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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
THE first edition of this work having obtained a degree of favour much beyond its deserts, I have been encouraged carefnlly to revise every portion of it. The entire arrangement has been altered, the department more especially anecdotal recast, and much new matter added. Besides, the present editiou is produced at a price more suited to the majority of readers.
A CENTURY OF ScOTTISH LIFE is the most appropriate title I can devise for a work which includes memorials and anecdotes of remarkable Scotsmen and others during the last hundred years. For a portion of the memorials I am indebted to my late father, a Scottish country minister, and one of the best conversationalists of his time. Personally I have had the privilege of associating with many gifted Scotsmen for the last thirty years, and I have commemorated those who are departed. My sketches are short, for I have not attempted biographies. Throughout the work I have endeavoured to be succinct, preferring to illustrate my subject with anecdotes rather than with reflections of my own. The present edition is enriched with contributions from my patriotic friend Mr. Sheriff Barclay of Perthshire, and other ingenious and obliging correspondents.
CHARLES ROGERS
In the first chapter there is a great description of St Andrews University...
"St. Andrews, with its three colJeges, had dwindled into a state bordering on decay. The modern tenements were built of timber, and the older houses were in ruins. The streets, meanly paved, yielded a crop of grass, which was mowed by sheep; while less frequented thoroughfares had crossings of boulders, by means of which pedestrians could in wet weather avoid stepping into pools. of mud. In the heart of the city a street was named the Foul Waste, and the name was appropriate; it was the receptacle of abomination of every sort, and constantly emitted a loathsome smell. The Cathedral buildings were unenclosed; from the ruins, builders took stones to rear private dwellings, and the citizens adapted the surrounding burial-ground for every purpose of convenience. The three colleges were greatly dilapidated. St. Leonard's Hulls were the repositories of farm produce and winter fodder. The Common Hall of St. Salvator's College was a dreary vault, with cobwebbed roof and damp earthen floor. The lecture rooml! were small, dingy, and ill ventilated. In St. Mary's College, one room, dark and dismal, served for the prelections of the four Professors of Theology. The foundation bursers resided in a wing of St. Salvator's College; they were lodged, maintained, and taught at the expense of the institution. The entertainment provided was limited in extent, and in quality most wretched. For breakfast we received half an oaten loaf, with half a chopin of beer; the latter was brewed on the premises, and could not have been of worse quality. Dinner was at three o'clock served in the Common Hall. Broth and beef constituted the fare four days weekly. A profesllor presided; he tasted the broth; and looked on as we ate the coarse flesh with which it was prepared. Thrice a week we dined on fish or eggs. Tea and coffee were unknown. Our evening meal consisted of a twopenny loaf, with a jug of the college beer.
Each bursar's apartment was eight feet square. The bedsteads were timber tressels, and the beds were rough and hard. Each room had a fireplace, but as smoky chimneys were the rule, we seldom used fire, except when extremity of cold rendered smoke with a little heat more tolerable than starvation. Each bursar provided and kept clean his knife and fork; but the professors, in consideration of deducting from our bursaries sixteen shillings and eightpence, gave us the use of silver spoons.
You can download this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ryscottish.pdf
Alastair
THE first edition of this work having obtained a degree of favour much beyond its deserts, I have been encouraged carefnlly to revise every portion of it. The entire arrangement has been altered, the department more especially anecdotal recast, and much new matter added. Besides, the present editiou is produced at a price more suited to the majority of readers.
A CENTURY OF ScOTTISH LIFE is the most appropriate title I can devise for a work which includes memorials and anecdotes of remarkable Scotsmen and others during the last hundred years. For a portion of the memorials I am indebted to my late father, a Scottish country minister, and one of the best conversationalists of his time. Personally I have had the privilege of associating with many gifted Scotsmen for the last thirty years, and I have commemorated those who are departed. My sketches are short, for I have not attempted biographies. Throughout the work I have endeavoured to be succinct, preferring to illustrate my subject with anecdotes rather than with reflections of my own. The present edition is enriched with contributions from my patriotic friend Mr. Sheriff Barclay of Perthshire, and other ingenious and obliging correspondents.
CHARLES ROGERS
In the first chapter there is a great description of St Andrews University...
"St. Andrews, with its three colJeges, had dwindled into a state bordering on decay. The modern tenements were built of timber, and the older houses were in ruins. The streets, meanly paved, yielded a crop of grass, which was mowed by sheep; while less frequented thoroughfares had crossings of boulders, by means of which pedestrians could in wet weather avoid stepping into pools. of mud. In the heart of the city a street was named the Foul Waste, and the name was appropriate; it was the receptacle of abomination of every sort, and constantly emitted a loathsome smell. The Cathedral buildings were unenclosed; from the ruins, builders took stones to rear private dwellings, and the citizens adapted the surrounding burial-ground for every purpose of convenience. The three colleges were greatly dilapidated. St. Leonard's Hulls were the repositories of farm produce and winter fodder. The Common Hall of St. Salvator's College was a dreary vault, with cobwebbed roof and damp earthen floor. The lecture rooml! were small, dingy, and ill ventilated. In St. Mary's College, one room, dark and dismal, served for the prelections of the four Professors of Theology. The foundation bursers resided in a wing of St. Salvator's College; they were lodged, maintained, and taught at the expense of the institution. The entertainment provided was limited in extent, and in quality most wretched. For breakfast we received half an oaten loaf, with half a chopin of beer; the latter was brewed on the premises, and could not have been of worse quality. Dinner was at three o'clock served in the Common Hall. Broth and beef constituted the fare four days weekly. A profesllor presided; he tasted the broth; and looked on as we ate the coarse flesh with which it was prepared. Thrice a week we dined on fish or eggs. Tea and coffee were unknown. Our evening meal consisted of a twopenny loaf, with a jug of the college beer.
Each bursar's apartment was eight feet square. The bedsteads were timber tressels, and the beds were rough and hard. Each room had a fireplace, but as smoky chimneys were the rule, we seldom used fire, except when extremity of cold rendered smoke with a little heat more tolerable than starvation. Each bursar provided and kept clean his knife and fork; but the professors, in consideration of deducting from our bursaries sixteen shillings and eightpence, gave us the use of silver spoons.
You can download this book at: http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...ryscottish.pdf
Alastair