Topic: Heirlooms.

Not all heirlooms have monetary value, but can still be priceless, affording glimpses into a family life long gone.

My GGGF Dr. Thomas Lyle (1791-1859) although a qualified Scottish surgeon, was far more interested in Bryozoa – mosses and lichen. He lived in the tiny Stirlingshire town of Airth on the River Forth for some years, occasionally practising medicine, advising a neighbouring landowner on his garden, and collecting mosses and lichen in the nearby woods. Bannockburn of battle fame was about 7 miles distant.

He maintained a voluminous correspondence with Mr. William Wilson of Manchester, a world authority on mosses. I have in my possession two wonderful hand-bound books – one is a collection of letters from Mr. Wilson covering the period 1849 to 1854. The other is an exquisite book full of watercolours of mosses, meticulously catalogued.

Both Lyle and Wilson had very delicate spidery cursive handwriting which is not difficult to read if one has a magnifying glass! Although the correspondence was mostly professional,

Occasionally a personal snippet was included – for example on 18 October 1853 Wilson wrote: “If you must needs go to Glasgow, I sincerely hope that you will succeed in the attainment of your moderate wishes, and escape from the pestilence that you go to withstand – I shall rejoice if this revolutionary event of your life shall be productive of good to you and your wife…” (most likely he was referring to typhoid).

But alas, on 9 March 1854 Wilson again wrote: “My dear Sir, You have often been in my thoughts and I had fully intended to write to you on the day that I received yours informing me of your loss – it is a relief, I trust, both to yourself and to your departed wife (who must have suffered much under the protracted and hopeless illness) that she is gone to her rest. I trust also that you will have all the consolation which you need, in this your bereavement. The parting is a solemn event, and must have caused deep exercise of thought and feeling ….”

I also have a very old microscope which belonged to Dr. Lyle. A treasure indeed. And a number of other items which I may well write about later in the year.