Hugh Miller : Stonemason, Geologist, Writer

by Taylor, Michael

• ISBN13: 9781905267057
• ISBN10: 1905267053
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-09-15
• Publisher: Antique Collectors Club Ltd

Summary

A tall man with a shepherd's plaid over a tweed suit, Hugh Miller was a familiar sight rambling in Victorian-era Scotland through Edinburgh's streets. He was famous throughout the English-speaking world for his eloquence and powers of observation, and popularized the notion of fossil collecting and experiencing nature. Miller's books, such as Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland , along with his theories of evolutionary biology brought him the recognition of the larger scientific community. Also as a muckraking journalist and social reformer, he condemned the Highland Clearances that led to the eviction of hundreds of thousands of families from their lands in the process of modernizing agriculture and supported the Free Church after the 'Disruption of the Church of Scotland.' Hugh Miller brings this genius -to a wider audience. Now, recent scholarship reassessing 19th century scientific and religious debates, are leading to a fuller appreciation of this complex, neglected figure. After the 200-year anniversary of his birth in 2002, this biography follows the 2003 facsimile edition of Miller's The Cruise of the Betsey and Rambles of a Geologist , which Michael Taylor edited.

Author Biography

Michael A. Taylor is Principal Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology in National Museums Scotland, which holds most of Miller's fossil collection.

Table of Contents

Map of Scotland	p. 4
Map of Edinburgh and Leith in the 1850s	p. 5
Foreword	p. 6
Acknowledgements	p. 9
Image Credits	p. 11
'Cromarty Man (c. 1837)'	p. 12
Preface	p. 13
Introduction: One of the living forces of Scotland	p. 17
A wild insubordinate boy	p. 22
A life of manual labour	p. 27
The literary lion of Cromarty	p. 34
A sort of Robinson Crusoe in geology	p. 40
A long, and, in its earlier stages, anxious courtship	p. 45
A plain working man, in rather humble circumstances	p. 53
Among the remains of a different creation	p. 59
Strife, toil, and comparative obscurity	p. 68
His business was to fight	p. 75
The truth I speak, impugn it whoso list	p. 84
The landscape was one without figures	p. 93
The quiet enthusiasm of the true fossil-hunter	p. 99
He clothed the dry bones of science	p. 105
Exceedingly plausible and consummately dangerous	p. 116
A gray maud, buckled shepherd-fashion	p. 125
These are but small achievements	p. 131
A tenderly affectionate parent	p. 139
Dearest Lydia, dear children, farewell	p. 145
Life itself is a school	p. 153
Sources	p. 160
A note on the Memoir	p. 165
Glossary	p. 166
Places and websites to visit	p. 168
Further websites	p. 169
Suggestions for further reading	p. 169
Miller's major books	p. 170
Index	p. 171
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