losing a photograph, in which I
recognised a good, honest, sensible face, with his person inclosed in
the usual station porter's garb, "C.R. 1446."

I started from Dunkeld, and reached Coupar Angus in due time. As I
approached the station, I heard the porter calling out, "Coupar Angus!
change here for Blairgowrie!"[1] It was the voice of John Robertson.

I descended from the train, and addressed him at once: after the
photograph there could be no mistaking him. An arrangement for a
meeting was made, and he called upon me in the evening. I invited him
to such hospitality as the inn afforded; but he would have nothing. "I
am much obliged to you," he said; "but it always does me harm." I knew
at once what the "it" meant. Then he invited me to his house in
Causewayend Street. I found his cottage clean and comfortable,
presided over by an evidently clever wife. He took me into his
sitting-room, where I inspected his drawings of the sun-spots, made in
colour on a large scale. In all his statements he was perfectly modest
and unpretending. The following is his story, so far as I can
recollect, in his own words:--

"Yes; I certainly take a great interest in astronomy, but I have done
nothing in it worthy of notice. I am scarcely worthy to be called a
day labourer in the science. I am very well known hereabouts,
especially to the travelling public; but I must say that they think a
great deal more of me than I deserve.

"What made me first devote my attention to the subject of astronomy?
Well, if I can trace it to one thing more than another, it was to some
evening lectures delivered by the late Dr. Dick, of Broughty Ferry, to
the men employed at the Craigs' Bleachfield Works, near Montrose, where
I then worked, about the year 1848. Dr. Dick was an excellent
lecturer, and I listened to him with attention. His instructions were
fully impressed upon our minds by Mr. Cooper, the teacher of the
evening school, which I attended. After giving the young lads employed
at the works their lessons in arithmetic, he would come out with us
into the night--and it was generally late when we separated--and show
us the principal constellations, and the planets above the horizon. It
was a wonderful sight; yet we were told that these hundreds upon
hundreds of stars, as far as the eye could see, were but a mere vestige
of the creation amidst which we lived. I got to know the names of some
of the constellations the Greater Bear, w