34 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
devil out of his heart.” Here he
continued until he removed to the shop in Nicolson Street, afterwards occupied
by his successor Mr. Tait, with whom he entered into partnership. The
business was afterwards carried on under the firm of Guthrie and Tait.
Few men were more
universally benevolent. Never forgetting the hardships and struggles of early
life, his hand was open to the truly necessitous ; and, as far as his circumstances
mould permit, he promoted, both by advice and assistance, the endeavours of
the industrious poor to earn an honest livelihood. He was also a constant, and
frequently a liberal, contributor to the religious and philanthropic institutions
of the city.
Mr. Guthrie was an Episcopalian when that form of worship was at a low
ebb, but lived long enough to witness its gradual revival and increase. His
primitive mode of transacting business was the effect of early habit, and could
not easily be laid aside by change of circumstances. He died on the 10th May
1824.
He next opened a shop at the Nether Bow.
Mr. Guthrie was a very inoffensive, worthy person.
He was married, but had no children.
No. CLXXXIII.
WILLIAN BUTTER, ESQ.,
AND
SIR JOHN MORRISON.
THE figure to the left represents MR. BUTTER in the attitude of applying a
‘‘ social pinch,” and engaged in an ‘‘ accidental crack ” with his friend Sir John
Morrison.
The father of Mr. Butter originally belonged to Peterhead, but came in early
life to Edinburgh, where he successfully carried on the business of a might and
cabinetmaker ; and at his death left his son, the subject of the Print, in possession
of considerable property.’ His workshop was at the foot of Carrubber’s
Close, where he also resided ; and it is yet told, as illustrative of the old man’s
mechahical genius, and as a matter of wonder in those days, that he built an
additional story to his dwelling-house without taking down the roof. This he
accomplished-as has been frequently done more recently-by means of screws.
After the death of his father, Mr. William Butter continued to carry on
business in:the same premises, but on a more extensive scale. He was Carpenter
to his Majesty j and, among other extensive buildings in which he was engaged,
Mr. Butter senior ww a member of the Town Council in 1749 and 1750.