This paper set out to show how the classical training and tastes of John Forbes White (1831-1904) affected collecting and taste in Britain - and especially in Scotland - at the end of the 19th century.

It was at Marischal College in the mid 1840s that White first had his eyes opened to an academic and intellectual world and specifically to the concepts and possibilities of beauty. A Regius Chair of Humanity had been created some five years earlier and filled by John Stuart Blackie who had been educated in Aberdeen but had also recently finished an extended period of study abroad. Blackie's teaching was inspirational and varied - one of his many publications was titled 'On beauty'.

Blackie was employed to teach Latin but Greek in his mind was equally - if not more - important. Greece - its language, art, architecture and culture - was held up to his students as an ideal - an ideal of physical perfection but also an ideal of naturalism and truth to nature which was quite at variance with the gilded affectation of contemporary design and the sentimental, narrative and historical elements of Victorian art.

In London and later in the Netherlands White bought the work of young artists, most of whom were either Dutch, Belgian or French. He was struck by the naturalism and lack of affection in the work of these European artists. Compared to the historicism and anecdotal art then popular in Britain, their work seemed fresh and very modern. Indeed it exhibited the same freshness and spontaneity which Blackie had taught him to appreciate in the art and literature on ancient Greece.

White patronised several young artists, including George Reid (1841-1913) and George Paul Chalmers (1833-1878). They began to paint pictures which were deeply indebted to Dutch and French art and came to break away from historical and anecdotal art and to draw inspiration from the artists whom White was espousing.

White collected important and innovative work by young artists - such as James Guthrie's A Funeral Service in the Highlands and William Scott's The Ferryman. He owned the first Corot in Scotland and the first Courbet. His collection is known to have been of great influence to the young artists who frequently visited his home.

White, and his protégé George Reid, transformed the taste and teaching of art in Scotland. Through Reid, who played a very active part in the workings of the Royal Scottish Academy, things began to change and soon its walls were hung with the work of the young, the foreign and the innovative. By 1888 John Forbes White's position as Scotland's foremost art critic and connoisseur seemed assured. He was awarded an LLD the following year. Conversely his finances were in a mess - funding Reid, extended foreign travel, extravagant buying of pictures and a large family had all eaten into the profits of business. These factors, exacerbated by a massive recession in the milling industry, forced White to sell many of his paintings that year. By selling his pictures White's long term reputation as a collector was to go. An important Bosboom now in the National Gallery, London, for example, lost its provenance completely. The coherence of White's collection over the intervening years was lost and White's place as one of Scotland's most important collectors and connoisseurs largely forgotten.

In Reid's first lecture to the life drawing class of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1891 he echoes these sentiments, declaring;

Reid's enlightened views had come about through his tutelage under White and have their roots in Blackie's teaching of some sixty years earlier.

John Forbes White was an inspired patron and art critic whose beliefs were built on his intimate knowledge of the art of the past. It was only through his knowledge that he could so consummately understand and interpret truly modern painting.

This paper refers to two aspects on the conference theme: a) an anticipatory reading - how the J D Fergusson Memorial Collection at Stirling, because of its nature and its context, might have an influential role to play in the future; and b) a broad reading - how Fergusson's feeling for Scottish/Celtic art tradition, preserved in a 'collection' carried in the expatriot's head, prevailed over a temporary graft of French influence.

The paper summarises the history of the collection, its conservation and development. Housed in an open main concourse within a modern Scottish university, hung beside the work of other Scottish artists, and en route to teaching rooms, it is well placed to foster cross-currents of dialogue. It encourages connections to be made between the works of art displayed, and between artistic and other aspects of the Scottish intellectual tradition.

With reference to Scottish-French connections, the collection is described as testimony to the way one Scot constructed for himself a national cultural identity strong enough to be preserved intact despite years of living and working in France. Fergusson's adaptability, receptivity to French art, engagement in the expression of ideas in Paris at a watershed in the history of art (1907-13), and skill in deploying French styles, cannot be denied. Yet, it will be contended, there is a dichotomy between his theory and practice. Constantly extolling rhythm and movement in theory, he stays that rhythm in his working practice: he cleaves to pattern, to the heavily volumetric and to closed form. He never broke faith with a 'collection' of Celtic design ideas carried in his head. Co-existence of French-Scottish elements is at times uneasy: there are oddly arrested and unresolved passages in his works, but power and integrity too.

