The Environs of Craigniillnr. 



mouth, put into execution the novel idea of col- 

 lecting the street arabs into his little workroom, 

 sometimes holding out the bait of a roasted potato 

 to induce them to enter, with the view of teaching 

 them to read. It was a print hanging in a village 

 inn, representing this cobbler's room, and John 

 Pounds sitting with an old shoe between his knees, 

 looking over his spectacles on a number of ragged 

 boys and girls who stood round him with lesson- 

 book in hand, that first aroused the interest of Dr 

 Guthrie, and stirred him up to take such a promi- 

 nent part in the work of ragged-schools. That far- 

 seeing Scottish clergyman realised the truth of the 

 adage that " prevention is better than cure," and that 

 a small expenditure on schools was a wiser invest- 

 ment than spending large sums on jails. An associa- 

 tion was therefore formed to reclaim the children of 

 the lapsed masses, and endeavour to check crime at 

 the fountain-head by giving such children the benefits 

 of education, and training them to habits of industry. 

 It is now nearly half-a-century since the Industrial 

 School was instituted at the Castlehill, in Edinburgh ; 



