Grampian Club > Leaves from my autography

LEAVES FROM MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 381
I was enabled materially to supplement my returns.
From first to last, I personally inspected the more
considerable burial-grounds from the coast of Ayrshire
to St Abb's Head, and from the shores of the Solway
to the borders of Kincardineshire. To this subject
I shall return.
I had long contemplated the formation of a society
or club, which might occupy the place of the Banna-
tyne Club at Edinburgh, the Maitland Club at Glas-
gow, and the Spalding Club at Aberdeen. Through
the instrumentality of such a club only might any
extensive work, such as that I contemplated on
Scottish churchyards, be given to the world. With
respect to the possibility of forming such an institu-
tion, I, in the summer of 1868, consulted my friend
Mr William Euing,* and as he thought the project
practicable, I made a commencement. Of those I
appealed to, the first to join were Mr Kington Oli-
phant of Cask, Mr Vere Irving of Newton, Sir
Roderick IMurchison, Sir James Simpson of Edin-
burgh, and the Duke of Argyll.
A meetinoj of founders was held at London on the
* Mr Euing died at Glasgow on the 12th May 1874, aged eighty-six. To the
University of Glasgow he bequeathed his large and valuable library, including
his unique collection of versions of the English Bible ; also £6000 for the estab-
lishment of fellowships. His musical library, said to be the most complete
in existence, he presented to the Glasgow Andersonian University, in which he
had endowed a chair of Music. To the Glasgow Botanic Garden, the Glasgow
Sailors' Home, and the Glasgow City Mission, and other benevolent institutions,
he made large bequests. His large and valuable collection of paintings he
bestowed on the Corporation of Glasgow, for permanent exhibition in the city
galleries.