The 1911 Scottish Exhibition of National History, Art and Industry was one of a series held in Glasgow from the 1870s to 1936, and placed greater emphasis on Scottish history than the others. It had its origin in the 'belief, shared by many, that the time had fully arrived when Scottish history should be placed on a different plane from that which it had hitherto occupied in the education of the rising generations of Scottish children, as well as in the teaching of the subject in our higher schools and colleges.'

The historical Committee of the exhibition were responsible for two main areas of the exhibition; the Palace of History and 'The Old Ton'. The former was a pastiche of Falkland Palace housing many objects from public and private collections throughout Scotland. With the aim of making 'the historical side of the exhibition educative to the willing learner', objects associated with famous individuals were associated with their portraits, while significant aspects of Scottish history were illustrated by archives and objects, as well as the display of many objects to represent domestic life. The Auld Toon was created for the exhibition on the banks of the River Kelvin with the hope that 'visitors may wander round this town, thinking of the days that have gone for ever in Scotland, and dreaming that they have been suddenly transported into the life and manners of a bygone century.'

The structure and aims of the exhibition reveals much about perceptions of Scottish history in the early years of the 20th century, including those relating to national and Imperial identity before the First World War. The selection of topics and objects is very illuminating, particularly as the collection was created for the exhibition rather than having been accumulated over many years. It is also notable that some of the collections of individuals (such as A Henderson Bishop, William Bryce, J Graham Calender and Ludovic McLellan Mann) who loaned material to the exhibition, may appear haphazard to present-day eyes, separate areas grouped together material such as pewter, coins and medals, books, heraldry, burghal records, domestic articles, sport and ecclesiastical literature, indicating the ways in which Scottish identity and history were perceived. A significant feature of the exhibition was the emphasis on famous people, such as Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns, Mary Queen of Scots and a number of Scottish explorers, while there was little emphasis on the regional or local grouping of objects.

Well over one hundred people were members of the various committees that were responsible for the organisation of the exhibition. While many were involved because of their specialist knowledge, a small group of key individuals is evident. A study of their backgrounds and beliefs illuminates the motivations behind the exhibition, revealing the dominance of a Unionist ideology, while the influences of the Kailyard School of Scottish literature appears to have been particularly influential.

How museums create the way Glaswegians see themselves

Glasgow Museums is the main repository of collections of art, science and history in the West of Scotland. Through nearly a dozen museums we provide the essential reference material used by successive generations of Glaswegians and other Scots to interpret their place in the World.

The roles played by collections can be as diverse as the number of visitors. Nearly half the people in the city will visit at least one museum in the course of any year. Interpretation ranges form intellectual analysis of the works of the Scottish colourists to whether or not Bonnie Prince Charlie really existed - he appeared in the mythological section in a recent series of biscuit tins featured in our Bonnie Prince Charlie exhibition. At the other end of the continuum is the oral history interpretation of what Granddad did in the Shipyards on the Clyde as Ma and the Weans view the model wonders of the Clyde Room at the Museum of Transport,

Scots from all walks of life continually reinvent and reinterpret themselves and their past through the use of the museums collections. We should bear this use in mind as we collect and present our choices to them. Should they have greater say in what we do?

The paper examined the principles under which Colin Harvey, the founder began Heatherbank Museum of Social Work in 1975. The Museum is the only devoted to Social Work in Europe and this uniqueness almost certainly extends to the world. The paper focused in this uniqueness and to the complications that arise from this both in 1975 and now.

The first section of the paper was concerned with the years prior to 1975. It looked at the collecting of the book library; the picture library; the resources and ephemera library; the journals and periodical library; and the collected and created artefacts. The source material for this section was drawn from Colin Harvey's own papers; reminiscences of surviving family members, particularly his twin sister; and records and memories from surviving colleagues of that period. There are references to outstanding items in the collection such as Howard's state of the Prisons published in 1777, and the replica birch in use in Glasgow until 1948; two items not entirely unlinked! There was an emphasis in this section on how the different elements united to form an integrated whole at the founding of the Museum.

The second part of the paper was concerned with an examination of the six points contained in the original mission statement of the Museum. The use of each segment of the Museum as detailed in the first part of the paper was related to the Mission statement and specific examples were offered to illustrate Colin's collecting policy in detail. This brief study of the Mission statement also looked at Colin Harvey's concept of a Social Work Museum. He saw it as a collector, conserver and presenter drawn from five sources: buildings, costumes, objects, literary evidence and visual evidence. Above all the cardinal principle for him was the integration of all the elements that developed in the collecting policy of the museum. This section of the paper did not avoid the objective criticism that there is a clear emphasis in Heatherbank on the voluntary principle in social care throughout the collection to the partial exclusion of the statutory principle of social care.

