A Journey to London in 1840. 159 



from Glasserton manse. But so far as I can learn they owe the 

 <'hief part of their earh' education to a common dav labourer, 

 Daniel (ordinarih' called Dan) Hawkins, who was employed as a 

 farm servant, or on occasional jobs by their grandfatlier. This 

 Dan Hawkins, whom I knew well and who, so far as I know, is 

 .still alive, was a native of the north of Ireland, and being con- 

 cerned in the rebellion of 1798 had fled and taken refuge in that 

 part of Scotland to which I refer. He never spoke, at least to 

 me, of his early history, but it was universally said that lie had 

 l)een meant for a priest, and that his education was therefore 

 liberal. Certainly his education had been very liberal, for even 

 when I first knew him, which was twenty years after he had come 

 to Scotland, he could recite whole pages in succession of Homer, 

 Horace, and other classical poets, but chiefly Homer. He could 

 read Greek roughly, ad apertiiram libri, and was much given to 

 etymology. He delighted to have a spar with a classical scholar, 

 and I never knew him come off second best. Yet though an 

 excellent classical scholar and a great, indeed a lively, intelligent 

 talker, he was not assuming ; on the contrary, he was a man of 

 great propriety. He was rather given to reading, and after the 

 labours of the day he not infrequently indulged himself in reading 

 Greek. I have myself lent him several Greek volumes, and he 

 jjerused every page of them before they were returned. There 

 was something exceedingly interesting in this : a day labourer and 

 a scholar combined in one person ; a man whose station was ex- 

 ceedingly humble and whose physical comforts were very low, 

 yet whose scholarship would have done honour to an episcopal or 

 professional head. He had but one moral failing, so far as I 

 know, he was fond of a dram, but poor fellow, such an indulgence 

 he could seldom command. I do not mean to insinuate that he 

 was a drunkard. He was not so. But he was not scrupulous in 

 taking an overdose when such a thing came in his way. When 1 

 knew him he was what is called a jobber, and was much emploved 

 in digging pump wells. 



To this lively, clever, and learned man was M'Culloch in- 

 ilebted for the greater share of his early education. Dan worked 

 for the grandfather during the day and taught the grandsons in 

 the evening. At one period for about three months he devoted 

 his time exclusively to the education of the boys. Thus was edu- 

 cated a person who stands at this moment in the first list of the 



