Robert Pairman, son of a grocer and wine merchant in Biggar, Lanarkshire, graduated in medicine at Edinburgh University and returned to Biggar to practise as a country doctor for the rest of his working life. He quickly gained a reputation for his medical writings as well as for his care of his patients. More than once he was invited to set up in Glasgow or Edinburgh, but his loyalties lay with the people of Biggar, by whom he was much loved. Famous names like Syme and Simpson mingle with local worthies in their affectionate portrait of a 19th-century Dr. Finlay.