CHAPTER II. 



THE UNLETTERED HERD-BOY, AND HIS ONLY 

 EDUCATION. 



BUT amidst all this admirable outdoor education, what of 

 the school, when he came of age to attend it ? 



At that time, the parish school of Dunnottar, near the 

 Covenanters' churchyard, was the chief educational semi- 

 nary for the town. The schoolmaster was Mr. Dawson, a 

 man of great force of character, who, against much opposi- 

 tion, compelled the reluctant heritors to erect the teacher's 

 house apart from the school, one of the very few instances 

 of such healthy separation then to be found in the country ; 

 for the rule was to include both under one roof, the school 

 below and house above, low-roofed and ill-ventilated, and 

 so it generally continued to be in Scotland till the passing 

 of the Education Act, in 1872. In Stonehaven itself, an 

 adventure school was kept by a Mr. Melvin, who, possessing 

 neither the official prestige nor the sternness of the parish 

 dominie, attracted scholars by other means. As in all such 

 cases, the result was the fiercest rivalry between the two 

 temples of learning, with those frequent "bickers," or 

 organized fights between scholars, which have been 

 immortalized by Scott as engaged in by him when at the 