The third part of the paper examined a pack prepared for schools by Ruth Currie, who was seconded from Strathclyde Region in 1990 to write the pack together with three other packs on social care for children over a century. The paper showed how she was able to use the resources of the Museum to write the paper and how oral material came through the Museum's volunteers and visitors as well collected written material.

The paper concluded with a brief analysis of a video being made by a group of Glasgow Caledonian Language and Media students on boarding out and child migration, and the future incorporation of the video both into the new permanent gallery at City Campus and into a projected major exhibition about child migration.

Within the National Museums of Scotland's collection there is a group of twenty-four objects that were bought from the East India Company in 1857. These items are all Indian in origin and are a pot pourri of the arts and crafts of that country. They include such items as weapons, ceremonial shields and decorative lacquer boxes.

Scots spread themselves around the world and were to play, and still do, an important role in international trade, politics and power. The Honourable East India Company, which included many Scots amongst its employees, was started as a commercial enterprise in 1600, chartered by Queen Elizabeth I. It eventually turned into a powerful political force which ruled India, the "Jewel" of the British empire, until 1858.

Indian artefacts in Scotland represent the lives of people such as William Fraser, a young man from Inverness, who was sent to Delhi in 1805 to be the Resident's Assistant. He took on the customs and dress of India, although often sported a Tam O'Shanter with his native robes. Or there was Colin Campbell, the son of a Glasgow carpenter, who was generally credited with the swift suppression of the Mutiny in 1857.

The East India Company collection in the Royal Museum bought in 1857, is just one example of Indian material either gathered by Scots or since collected for a Scottish Museum. I would like to explore what roles were played by Scots in the establishment of British rule in India and how that role is represented in Scottish collections today.

"We call ourselves insular, but the truth is that we are the only race on earth that can produce men capable of getting inside the skins of remote people."

John Buchan "Greenmantle"

Between the years 1909 and 1914, Dr Neil Gordon Munro shipped from his home in Japan some 14 crates containing over 2,000 Japanese antiquities to the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh. These items form the basis of one of the major collections of Japanese antiquities in Britain. In this presentation we summarise the career of Dr Munro, outline the nature and significance of his collection, and place it in contemporary and current context. Consideration is given to both the archaeological and the ethnological (Ainu) aspects of Munro's interests and collections. It is shown that both the career and the collections of Dr Munro are still providing a valuable basis for various lines of research.

Thomas Alexander Wise (1802-1889) was descended from the Wises of Lunan and the Strachans of the Mearns. He was born in Dundee and graduated in medicine at Edinburgh in 1824. During his years in the Indian Medical Service (1827-1851) he began his lifelong interest in Eastern culture and medicine. Like many in the medical service of the East India Company he was active in fields other than medicine and surgery, and made important contributions to the development of education as well as medicine, during his period as Secretary of the Committee of Public Instruction, a post similar to that of Director of Education. This was at a time of growing controversy between those, like Wise, who believed in understanding the value of Indian religions and culture and those determined to impose Western Christian values.

Dr Wise, as well as acquiring and developing an extensive collection of artefacts illustrating the traditions and religions in Northern India and Tibet, made a deep and committed study of these cultures. He studied Sanskrit and became the first and only medically-qualified scholar to make a detailed study and translation of the ancient medical writings of the Ayur-veda and later commentaries. His book on the Hindu system of medicine published in 1845 remains the standard reference book today. After returning to Scotland, Dr Wise became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and continued his study of antiquities. He became particularly interested in the Pictish symbols on the standing stones of North East Scotland, seeing in them reflections of ancient symbols he had seen in India. He developed this theory in his book on the 'History of Paganism in Caledonia' and although now forgotten, he was perhaps the first Scot to suggest possible meanings or origins for these mysterious and still unknown symbols. He added to the art of his family, which by the 1880s contained both early family portraits by artists of note, and many fine paintings by well known artists from the 16th to 19th centuries including Poussin, Claude Lorraine, Turner and Constable.

Dr Wise is an example of the intellectually gifted 19th century polymath whose abilities extended across medicine, education, languages, antiquities and art. In 1885 he donated his extensive collection oriental and Scottish antiquities to University College, Dundee, hoping for a department of Oriental Studies which never materialised. The collections have recently been transferred to Dundee City Museums. Nurtured by a Scottish education and an intense interest in the culture of the lands where he had to work, Thomas Wise used his collections as a source for his many contributions to both Indian and Scottish culture and put forward ideas well worth considering today.

