‘I must launch forth in the morning, so as to be at the College
(which is a walk of eight minutes) half an hour after seven,
when I speak for an hour without interruption to an audience
of about a hundred. At eleven I examine for an hour upon my
morning prelection; but my audience is a little more than a
third part of what it was in the morning. In a week or two I
must, for three days in the week, have a second prelection at
twelve, upon a different subject, where my audience will be
made up of those who hear me in the morning but do not attend
at eleven. My hearers commonly attend my class two years at
least. They pay fees for the first two years, and then they
are _cives_ of the class, and may attend gratis as many years
as they please. Many attend the moral philosophy class four
or five years; so that I have many preachers and students
of divinity and law of considerable standing, before whom I
stand in awe to speak without more preparation than I have
leisure for. I have a great inclination to attend some of the
professors here, several of whom are very eminent in their way;
but I cannot find leisure. Much time is consumed in our college
meetings about business, of which we have commonly four or five
in the week. We have a Literary Society once a week, consisting
of the Masters and two or three more; where each of the members
has a discourse once in the session.... Near a third part of
our students are Irish. Thirty came over lately in one ship,
besides three that went to Edinburgh. We have a good many
English, and some foreigners. Many of the Irish, as well as
Scotch, are poor, and come up late to save money; so that we
are not yet fully convened, although I have been teaching ever
since the 10th of October. Those who pretend to know, say that
the number of students this year, when fully convened, will
amount to 300.... By this time I am sure you have enough of
the College; for you know as much as I can tell you of the
fine houses of the Masters, of the Astronomical Observatory,
of Robin Foulis’ collection of pictures and painting college,
and of the foundry for types and printing-house. Therefore
I will carry you home to my own house, which lyes among the
middle of the weavers, like the back-wynd in Aberdeen. You
go through a long, dark, abominably nasty entry, which leads
you into a clean little close. You walk upstairs to a neat
little dining-room, and find as many other little rooms as
just accommodate my family; so scantily that my apartment is
a closet of six feet by eight or nine off the dining-room. To
balance these little inconveniences, the house is new and free
of buggs; it has the best air and finest prospect in Glasgow;
the privilege of a large garden, very airy, to walk in, which
is not so nicely kept, but one may use freedom with it. A five
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account