Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/212

 OBITUARY.

REV. WALTER GREGOR, M.A., LL.D.

sense of personal loss must have been the predominant feeling of the members of the Society on hearing of the death of Dr. Gregor. A man of wide culture and an antiquary of distinction in more than one department, his chief interests lay in dialect and folklore. He was the secretary and one of the founders of the Scottish Text Society, to which his services for a long series of years are hardly to be overestimated. His name appears on the first list of members of the Folk-Lore Society; and among the early publications of the Society were his Notes on the FolkLore of the North-East of Scotland. To know this book is to recognise its value as a transcript of the superstitions and traditions of a district rich in remains of the past up to that time unrecorded. Its author, however, was by no means content to rest on the reputation its publication immediately won, for he was an indefatigable collector. Frequent communications to the Folk-Lore Society and to the Société des Traditions Populaires, of which he was also a member, attest his continued industry. Only two years ago he volunteered with undiminished energy to undertake systematic work in Scotland for the Ethnographical Survey Committee. The Committee at once gratefully accepted his offer, and commissioned him to Galloway. His first report on the folklore of that interesting district was published by the British Association last year, and was marked by the accuracy and method which characterised all that he did. Although his work in Galloway was cut short while only the first-fruits had been reaped, he left some further notes ready for publication, and, what is far more valuable, an example of the manner in which the survey should be conducted—a standard for future inquirers. He had in fullest measure that prime essential of a successful collector of folklore—a gracious and genial nature. All who came into contact with him felt his charm, and none could help yielding to his influence.

Dr. Gregor passed away on the 4th February last after a short illness, at the age of seventy, leaving a widow and a son and daughter. Whenever they die, such men die too soon.