This paper will examine the work of Margaret Hasluck (1885-1948), whose collection of Balkan textiles and folklore materials is now in Marischal Museum. The collection was made between 1921 and the early 1940s, and comprises approximately one hundred objects. During this period Hasluck travelled extensively throughout the Balkans, collecting objects ethnographic data, which she published in numerous articles and in her book The Unwritten Law in Albania.

A number of factors led to her gravitation towards the Balkan region. An area which seems to have had a powerful fascination for women travellers in the early years of this century. Of particular importance was the influence of her husband, F. W. Hasluck, an archaeologist, with whom she travelled throughout Greece. Additionally, the collections she gathered in the following years display a strong sense of arrangement according to contemporary ideologies within British anthropology and folklore, and it is probable that she was highly influenced by the writings of ethnologists and folklorists such as A. C. Haddon and Sir William Ridgeway, both of whom worked in Cambridge during the period of her studies there.

At first glance there are no signs that suggest connections to Scotland, Scottish identity or Scottish thought. However, closer examination shows that this collection of largely Albanian material is very much a Scottish collection. Without the nurturing educational environment that Hasluck experienced in Northeast Scotland, which encouraged and supported gifted children from less-privileged families to use knowledge as a means of escaping their rural background, it is conceivable that this, and many other collections like it, would not have been made. I shall show how Hasluck used her collections to redistribute knowledge back home, thus furthering the tradition of community-based education in rural Scottish regions.

Hasluck's early collections were made specifically for Aberdeen University, and by examining the agendas behind their creation I hope to asses how early twentieth century perceptions of anthropological concepts within a Scottish University were in line with those elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and more specifically how these concepts were demonstrated within a museolocical context.

David Laing (1793-1878) was a Scottish collector in an age which saw many notable collections built up by Scotsmen. His collecting activities were large-scale and varied: manuscripts, printed books, old master paintings, drawings and prints, portraits and three-dimensional objects, and topographical drawings and prints. Material of Scottish origin was a particular feature. The fact that he was an Edinburgh tradesman's son, and had only one session of classes at Edinburgh University makes the scale and nature of his collecting even more noteworthy. It also throws into relief his immense achievement as a historian and literary editor of Scottish texts. All these activities were part of the same underlying aim, to preserve and disseminate knowledge of Scotland's cultural heritage.

The talk began by giving a detailed account of Laing's life. He entered his father's thriving second-hand book business at the age of thirteen and became a partner in 1821. Having failed in an attempt to become Advocates Librarian in 1819, he became Librarian to the Society of H.M. Signet in Edinburgh in 1837 and thereafter gave up his bookselling business. He continued as Librarian until his death. As first and only Secretary of the Bannatyne Club, 1823-1861, and as a leading light in the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, he was at the centre of literary and historical research in the capital.

The talk continued by discussing the various fields of Laing's collecting, in the light of his intellectual activities. He had comparatively few important paintings, but the best were bequeathed to the National Gallery of Scotland or the Society of Antiquaries, the latter gift being of portraits in anticipation of the foundation of a Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The Antiquaries also received a number of miscellaneous museum objects by bequest. Laing's fine collection of old master drawings was bequeathed to the Royal Scottish Academy, and these have since been given or loaned to the National Gallery of Scotland. On the other hand, his collection of prints was sold at auction after his death, as was a large residue of drawings and some early photographs. Laing's very fine and important library, numbering over 20,000 items, was also sold at auction after his death, in London (as he stipulated in his will) and fetched over £16,500. The breaking up of this library is to be lamented, but his large collection of manuscripts, and his own papers and correspondence, were bequeathed in toto to Edinburgh University, where they have been a magnet to scholars ever since. Not much is known about how Laing arranged his collections in his substantial home at Portobello, on the eastern outskirts of Edinburgh, and his methods of acquiring material also needs further investigation. However, he was an avid buyer at auction from an early age and had an arrangement with at least one Edinburgh waste paper merchant. All in all his collections were a remarkable achievement by a remarkable man.

The paper provides a case study of the rich sources for the history of Scottish Higher Education in the disciplines of science and technology, art and design and teacher training in the archive collections of Heriot-Watt University (1821 to date) and its Associated Colleges, Edinburgh College of Art (1869 to date), the Scottish College of Textiles (1889 to date) and Moray House Institute of Education (1835 to date).

