— LAT FIFESHIRE BIOGRAPHY. LAT and shone out in his pristine style, when, entered into business as a commission agent on hearing of the massacre of St Bartholo- in Glasgow. Subsequently emigrating to mew, he denounced, in glowing terms, the United States of America, he was en- Charles TX. of France. Sicknes.^^, however, gaged in mercantile concerns at New York. soon seized his emaciated frame, and after a Latto first became known as a aong-writer very brief period of increasing debility, he in the pages of " Whistle-binkie." In 184.5 died 24th November 1.".72. Two days after- he edited a poem entitled "The Minister's wards bis Itody was interred in the church- Kail Yard," which, with a number of lyrics yard of St (tiles. The funeral was attended of his own composition, appeared in a duo- by an immense concoui-se of weeping and decimo volume. To the " Book of Scottish afflicted people, as well as of the resident Song" he made several esteemed contribu- nobility, and the Regent Morton pronounced tions, besides furnishing sundry pieces of over him the well-known eulogiura, "There versification of merit to Blackwood and lies he who never feared the face of man." TaWs M'toazines. Kno.K was of .small stature, and by no means of a roliust constitution. His character baa THE KISS AHINT THE DOOK. been pourtraye ' diflFei ntly by writers. Indiscriminate eulogy would be here as much out of place, as sweei)ing cen- sure would be unjust. The reformer wa-s cast upon an age of violence and change, I took ahint the door. and he needed a correspondent energy. O laddie, whist ! for sic fricht Elegance and delicacy of language were not a I ne'er was in hefore, common at the period, and would have been Fou brawly did my mither hear crushed in the tumult. Knox spoke and wrote his honest thoughts in transparent terms, in terse and homely simplicity, and t gin theyjcer and mock. with far less of uncouthness and solecism than might be imagined. He was obligeil to appear, not like a scholar in the graceful folds of an academic toga, but as a warrior Wc stappit ben, while Maggie's face clad in raiiil, and .armed at all points for Waslikealowin'coal; selif-defence and aggression. It must have An' as for me, I could hae crept been a mighty mind that could leave its im- The mither look't— saves how she looU't— press on an entire nation, and on succeeding Thae mithers are a bore, inflexible in ages. He was m.iintaining An' gleg as ony cat to liear what he felt to be right, and intrepid in de- A kiss ahint the door. fending it. His life was menaced several There's meikle bliss, &c. times, but he moved not from the path of The duty. The genial affections of home, friend- deuce gudeman, tho' he was there, As weel might been in Rome, ship, and kindred, often stirred his heart For by the fire he puffd his pipe, amidst all his sternness and decision. In An' never fash'd his thumb ; short he resembled the hills of his native But titterin' in a corner stood country, which, with theirtall and splintered The gawky sisters four— precipices, then: shaggy sides, and wild sub- A winter's nicht for me they might limity of aspect, yet often conceal in their Hae stood ahint the door. There's meikle bliss, &o. bosom green valleys, clear streams, and pastures. luxuriant ' How daur ye tak' sic freedoms here ?" Tlie bauld gudewife began ; Wi* that a foursome yell gat up Thomas wag born in 1818 LATTO, C, Catch me again, tho' fldgin'fain, in the p.arish of Kingsbams. Instruetei 1 in the element.ai-y branches of education Tliere'3 meikle bliss, &c. by Mr Latto, his father, p.arochi.al teacher in that town, he entered, in his four- LAWSON, George, Professor of teenth year, the United College of St Chemistry and Natural History in Queen's Andrews. Having studied during five College, Kingston, Canada, a native of sessions at tliis university, he was in 1S."8 Fifeshire, was bom in the year 1827, at admitted into the writing chambers of Mr Maryton, a beautiful village on the banks John Hunter, Writer to the Signet, Edin- of the Tay, not far from Flisk, where Dr burgh, Auditor of the Court of Session. Fleming spent so many years of his life, He subsequently became advocate's clerk and on whose ministratiims, in former years, to Mr William E. Aytoun, Professor of Rhe- several of Dr Lawson's relatives attended. toric in the University of Edinburgh, and The famUy, soon after his birth, removed to Sheriff of Orkney and Shetland. After a Dundee, but most of his childhood summers period of employment as a Parliament House were spent