William Fairbairn was born in the town of Kelso, in Roxburghshire on February 19th, 1789. His father, Andrew, was descended, on the male side, from a humble but respectable class of small lairds, or, as they were called, Portioners, who farmed their own land, as was the custom in Scotland in those days. On the female side the pedigree may have been of higher character, for Andrew’s mother was said by him to have claimed descent from the ancient border family of Douglas. She was a tall, handsome, and commanding woman, and lived to a great age. William’s mother was a Miss Henderson, the daughter of a tradesman in Jedburgh, and the direct descendant of an old border family of the name of Oliver, for many years respectable stock-farmers in a pastoral district at the northern foot of the Cheviots. The lad was early sent to school, and made fair progress in what may be called a plain English education. He was fond of athletic exercises, and one of his feats was to climb to the top of the mouldering turrets of the old abbey at Kelso. In the autumn of 1799, the position of the family materially altered. The father was offered the charge of a farm, 300 acres, in Ross-shire, which was to be the joint property of himself and his brother, Mr. Peter Fairbairn, for many years a resident in that county, and secretary to Lord Seaforth, of Castle Braham; and there, in an evil hour, the family removed. But it was there that young William, who was compelled to make himself generally useful, first exhibited his taste for mechanics. The father next became steward to Mackenzie, of Allan Grange; and at the school at Mullochy, which the boy attended, he describes the advantage derived by himself and his brother from wearing Saxon costumes instead of Tartan kilts. The master was a severe disciplinarian, and he found English trousers very much in the way of his favourite punishment. After two years the family moved south, and William’s father became steward to Sir William Ingleby, of Ingleby Manor, near Knaresborough. After a few months spent in improving himself in arithmetic, in studying book-keeping and land surveying, William, being a tall lad of fourteen, was sent to work at Kelso. About this time the family were in much difficulty; but the father got a better post at Percy Main Colliery, near North Shields, and his son followed him there. Wages were very high, and the demoralisation amongst the men was such as, Sir William tells us, he never saw before or since. Pitched battles, brawling, drinking, and cock-fighting, seemed to be the order of the day. Among the pit lads boxing was considered a necessary exercise. And Fairbairn tells us he had to fight no less than seventeen battles before he was enabled to attain a position calculated to insure respect. In March, 1804, he was put into a better and more definite position by entering regularly on a course of education as mechanical engineer. He was bound apprentice to the millwright of the