The Old High School.] RECTORS AND TEACHERS, 291
, in use to teach in those mornings and forenoons.
And considering that the ordinary Latin rudiments
in use to be taught children at their beginning to
the Latin tongue is difficult and hard for beginners,
and that Wedderburn?s Rudiments are more plain
and easy, the Council ordain the said masters in
time coming, to teach and begin their scholars with
Wedderburn?s Rudiments in place of the Latin
Rudiments in use as taught formerly. Ro. CHIESLIE,
Provost.??
David Wedderburn, whose work is thus referred
to, was born about 1570, and was the accomplished
author of many learned works, and died, it is supposed,
about 1644, soon after the publication of
his ?? Centuria Tertia.?
In 1699 A40 Scots was voted by the magistrates
to procure books as a reward for the best scholars,
and when the century closed the institution was in
a most creditable condition, and they-as patrons
-declared that ?? not a few persons that are now
eminent for piety and learning, both in Church and
State, had been educated there.?
In the year I 7 I 6 there was an outbreak among
the scholars for some reason now unknown ; but
they seem to have conducted themselves in an outrageous
manner, demolishing every pane of glass
in the school, and also of Lady Yester?s church,
levelling to the earth even the solid stone wall
which enclosed the school-yard. About this time
the janitor of the institution was David Malloch, a
man distinguished in after life as author of the
beautiful ballad of ? William and Margaret,? a poet
and miscellaneous writer, and under-secretary to the
Prince of Wales in 1733; to please the English
ear, he changed his name to Mallet, and became
an avowed infidel, and a venal author of the worst
description. Dr. Steven refers to his receipt as
being extant, dated 2nd February, 1718, ?for
sixteen shillings and eight pence sterling, being his
full salary for the preceding half-year. That was
the exact period he held the office.?
In 1736 we again hear of the BZeis-siher, cca
profitable relic of popery, which it seemed difficult
to relinquish.? Heartburnings had arisen because
it had become doubtful in what way the Candlemas
offerings should be apportioned between the rector
and masters; thus, on the 28th January in that
year, the Council resolved that the rector himself,
and no other, shall collect, not only his own quarterly
fees, but also the fee of one shilling from
each scholar in the other classes. The Council
also transferred the right from the master of the
third, to the mzster of the first elementary class,
to demand a shilling quarterly from each pupil in
the rector?s class; and declared that the rector
and four masters should favourably receive from
the scholars themselves whatever benevolence or
Candlemas offerings might be presented.?
Thomas Ruddiman, the eminent grammarian and
scholar, who was born at Boyndie in 1674 and
who in 1724 began to vary his great literary
undertakings by printing the ancient Cdedonian
Mercqv, about I 737 established-together with
the rector, the masters, and thirty-one other persons-
a species of provident association for their
own benefit and that of their widows and children,
and adopting as the title of the society, ?The
Company of the Professors and Teachers of the
liberal arts and sciences, or any branch or part
thereof, in the City of Edinburgh and dependencies
thereof.?
The co-partners were all taxed equally; but
owing to inequalities in the yearly contributions, a
dissolution nearly took place after an existence of
fifty years; but the association rallied, and stcl
exists in a flourishing condition.
One of the most popular masters in the early
part of the eighteenth century was Mr. James
Barclay, who was appointed in June, 1742, and
whose experience as a teacher, attainments, and
character, caused him to be remembered by his
scholars long after his removal to Dalkeith, where
he died in 1765.
When Henry Mackenzie, author of the ?? Man of
Feeling,? was verging on his eightieth year, he
contributed to Dr. Steven?s CL History,? his reminiscences
of the school in his own early years,
between 1752 and 1757, which we are tempted to
quote at length :-
?Rector Lees, a very respectable, grave, and
gentlemanlike man, father or uncle, I am not sure
which, of Lees, the Secretary for Ireland. He
maintained great dignity, treating the other masters
somewhat de had a bar; severe, and rather too
intolerant of dulness, but kind to more promising
talents. It will not be thought vanity, I trust-for
I speak with the sincerity and correctness of a
third person-when I say that I was rather a
favourite with him, and used for several years after
he resigned his office to drink tea with him at his
house in a large land or building at the country
end of the suburb called Pleasance, built by one
Hunter, a tailor, whence it got the name of
? Hunter?s Folly,? or the Castle 0? Clouts.?
cc MAsrERs continued-Ersf, or youngest class,
when I was put to school, Farquhar, a native of
Banffshire, cousin-german of Farquhar, author of
admired-and indeed t h q may be called admirable-
sermons, and of Mr. Farquhar, the Vicar of
Hayes, a sort of Parson Adams,? a favourite ot