These diverse and complementary collections reflect the development of each institution in response to the economic, industrial and social challenges of the 19th and 20th centuries. The paper will consider how the mission of the University's forerunner, The School of Arts of Edinburgh, to enable 'industrious tradesmen to become acquainted with such of the principles of mechanics, chemistry and other branches of science as are of practical application in their several trades' is exemplified within its archive. It will demonstrate how this practical emphasis is echoed across the collections. Examples include: the Scottish College of Textiles Production Unit, the extensive collection of textile industry records, pattern and fabric sample books acquired by the College as a source of design history and an inspiration to students and their continuing influence on Borders industry; the links between Edinburgh College of Art's archive, its collection of works by former students and lecturers and the University's own art collection; the impact of Moray House on Scottish and Commonwealth education. It will also highlight the significance of links between the records of each institution, for instance of College of Art students who went on to attend Moray House, and the role of the current SHEFC funded project in promoting the collections to existing and new research audiences.

This paper presents an overview of an important Renaissance library, still largely present in Aberdeen University, which was bequeathed in 1624 to Marischal College. (Marischal and King's Colleges functioned independently as university institutions until 1860 when they were fused to form the University of Aberdeen.)

The donor was Thomas Reid, Latin Secretary to James VI, and the significance of his benefaction of c. 1,280 titles resides, first, in the fact that it was by far the largest of three early seventeenth-century donations that formed the basis of Marischal College's library, second, at that time it was possibly the largest collection to have been gifted to any Scottish university, and third, the nature of the books themselves.

Thomas Reid was educated in the Grammar School, Aberdeen, and then at the newly founded (1593) Marischal College, where, in common with other European universities, the writings of Aristotle formed the basis of much of the syllabus. Reid graduated in 1600/01, aged about 18. Then, like other ambitious Scottish students of the time, he took himself off to Continental universities to further his studies, registering in Leiden and, later, Rostock, where he taught philosophy. But, by mid-1614, Reid was back in London, and spent the rest of his life in the service of the court. He died, unmarried, in 1624, aged c.41. He bequeathed not only his library to his old college, but also left monies for the appointment of a librarian.

The notes and marginalia in the contemporary catalogues of Reid's bequest give some indication of his London circle, which included Sir Robert Ayton, senior court official, and poet, and Fuike Greville (Lord Brooke), diplomat, Treasurer of the Navy, and poet.

The greater part of the collection (which was acquired whilst on the Continent and through to his death) dates from the 1580s. Four languages are represented within it: Hebrew (a little); English (maybe 3%); the great majority in Greek or Latin. There are many editions present of the Greek and Latin Church fathers (e.g. Augustine, Jerome, Justin Martyr), and classical writers (e.g. Homer, Livy, Quintilian), and there is also much philosophical scholarship, with over 20 editions of Aristotle, along with commentaries on the texts. There are relatively few scientific or medical works: classical thought is represented by editions of Hippocrates, Galen and Archimedes, and Renaissance advances are seen in Conrad Gesner's monumental Historiae animalium (1551-87).

But did Reid's books sit on the book shelves, gathering dust, or were they consulted? It is certainly true that the donation allowed the educated groups (e.g. students, clergy) of the North-East of Scotland their first access to many works in their original languages (e.g. Aesop, Euclid), and with these carefully produced editions came the best philological, textual and editorial scholarship then available.

But more work still needs to be done. In the late 1650s, Marischal College prepared an inventory of its Library holdings, and, significantly, perhaps, numbers of Reid's books were not then present on the shelves.

This paper examines the role of the collections of the School of Scottish Studies at the University of Edinburgh as a focus and resource for the study and dissemination of Scotland's cultural traditions, oral and material, and its work in fostering the discipline of ethnology (folklore and folklife studies) in a national and international context.

The original impetus for the School, which came into being in 1951, will be outlined in relation to currents in the years immediately before and after the Second World War, with reference as well to the creation of The Linguistic Surveys of Scotland, later incorporated into the School. Its development and activities since and the ways in which these and its collections have contributed to a sense of Scottish identity and values in scholarship will form a ma]or focus, culminating with an assessment of the Schools role as it approaches its 50th anniversary in 2001.

