"A light to guide, a rod
To check the erring and reprove."
(_Wordsworth--"Ode to Duty"_)


Few of the many conversations I have had from time to time with old
Willy have been more interesting than those upon the subject of schools
and schoolmasters in the days when he was young.

In the early part of the nineteenth century education was conducted in
a primitive fashion at Ardmuirland. In a small community, consisting
almost entirely of Catholics, and those mostly in poor circumstances, a
trained teacher was rarely to be found. In many country districts like
ours the task of instructing the young devolved upon one or other of
the better educated of the crofter class. For in those days even
reading and writing--not to mention "counting," or arithmetic, as we
style it--constituted a liberal education in Ardmuirland, and many of
the people were unable to boast of possessing either. Hence when one
of the community was sufficiently versed in such accomplishments he was
looked up to as a qualified instructor.

Willy had passed through the hands of more than one of such
schoolmasters, and his recollections on the subject are interesting.
The one who seems to have made the most impression upon his memory was
a better informed man than is usually found in the class to which he
belonged.

"Finlay Farquharson wes the best o' them a'! There wes saxty or