32 MEMOIR OF DR. WALKER. 



" It is proposed in the following Report, to lay 

 before the Society an account of those schools which 

 I had occasion to visit and examine last year, in 

 the course of my journey through the Highlands 

 and Islands ; to mark out those places where igno- 

 rance and superstition do most prevail, and where 

 the inhabitants are most destitute of the means of 

 instruction ; and to communicate those observations 

 which occurred to me, concerning the most proper 

 methods of spreading the knowledge of the doc- 

 trines of the gospel, and the practice of its precepts, 

 in those remote and unenlightened parts of the 

 kingdom. 



" On the 23d of June 1764, I visited he charity 

 school in the parish of Kilchoman in the island of 

 Isla, of which Dougald M'Innish is master. This 

 school was erected only in the month of November 

 preceding, and during the greatest part of the win- 

 ter was attended by forty-seven scholars. On the 

 above day in June, the number of scholars in it was 

 forty-four, from five to eighteen years of age, w r ho 

 all appeared to be making very good proficiency. 

 Of this number only four could speak English when 

 they came to the school in November, and in June 

 they were all considerably advanced in speaking 

 that tongue. None of these scholars come above 

 two miles to the school, and they are the children of 

 the very poorest people, who without the opportunity 

 of this school, could not possibly have their children 

 educated. The school is kept in the churcli of Kil- 

 choman, and the schoolmaster is precentor and 



