HUGH MILLER. 1 1 5 



boarding-school; at nineteen he altered and polished the 

 verses ; in the vigour of early manhood he described the 

 adventure in a letter to Principal Baird ; and when over fifty 

 years of age, he gave the most glowing and perfect account 

 of all in Schools and Schoolmasters. 



After this romantic occurrence, he visited some friends 

 in the highlands of Sutherland, which had the effect of 

 familiarizing his mind with the scenery, character, and condi- 

 tion of the Highlands. At this time he showed considerable 

 activity of mind in the peculiar character of his amusements. 

 He made small vessels like those he had read about in the 

 voyages of Anson and Cook, and launched them in a horse- 

 pond. In turn he tried chemistry, and painting, and sculp- 

 ture, and palmistry. He would also draw a map of a 

 particular country in the sand, and, having collected quan- 

 tities of variously-coloured shells from the beach, he arranged 

 them in such a way as to represent its inhabitants; or, 

 heading a band of school-fellows, they would penetrate one 

 of the steepest precipices on the south foot of the hill of 

 Cromarty, and personate outlaws and buccaneers. Mean- 

 while his mother and uncles found him a troublesome lad 

 to manage. He would sometimes play truant from school 

 for three weeks out of four, and he continued obstinate 

 and wilful. In the winter of 1816, he lost both his two 

 little sisters, and could not but be touched at his mother's 

 grief. His schooling finished when he was fifteen in a 

 pitched battle with his teacher. Before that time he had 

 proved himself^ a desperate fighter in his combats with the 

 other boys. In his fight with his master, he was mauled in 

 a way that filled him with aches and bruises for a full 

 month after. 



