Book of the moment
Hugh Miller,
stonemason, geologist, writer
by
Michael A Taylor,
National Museums of Scotland, 2007 ISBN 1 905267 05 3
"the quiet enthusiasm of
the true fossil hunter"
Hugh Miller would seem to
have been one of those careful Victorian gentlemen* who peered and probed and
revealed county flora and folklore, geology and palaeontology and who mixed
science with culture and religion in an intriguing, if sometimes patronising,
whole.
He was much more than this: a
complex mix of pride and humility with a strong sense of his working-class
Presbyterian roots and values that guided his out look and informed his
attitudes through his sadly shortened life
 |
| Pterichthyodes milleri |
From the environmental side
of things, Miller's collections of fossils from the early 1800s are invaluable
as he found, named and laid bare to our fascinated eyes the fish of the Old Red
Sandstone of northern Scotland. (They are still fascinating now)
 |
| P milleri, revived |
This books weaves it way
through this intriguing life and the connections and companions that inspired,
helped and frustrated him. While
"quiet enthusiasm" seems right, he was also clearly ready to
wade into issues and, as the editor of The Witness , Edinburgh's second-best-selling newspaper of his
time, his words on suffrage, land-owneship, the Clearances and the Disruption
of the Church of Scotland carried influence.
A good read!
(* for adventurous Victorian
ladies, I would recommend the outspoken and sometimes appallingly judgemental
Isabella Bird - Adventures in the Rocky Mountains; and the much more sympathetic Mary Kingsley's The
Congo and the Cameroons - both
available in Penguin Classics edited versions)
and talking of books, you might look at: http://www.urchin.info/2012/10/of-toads-and-kathleen-jamie/
ReplyDeleteEmail comment from NT at Hugh Miller Museum in Cromarty:
ReplyDeleteGood to read the comments on your blog about Mike Taylor’s biography of Hugh Miller. Miller was a remarkable observational polymath and, somewhat surprisingly, possessed a wry sense of humour. See his book “First impressions of England and its People” for his dry observations on his fellow travellers.
Thank you for bringing him to a wider audience.
Kind regards,
Alix Powers-Jones
Dr. Alix H. J. Powers-Jones
Property Manager
National Trust for Scotland
Hugh Miller's Birthplace Cottage & Museum,
Church Street, Cromarty, The Black Isle, Highlands, IV11 8XA.