Hugh Miller was a leading journalist, geologist and controversial public figure in early-19th-century Scotland as well as a writer admired by Scott, Carlyl and Dickens. This book presents the 1828-30 memoir written by Miller which precedes My Schools and Schoolmasters, the popular autobiographical work. This youthful memoir reveals a more intimate personality than that seen in Miller's more mature writings. It tells the story of his intellectual and moral development, recounts tales from his past and offers stories from his native Cromarty. It also gives an account of his early life as a journeyman and stonemason, a rare human document from an age during which very few labouring men wrote of their experiences. With a detailed introduction examining Miller's private and public career, this book offers insight into the making of a sometimes troubled man whose life tragically ended in suicide. This memoir should be of interest to the general reader interested in Hugh Miller and Scottish history, and also to students of social history on 19th-century working-class life.