CHAPTER II.

SCHOOL AND COLLEGE.

THE first school to which Thomas Drummond was sent was the Grammar School of Musselburgh. The master of the school was then a Mr Taylor, who was assisted in his duties by his son Colin. The memory of these persons is not "sweetly odorous" in this connection, and we shall say little more of them than may suffice to explain why this should be so.

Young Drummond, who was short of stature for his years, was far from being a favourite of his master, notwithstanding that he was so diligent as usually to be dux in his classes. And yet Mr Taylor had favourites : they were children in whose homes he and his son were used "to join the social circle." On several accounts the circle at Eskside was direly exclusive of the master and his connections.

It was hard for the emulous boy to be occasionally ousted from his proper place in the class, that some more favoured schoolfellow might get it, and gladden the hearts of hospitable parents. Yet such preferences, in violation of the rule "palmam qui meruit ferat," might have been submitted to; not resented, even if complained of. But that the master's grudge at the boy's superiority should show itself in nail-marks nigh through the ear, that "the most deserving" should systematically be treated with injustice and cruelty,

was unsupportable-not brutality merely, but absolute indiscretion and stupidity, on the dominie's part, certain to lead in time to exposure and humiliation. One day little Drummond came home with his ears horribly pinched and blood all over his dress. This produced the crisis that was certain to come some day. The Eskside circle was not without connections of influence to procure for them an investigation, and to bring the teacher to account. The way in which the boy had long been treated was then fully disclosed, and a lesson read to Mr Taylor which he never forgot.

One of those who interfered to check these practices was Mr Aitchison of Drummore, a gentleman of great wealth, who had been an intimate friend and admirer of "the last Laird of Comrie," and who continued to take an affectionate interest in the family. He is mentioned, in a letter of Drummond's belonging to this time, as reprimanding the Taylors for their improper conduct. This letter, which is addressed to his eldest brother, is carefully ruled with pencil, and written in boy's "half-text." It is dated 27th September (the year was probably 1807), and gives us Tommy's views of the crisis which had occurred. "Mr Aitchison gave him [Colin Taylor] a terrible scold about partiality, which he told to his father, and Mr Taylor's tongue has never lain. One time when he was speaking, he said, 'I shall be accused of partiality by none.' I have not told you the half of it. At one time we thought he was going out of his senses, but he has now turned a little calmer." After this, Drummond received from

* The following genuine "boy's bit" in this letter is worth preserving :-"We are sailing our ships yet. I am sure you will not sail the Dutch ship any more. My mother and aunt think you might give it to me, and I will give mine to John.”

the Taylors fair play as well as the ordinary elementary instruction.

His next teachers were of a different stamp: one was a Mr Roy, an accomplished scholar, who afterwards became tutor in the Bedford family; the other, George Jardine, Professor of Logic and Rhetoric in the University of Glasgow.

Professor Jardine, being in delicate health, was advised to pass his summers in Portobello. He was an old friend of the family on the mother's side, and at once fell into intimate relations with them. For Thomas, in particular, he conceived a great affection, and insisted on having him for a pupil. Accordingly, for two summers (the professor being obliged to winter in Glasgow) Drummond had the advantage of his instructions in the Latin language, and, generally, in what are in Scotland called the Humanities. The acquaintance and affection thus begun lasted into after life, and the professor and his pupil long corresponded. Some of his letters to young Drummond exhibit him in an exceedingly amiable light. His acting as tutor during these two summers was, in every sense, a labour of love as it is a pleasure to find an apt and assiduous pupil, he, doubtless, had his reward. The pride of Mrs Drummond may be imagined on his casually remarking to her one day, "John Wilson and your Tom are the cleverest boys I ever had under my charge." The author of the "Noctes" had not by this time flowered into his fame, and it was in fields altogether different from the professor's that Drummond's full powers were destined to be exhibited.

While his summers were spent with Professor Jardine, his winters were passed with a private tutor. The assistance in the former case came from the mother's

side; in the latter, it came from the father's. Mr Aitchison of Drummore has already been referred to as a friend of the family. With him, too, Thomas was the favourite, and he insisted on providing for him a tutor to be resident in the family at his expense. The tutor was Mr Roy, under whose care very considerable progress was made. He and Tom were fast friends-a guarantee for effective action of master on pupil.

In 1810, Drummond, now in the thirteenth year of his age, came to Edinburgh to be a pupil and boarder with Mr George Scott, then a mathematical master in the High Street. He continued with Mr Scott for two years, always walking to Musselburgh on the Saturday, and remaining at home over the Sunday. Scott's pupils were taught in a class, and Drummond was always dux in it. "His knowledge of geometry," writes Mr Scott in 1812, "I have never seen equalled in one of his age; and the progress he is now making in the higher branches of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, is such as might be expected from one who possesses a sound judgment, combined with uncommon application."

"

Here his

While boarding with Mr Scott, Drummond also attended classes in the University of Edinburgh, of which he was enrolled an alumnus in 1810. chief subjects of study were Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Chemistry. His college exercises, solutions of problems, or proofs of theorems, done in the classes of Professors Leslie and Playfair, have been preserved, and attest his talent for this species of intellectual work. On many of them are remarks written by the professors, nearly all commendatory, such as

*Letter to Mrs Drummond, 24th November 1812.

'Concise," "Remarkably neat," "Most neatly and ably solved ;" while frequently the exercises bring out results not expected, or, at least, not asked for, by the prescriber, but which the quick intelligence of the student, going beyond the mere line of prescribed duty, discerned. These results are often and very justly characterised as "most curious," and the mode of discovering and exhibiting them as "most ingenious." Several of them undoubtedly exhibit remarkable ability and ingenuity in a lad of fourteen; and no one can glance over them and be surprised at Leslie's certifying at the close of the course, “I have no hesitation in saying that no young man has ever come under my charge with a happier disposition or more promising talents."*

Drummond's bent now seemed to be distinctly disclosed, and to be distinctly scientific. But while he was chiefly engaged in scientific studies, he was nowise neglectful of his culture in general literature and the classics. Some fairly done copies of Latin verses belonging to this time-he used to submit his efforts to the correction of Professor Jardine-show that his cultivation, though exceeding on the one side, was by no means one-sided. It is impossible to say what might have been the effect on his career of a bias towards mere literary culture, had it been given at this time. A love for classical literature grew upon him with his years, a rare thing in one eminent in mathematics. As it was, the boy's mind seemed to be finding its natural field in the definite logical processes of mathematics pure and applied. Jardine appears to have seen this, and to have hinted at his yielding to the natural bent, in a letter to him, dated 10th March 1811,

* Letter to Mr Macfarlane, 26th December 1812.