290 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. me Old High Schaol?
display the dresses so used should be given to the
poor.?
For many years the history of the school is little
more than a biographical list of the various masters
and teachers. A fifth class was established in I 614 for
the rudiments of Greek during the rectorship of
John Ray (the friend of Zachary Boyd), who after
being Professor of Humanity in the university for
eight years, regarded it promotion to leave it to
take full charge of the High School ; and when he
died, in February, 1630, his office was again conferred
upon a Professor of Humanity, Thomas
Crawford, who figured prominently amid the
pageants with which Charles I. was welcomed to
the city in 1633, and with Hawthornden and others
composed and delivered some of the bombastic
speeches on that occasion.
In his time the number of pupils fluctuated
greatly ; he complained to the Council that though
they had led him to expect ? 400 bairns at the least,?
he had only 180 when he began office. But there
is no authentic record of attendance at that early
period ; and it is curious that the abstract of the
annual enrolment of scholars goes no farther back
than the Session of 1738-9, while a general matriculation
register was not commenced till 1827.
In December, 1640, Crawford returned to the
university, and was succeeded by William Spence,
schoolmaster of Prestonpans ; but to give all the
successive masters of the institution would far
exceed our space. The masters and scholars had
very indifferent accommodation during the invasion
of Cromwell after Dunbar. His troops made a
barrack of the school-house, and while there broke
and burned all the woodwork, leaving it in such a
state of ruin that the pupils had to meet in Lady
Yester?s Church till it was repaired by funds drawn
from the masters of the Trinity Hospital at the foot
of Leith Wynd.
A library for the benefit of the institution was
added to it in 1658, and it now consists of many
thousand volumes. Among the first donors of
books were John Muir the rector, all the
masters, Patrick Scott of Thirlstane, and John
Lord Swinton of that ilk. At present it is sup
ported by the appropriation of one half of the
n?iatriculation fund to its use, and every way it is
a valuable classical, historical, geographical, and
antiquarian collection. The rector and masters,
with the assistance of the janitor, discharge in
rotation the duties of librarian.
Ap old periodical source of income deserves to
be noticed. In 1660, on the 20th January, the
Town Council ordered ? the casualty called the
b(rir-iZve? to be withheld until the 1st of March.
This was a gratuity presented to the masters by
their pupils at Candlemas, and he who gave the
most was named the King. ? Bleis? being the
Scottish word for blaze, the origin of the gratuity
must have been a Candlemas offering for the lights
and candles anciently in use ; moreover, the day
was a holiday, when the boys appeared in their best
apparel accompanied by their parents.
The roll was then called over, and each boy
presented his offering. When the latter was less
than the quarterly fee no notice was taken of it, but
if it amounted to that sum the rector exclaimed
with a loud voice, Vivat; to twice the ordinary
fee, FZoreai bis; for a higher sum, Fioreaf ter; for
a guinea and upwards, Gloriat! The highest
donor was named the fictor, or King.
The Council repeatedly issued injunctions
against the levy of any ?&is-syZver, or BentsyZver,?
but apparently in vain. The latter referred
to the money for collecting bent, or rushes, to lay
down on the clay floor to keep the feet warm and
dry; and so latelyas the commencement of the
seventeenth century, during the summer season,
the pupils had leave to go forth with hooks to
cut bent by the margins of Duddingston and
the Burgh lochs, or elsewhere. ?Happily,? says
Steven, of a later date, ? all exactions are now unknown
; and at four regular periods in the course of
each session, the teachers receive from their pupils
a fixed fee, which is regarded as a fair remuneration
for their professional labour.?
In those days the pupils attended divine service,
accompanied by their masters, and were frequently
catechised before the congregation. A part of
Lady Yester?s Church, was set apart for their use,
and afterwards the eastern gallery of the Trinity
College church.
In 1680, the Privy Council issued a proclamation
prohibiting all private Latin schools to be opened
within the city or suburbs, and thus the High
School enjoyed an almost undisturbed monopoly ;
and sixteen years after, in the proceedings of the
Town Council, we find the following enactment :-
?Edinbuqh, S@. 11, 1696.-The Council considering
that the High School of this city being
situate in a corner at some distance, many of the
inhabitants, whose children are tender, being unwilling
to expose them to. the cold winter mornings,
and send them to the said school before the hour
of seven, as use is ; therefore, the Council ordain
the masters of the said school in all time coming,
to meet and convene at nine of the clock in the
morning during the winter season, viz., from the
1st of November to the 1st March yearly, and to
teach the scholars till twelve, that which they were
