CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.

THE BANFFSHIRE NATURALIST.

Our old friend, Samuel Smiles, now a veteran in literature, who hasbeen indefatigable in writing of the power of Self-help, has, as one ofhis late exploits, narrated in a most amusing and instructive mannerthe Life of a Scotch Naturalist, Thomas Edward, who at an advancedage modestly occupies the position of a working shoemaker in Banff.This is a curious and interesting book. Few persons would have takenthe trouble that Mr Smiles has done to narrate the efforts in pursuitof a knowledge of Nature of so very obscure and poor a man as is thehero of his remarkable biography. The thing is altogether unique.Nothing but vast kindliness of heart, along with the pleasure ofshewing what can be done by constant self-denial and industry, couldhave influenced the benevolent writer. As probably not many of ourreaders have yet had an opportunity of seeing the work—a beautifullyembellished duodecimo of four hundred pages, published by John Murray,London—we shall try to give a sort of abridged history of the nowfamed Scotch naturalist, with such observations as occur to us.

Thomas Edward, born in 1814, is the son of a private in the Fifeshiremilitia, who on the breaking up of his regiment, resided for a shorttime at Kettle, his native place in Fife, and then, for the sake ofwork as a handloom weaver, settled with his wife and child at Aberdeen.Here the boy was brought up in the usual rough way experienced by thehumbler class of Scotch children. He ran about barefooted, was poorlyfed, and required pretty much to find his own amusement. His parents,while willing to do their best for him, soon found that he was farfrom being easily managed. He was intractable, and in a very strangeway. While still a child, he demonstrated an extraordinary love ofanimals of all kinds. He took delight in dogs, cats, pigs, hens, birdsof every kind, and every description of small creatures, down to bees,beetles, flies, spiders, and so on—in fact, any living thing he couldlay hold of; even rats and mice did not come amiss. This idiosyncrasyconsiderably puzzled and vexed the father and mother. No

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