Note 489:1 — Chapter XVII

The following provision is in a codicil: "I also leave for rebuilding the bridge of Churnside the sum of a hundred pounds; but on condition that the manager of the bridge shall take none of the stones for building the bridge from the quarry of Ninewells, except from that part of the quarry which has been already opened." With reference to this, Dr. Cullen, in the letter cited, p. 516, says, "In the neighbourhood of his brother's house, in Berwickshire, is a brook, by which the access in time of floods is frequently interrupted. Mr. Hume bequeaths £100 for building a bridge over this brook, but upon the express condition that none of the stones for that purpose shall be taken from a quarry in the neighbourhood, which forms part of a romantic scene, in which, in his earlier days, Mr. Hume took particular delight." This is the only authenticated instance that I remember to have met with of Hume's attachment to local scenery. It is a tradition in Edinburgh, that he was fond of walking along the base of Salisbury Crags.