Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 8.djvu/284

232 Thus the science of botany was deprived of an enthusiastic student, and able expositor, in the prime of life and the vigour of intellect. It is believed, by those who best knew him, that his end was hastened by excessive mental labour. Amongst his numerous MSS. is one in a finished state, which he was about to send to press, designed as an elementary work on the botany of India; and, as stated by Sir W. Hooker, in noticing his death in the "Journal of Botany," he had made extensive collections towards a complete "Flora Zeylanica." As a matter of general interest, it is not unworthy of notice that Gardner had taken out a patent for preparing coffee leaf, so as to afford a beverage, by infusion, "forming an agreeable, refreshing, and nutritive article of diet."

According to Gardner's will, his books and herbarium were to be offered to the Ceylon government, to form part of the establishment at Peradinia, at a certain valuation; and, if not accepted, to be forwarded to his executor in Britain, Sir W. Hooker. The government having declined the offer, they were accordingly placed at the disposal of Sir William, by whose disinterested efforts the herbarium realized prices much beyond what could have been expected.

.—It has often been observed, that the Scottish national character abounds in contradictions. Poetical though it be, it has never produced a Milton; and in spite of all its wisdom and sagacity, it has not as yet exhibited a first-rate statesman. The same inconsistency is perceptible in the fine arts; so that, in spite of the imaginative and the humorous, by which that character is distinguished, Scotland has been barren of caricaturists. From the time of Hogarth to that of H. B., England has so plentifully abounded with such artists as to be eminently the land of caricature delineation but Scotland, with all its shrewd observation, its perception of the ludicrous, and quiet love of fun, which constitute the chief elements in this department of pictorial art, has as yet produced no specimens of it except those of poor Walter Geikie—the very man, too, be it observed, from whom, on account of his physical disqualifications, productions of this kind were least to be expected.

Walter Geikie, whose droll and homely sketches are to be found upon the table of every Edinburgh drawing-room, was the son of Mr. Archibald Geikie, perfumer, and was born in Charles Street, George Square, Edinburgh, on the 9th November, 1795. Before he had completed his second year, he was attacked by a dangerous ear disease; and although he recovered, it was at the expense of being deaf and dumb for life. It was too much the fashion at this time in Scotland to consider dumbies as incapable of education, so that they were generally allowed to go at large, and vegetate as they best might; but happily, Walter was the son of a pious and intelligent father, who had a better sense of his paternal responsibility: he taught his bereaved boy the alphabet, so that the latter not only learned to read, but to understand what he read. Writing and arithmetic followed, in which Walter showed himself an apt scholar. When he had thus acquired the rudiments of education, it happened, fortunately for him, that Mr. Braidwood, the successful teacher of the deaf and dumb, was invited to Edinburgh, to open an institution there, and Geikie became one of his earliest pupils. In this new school the boy's proficiency was so rapid that he was soon employed as a monitor. He showed also that he was no mere common-place learner, for he was in the practice of writing down extracts of the passages that best pleased him in the authors whose works he perused. While he was thus storing his mind with knowledge, and qualifying himself, notwithstanding his defects, for a life of usefulness, his path was determined.