Hugh Miller

Hugh Miller (1802 to 1856) was a Scottish geologist, writer and folklorist. Born in Cromarty, he lost his father, a shipmaster in the coasting trade, in a shipwreck in 1807 and was brought up by his mother and uncles. At seventeen he was apprenticed to a stonemason, and his work in quarries, together with walks along the local shoreline, led him to the study of geology. In 1834 he became accountant in one of the local banks, and the next year he brought out Scenes and Legends in the North of Scotland. From 1840 he edited the newspaper The Witness in Edinburgh, becoming an influential writer and speaker in the early Free Church of Scotland. His book on geology and Christianity, The Testimony of the Rocks, was in proof when he died in 1856.