with a relative in a secluded Clerk, he accepted the situation of m.inaging cottage on the Newton Hill, near Kilmany. clerk to a writer in Dundes. In 1852 he There ample ojjportumties were afforded for 2CI LAW FIFKSHIRE BIOGRAPHY. LEA the observation of the wihl1 iilants and ber of working members, and which may animals of the nei;-,'hl"uirh noil, and his be familiar to many by name (who now solitary rambles on tin; hill sidrs were no learn its origin for the first time) as the doubt instrumental in laying' the foundation Dundee Naturalists' Association. Mr Law- of that love of nature which s vt-mtd in after son also acted as secretary to several literary life to grow up with him :xs a ly-rooted societies. Having removed to Edinburgh, han as an acquired taste. he was in the spring of 1849 elected to tlie 1 )uriug these suinuier visits to the Newton office of assistant-secretary and curator to Hill, although he was then not more than the Botanical Society, and at the same time six or seven yeurs nf ago, his industry to a similar office in the Caledonian Horti- spcedilv tilleil tin- i(.ttaLr.' with natural pro- cultural Society. He was also elected a (hicts of all kiiuls fiMiii the neighbouring fellow, anil subsequently assistant seeretary His woods and tiihi-; ; and liny ganlens, cut of the Koyal Phj'sical Soeictj-. position out of the turf .m the hill siiles, were made in these societies brought liim into cinitact the receiit.acles of wild ..rchiils and other with scientific men and afforded many advan- flowers from the neighbouring valleys. tages for improvement in addition to those After a suitable education, Mr L:iw.son w.as of the University. In 1850, Mr Lawson appprenticed to a solicitor in Duntlee, with published a small volume on Water-lillies, the view of following the legal ]irofession ; containing a full description, with drawings but his private reading was not confined to of the Victoria Kegina, wliich had flow'ered " Erskine's Institutes" and " Blackstone's in England, and was therefore exciting Counnentaries.' The discovery in the much attention. In 18.54 he took an active Watt Institution library of such works as interest in the establishment of the Scottish " Tjouden's Magazine of Natural History" Arboricultur.al Society, and was appointed and "Fleming's Philosopliy of Z.iology," assistant-secretary. In that capacity he opene.l up a more congenial line of thought, has edited the society's transactions up to an<l led him to pui-sue Natural History as a the present time. In the autvunn of 185G he w.os elected by the Royal Society to the to offer many facihties for" its jiursuit in a office of assistaut-librarian—and the cata- practical manner. The S.ands of Barry, tlie logue of the society's library h.as been com- Sidlaw Hills, and many other less noted ]iletetl and printed under his care. On the localities in the innuediate neighliourhood unexpected death of Professor Fleming, a of Hundee, were so freiuently'" quoted in committee of the Free Church College was books as stations for rare species, th.at it appointed, to make arrangements for con- seemeil probalile he should meet with some ducting the cl.ass during the winter session. objects of interest. And he was not ilisap- They selected Mr Lawson to conduct the pointed. His excursions resulted in the botanical part of the course, and the zoolo- addition of many new plants to the district. gical part was conducted liy Mr A. His first excursion in 1843 was to the .Sidlaw Murray, W.S. In 1857 the University of Hills, where he gathered, along with m.any Giesson conferred upon him the degree of other jilants, &c., the AckemlUa alpina, Doctor of Philosophy. Mr Lawson's writ- "which had not previously been observed on ings are very voluminous, but almost en- the .Sidlaw range. For sometime his natural tirely anonymous. With the exception of history studies were pursued alone, and were a few papers published in the Botanical greatly promoted by the excellent selection Society's transactions, most of his writings of natural history books which lay unused have appeared in literary journals and re- in the Watt Institution Library of Dundee. views, such as " Chambers's Journal," He soon made the acquaintance of Mr Wm. " Chamljers's Information for the People,'' Gardiner, the poet-botanist of that town, "The Electric Review," Scottish Agricul- and enjoyed one or two excursions with him, tural Journal," &c. Many papers on sani- chiefly for the collection of mosses and tary and general subjects have appeared in lichens.