294 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [The Second High School.
behind the class in which I was placed both in
years and progress. This was a real disadvantage,
and one to which a boy of lively temper ought to
be as little exposed as one who might be less expected
to make up his leeway, as it is called. The
situation has the unfortunate effect of reconciling a
boy of the former character (which in a posthumous
work I may claim for my own) to holding a subordinate
station among his class-fellows, to which he
would otherwise aflix disgrace. There is also,
from the constitution of the High School, a certain
danger not sufficiently attended to. The boys take
precedence in their pZaces, as they are called,
according to their merit, and it requires a long
while, in general, before even a clever boy (if he
falls behind the class, or is put into one for which
he is not quite ready) can force his way to the
situation which his abilities really entitle him to
hold. . . , . It was probablyowing to this circumstance
that, although at a more advanced period of
life I have enjoyed considerable facility in acquiring
languages, I did not make any great figure at
the High School, or, at least, any exertions which
I made were desultory, and little to be depended
upon.?
In the class with Scott, at this time, were several
clever boys among whom he affectionately enumerates,
the first dux, who retained that place without
a day?s interval during ?all the while we were at the
High School ?- James Buchan, afterwards head of
the medical staff in Egypt, where amid the wards
of the plague-hospitals, ?he displayed the same
well-regulated and gentle, yet determined perseverance,
which placed him most worthily at the head of
his class-fellows ; ? his personal friends were David
Douglas, and John Hope, W.S., who died in 1842.
?? As for myself,? he continues, ? I glanced like
a meteor from one end of the class to the other,
and commonly disgusted my master as much by
negligence and frivolity, as I occasionally pleased
him by flashes of intellect and talent. Among my
companions my good nature and a flow of ready
imagination rendered me very popular. Boys are
uncommonly just in their feelings, and at least
equally generous. I was also, though often
negligent of my own task, always ready to assist
my friends, and hence I had a little party ofstaunch
partisans and adherents, stout of heart and hand,
though somewhat dull of head-the very tools for
raising a hero to eminence. So, on the whole, I
made a brighter figure in the Yards than in the
CZms.?
After being three years in Luke Fraser?s class,
Scott, with other boys of it, was turned over to
that of the Rector Adam?s, under whose tuition he
benefited greatly in the usual classic course ; and in
the years to come he never forgot how his heart
swelled with pride when the learned Rector announced
that though many boys ? understood the
Latin better, GuaZteyus Scott was behind few in
following and enjoying the author?s meaning,
Thus encouraged, I distinguished myself by some
attempts at poetical versions from Horace and
Vigil. Dr. Adam used to invite his scholars to
write such essays, but never made them tasks. I
gained some distinction on these occasions, and the
Rector in future took much notice of me, and his
judicious mixture of censure and praise went far
to counterbalance my habits of indolence and
inattention. I saw that I was expected to do well,
and I was piqued in honour to vindicate my
master?s favourable opinion. . . . . . Dr.
Adam, to whom I owe so much, never failed to remind
me of my obligations when I had made some
figure in the literary world.?
In 1783 Scott quitted the High School, intent
-young though he was-on entering the army ;
but this his lameness prevented. His eldest son,
Lieut.-Col. Sir Walter Scott, who died in 1847,.on
board the WeZZesZey, near the Cape of Good Hope,
was also a High School pupil, under Irwin and
Pillans, between 1809 and 1814.
In the spring of 1782, Uavid, Earl of Buchan,
the active founder of the Scottish Society of
Antiquarians, paid a formal visit to the school, and
harangued the teachers and assembled scholars,
after which Dr. Adam made an extempore reply in
elegant Latin ; and nine years subsequently the
latter gave to the world one of his most important
works, ? The Roman Antiquities,? which has been
translated into many languages, and is now used as a
class book in many English schools, yet for which
he only received the sum of A600.
In 1795 we find among the joint writingkmasters
at the High School the name of Allan Masterton,
who was on such terms of intimacy with Robert
Bums, and composed the music for his famous
bacchanalian song,
? Oh, Wil& brewed a peck 0? maut,
And Rab and Allan cam? to prie ;
Three blyther lads that lee kng nicht,
Ye wadna find in Christendie ! ?
?( Willie ? was William Nicol, M.A., another schoolmaster
and musical amateur, afterwards a private
teacher in Jackson?s Land, on the north side of
the High Street, in 1795. ?? The air is Masterton?s,?
says Burns; the song is mine. . . . . We
had such a joyous meeting that Mr. Masterton and
I agreed, each in our own way, to celebrate the
business.?
