CHAP. ii. GOES TO ANOTHER SCHOOL. 27 



collar, dragged him to the door, thrust him out, and 

 locked the door after him. Edward never saw Bell 

 Hill again. 



The next school to which he was sent was at the 

 Denburn side, near by the venerable Bow brig, the 

 oldest bridge in Aberdeen,* but now swept away 

 to make room for modern improvements. This 

 school consisted wholly of boys. The master was 

 well stricken in years. He was one of the old school, 

 who had great faith in "the taws,"f as an instrument 

 of instruction. Edward would have learnt much 

 more at this school than at Bell Hill's, had he not 

 been so near his favourite haunt, the Denburn. He 

 was making rapid progress with his reading, and Was 

 going on well with his arithmetic, when his usual 

 misfortune occurred. 



One day he had gone to school earlier than usual. 



* The Rev. James Gordon, in his Description of "both Towns of 

 Aberdeen (1661), says " The bruike called the Den Burne runs 

 beneath the west side of the citie ; upon the brink quhairoff a little 

 stone bridge, at that pairt wher the brooke entereth the river Dee, 

 the Carmelites of old had a convent, whoes church and quholl 

 precinct of building wer levelled with the ground that very day 

 that the rest of the churches and convents of New Aberdeen wer 

 destroyed. There remayneth now onlie ane kilne, which standeth 

 in the outmost south corner of the citie, known this day by the 

 name of the Freer Kilne. " 



f The " Taws" consist of a leather strap about three feet long, 

 cut into tails at the end. Sometimes the ends are burnt, to make 

 them hit hard. They are applied to the back, or the " palmies" 

 that is, the palm of the hand. 



