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.?
I
The Second High School.] JAMES PILLANS. 295
Of the Rector and other teachers we have the
following description by Mr. B. Mackay, M.A., in
Steven?s work :-? I first saw the High School in
1803. I was then a youth of sixteen, and had come
from Caithness, my native county, with a view to
prosecute the study ofmedicine . . . . . The
first master to whom I was introduced was the celebrated
Dr. Adam. He was sitting at his study
table with ten or twelve large old volumes spread
out before him. He received us with great kindness,
invited me to visit his class, and obligingly
offered to solve any difficulties that might present
themselves in the course of my classical reading,
but held out no prospect of private teaching. His
appearance was that of a fresh, strong, healthy
old man, with an exceedingly benevo!ent countenance.
Raeburn?s portrait of him, hung up in the
school, is an admirable likeness, as well as the
print engraved from it. He wore a short threadbare
spencer, or jacket, which gave him rather a
droll appearance, and, as I then thought, indicated
economical habits. I was successively introduced
to all the other masters, and visited their classes.
The first day I entered Dr. Adam?s class he came
forward to meet me, and said, ? Come away, sir !
You will see more done here in an hour than in
any other school in Europe.? I sat down on one
of the cross benches. The Doctor was calling up
pupils from all parts of it ; taking sometimes the
head, sometimes the foot of the forms ; sometimes
he examined the class downwards from head to
ioot, and sometimes from foot to head. . . . .
The next class I visited was that of Mr. Alexander
Christison, afterwards Professor of Humanity. He
was seated quite erect in his desk, his chin resting
on his thumb, and his fore-finger turned up towards
his temple, and occasionally pressed against his
nose. When we entered he.took no notice of us.
He was giving short sentences in English, and
requiring the boys to turn them extmfore into
Latin, and vary them through all the moods and
tenses, which they did with great readiness and
precision. His class was numerous, but presented
the stillness of death. You might have heard a
pin drop. . . . . . The next master to
whom I was introduced was Mr. Luke Fraser,
whom we found standing on the floor examining
his class. He was, I think, the strongest built man
I ever beheld. He was then old, and wore a
scratch wig. The class, like the rest, was numerous
and in fine order. In changing books, however,
the boys made a little noise, which he checked by
a tremendous stamp on the floor that made both
them and me quake, and enveloped his own legs
in a cloud of dust.??
During all the years of his rectorship Adam
was contributing from time to time to the classical
literature of the country. The least popular of his
many works is the ?Classical Biography,? published
in 1800 ; and the last and most laborious of
his useful compilations was his abridged ? h i c o n
Lingue mine Compendiarium,? 8v0, published in
1805. Through life he had been a hard student
and an early riser. On leaving his class at three
pm., his general walk was round by the then
tree-shaded Grange Loan ; but in earlier years his
favourite ramble was up the green slopes of Arthur?s
Seat. Having been seized in school with an
apoplectic attack, he languished for five days, and
as death was approaching, fancying himself during
the wanderings of his mind, as the light faded
from his eyes, still among his pupils, he said, ?But
it grows dud-boys, you may go ! ?? and instantly
expired, in the 68th year of liis age, on the 18th
December, 1809.
His remains were laid in the gloomy little ground
attached to St. Cuthbert?s chapel of ease, where a
monument was erected to his memory with a Latin
inscription thereon, written by Dr. James Gregory
of the Edinburgh University. He was among the
last who adhered to the old-fashioned dress,
breeches and silk stockings, with knee and shoebuckles
and the queue, though he had relinquished
the use of hair-powder.
A successor was found to him in the person of
Mr. James Pillans, M.A. (the ?paltry Pillans? of
Byron?s ? English Bards and Scotch Reviewers ?),
who was elected rector on the 24th of January, 1810.
As one of the Doctor?s early pu~ils, and ranking next
to Francis Homer, who had borne off the highest
honours, he entered upon his duties with enthusiasm,
and the ardour with which he was received in the hall
of the High School on his a, karance there, augured
well for the future. In 1811 he published a selection
from the school exercises of his best pupils, a
volume, which, excepting imperfections, was most
honourable to the boyish authors, the oldest of
whom had not reached his fifteenth year. A
favourable critique of this unique work-which was
in Latin metre-appeared in the Quarter& Review
from the pen of the then poet laureate, Southey.
To the cultivation of Greek literature great
attention was now paid, and the appearance made
by the pupils at their periodical examinations was
so brilliant, that on the motion of Sir John
Marjoribanks, Bart., the Ldrd Provost, the Town
Council unanimously resolved on the 27th July,
1814, ?that there be annually presented by the
City of Edinburgh to the boy at the head of the
Greek class, taught by the Rector of the High
