 27.

VOL. II.