Natural History of a Highland Parish e-bog

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. During the last few years of my schoolboy life, I and a companion, David Moir, became deeply interested in the truths of Astronomy as presented to us in our ordinary textbooks. As the schoolmaster himself had a decided favour for this branch of science, he occasionally gave us a persual of an advanced work on this subject from his own library, In school he even allowed us to spend an hour or two daily in the practical application of the knowledge thus acquired. It was, therefore, with no small degree of pleasure mingled with some pride, that we devoted ourselves for a few months to the construction of large diagrams in colour, to illustrate the plan and various effects of the heavenly bodies. From an artistic point of view our productions were fairly creditable, and the foundation thus laid proved greatly helpful to me when extending my knowledge in this department.<br><br>After completing about a dozen sheets, we longed for a telescopic view of the orbs themselves, and cherished the hope of being considered real astronomers by our schoolfellows. Owing to the cost, a suitable instrument was hopelessly beyond the reach of our united means, and our parents, though indulgent above many, were neither able nor willing to gratify such an ambitious desire.