"Be assured that it would have given the greatest pleasure to have furnished you with every useful fact had any such been in my possession for it is my hobby to get everything in Natural Science made known that regards the Province of Moray." This letter to Duncan Forbes, written in 1861 is a mission statement made by Gordon. Although he refers to his hobby, Gordon had a professional scientific background. After taking his AM at Aberdeen he spent some years attending science lectures at the University of Edinburgh before settling in Moray as Minister of Bimie.

Returning from Edinburgh he set about putting Moray on the scientific map. An archive in Elgin Museum provides a record of his scientific correspondence. In this archive there are letters from people such as William Hooker, Roderick Murchison, T.H.Huxley, Charles Darwin and about 200 other people interested in science.

Gordon recorded many lists of plants and animal groups such as mammals, birds, fish, crustacea, lepidoptera, echinodermata, mollusca and most were published in the Zoologist or other scientific journals of the day. The lists were, of course, based on collections but most of the collections are gone. Recently the mollusc collection was re-discovered in the Elgin Museum. It relates to the letters and the lists and is still mounted much as it was in the 1850s. This correspondence and collection demonstrate the co-operation among a wide range of people, both in Moray and throughout Britain.

No consideration of Gordon's importance can ignore his work in the field of geology. The internationally famous Elgin Reptile collection in Elgin Museum is largely a result of his dedication. The controversy over the age of these reptiles dominates Gordon's correspondence and has relevance to Darwin's theories.

It is Gordon's personality that is so important in the assessment of his historical role. People of all walks of life could look to him for help; the shoemaker, the fisherman, the school master as well as such people as HC Watson, pioneering phytogeography and T.H.Huxley, pioneering vertebrate evolution, not to mention Darwin needing information on orchids. Although Gordon did not like Darwin's theories of evolution he had no wish to prevent the progress of science and he took great pains to help Darwin obtain the orchids he wanted.

It is this ability to see past the blinkers of personal belief to search for the scientific truth that is Gordon's contribution to the intellectual traditions of Scotland.

The molluscs, the reptiles, some of his books, the letters and the Museum itself remain as testimony to his mission.

This paper looks at the history of collecting in St Andrews in the 19th century, when the University's 'Collection of Curiosities' was replaced by a major museum. The focus is centred on the formation and early history of the St Andrews Literary and Philosophical Society (established 1838) and its relationship with the University, particularly with regard to the museum, which in 1840 was agreed to be the joint property of the two organisations. The Society's Minute Book is an important source of information on the business of the society, the interests of its members, and their attitude to the museum. Some of the most prominent members of the Society were also key figures in the University, notably Sir David Brewster, who was Vice President of the new Society and Principle of the United College. The relationship between the two organisations and their use of the museum for research and teaching will be explored.

From the end of the 17th century onwards the University of Glasgow began to accumulate Roman antiquities from the Antonine Wall and elsewhere in Scotland. The most elaborate were the 'distance slabs' which recorded the construction of the Antonine Wall in AD 142. Recent scrutiny of Faculty Minutes preserved at the University, and of other records in public and private archives, especially in the National Library of Scotland and the Scottish Record Office, has revealed many details of their acquisition and storage, correspondence among scholars and antiquaries on their significance, and the preparations for publication as a series of copperplates (with the above Latin title), which appeared in 1768. The collection continued to expand, firstly through discoveries made during the construction of the Forth & Clyde Canal (1769-74), and also by casual finds over many years. From the later 19th century onwards organised archaeological excavation produced further material, for example from the forts at Bar Hill, Baimuildy, Cadder and later Bearsden on the Antonine Wall. A full catalogue, under the title Roman Inscribed and Sculptured Stones in the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow, has recently been published by the Roman Society, London, as a Britannia monograph. Copies are obtainable from the Society, or from the Museum.

Aberdeen University

Alexander Thomson (1792-1868) was born at Banchory House, a pleasant 18th century house (rebuilt in 1846) overlooking the River Dee on the southern outskirts of Aberdeen. He inherited the intense curiosity and desire for knowledge we associate with Scotland of the 18th-century. He studied Law, Mathematics, Geology, Botany and Zoology. He was an antiquarian and an agricultural improver. To these virtues of the Enlightenment he added the more sombre concerns of a proper Victorian philanthropist in social improvement and religious observance.

Thomson's museum was not remarkable for its size, scope or quality. Indeed, it was not remarkable at all except, perhaps, as a reflection of the culture, interests and beliefs of an Aberdeenshire country gentleman during the first half of the 19th-century. By generalising from the particular, this paper will attempt to identify Scottish themes and concerns detectable in Thomson's collecting activities.