12 FOTHERGILL'S BIRTH AND TRAINING CHAP. 



His grandfather Hough had left him 120 towards the 

 cost of his education. Receiving 20 of this sum, Fother- 

 gill mounted his horse and set off for the northern capital. 

 His journey from Yorkshire occupied three days ; he 

 spent 175. 6d. on the road, and sold his horse at the end 

 for four guineas. In Edinburgh he paid half a crown a 

 week for his lodgings. 1 



We may pause here to recall the Edinburgh of those 

 days, its famous university and the rise of its medical 

 school. 



The Edinburgh of 1734 was little like the Scottish 

 capital of to-day. The castle, indeed, upon its rocky 

 height, Salisbury Crags, and Arthur's Seat, and the 

 sombre halls of Holyrood were then as now, but there 

 were no spacious streets and monuments ; the old town, 

 with its narrow " gates " between tall houses, its wynds 

 and closes, formed the Edinburgh in which Fothergill 

 pursued his studies. The Porteous Riot, which took 

 place during his stay, showed how much of savagery 

 still lingered in the Scottish character. None of the 

 medical buildings of that time seem to be now standing. 

 The Infirmary had lately been opened in a small house 

 near the old university. Edinburgh University dates 

 from 1583, but the medical school came long after, and 

 was young in years when Fothergill entered it. Its 

 history presents a succession of great figures. The first 

 of these is that of the elder Pitcairne, a man of vast 

 acquirements. He was trained in law and mathematics 

 before he touched medicine ; a poet, a brilliant writer, 

 a man of masterfulness and mockery ; a free-thinker in 

 the most religious of capitals. 2 Pitcairne came back 



1 He was careful of his small means : us. per Ib. was paid for tea, is. 6d. 

 for sugar, and 3d. for butter : gloves cost is. 3d., shoes 45. 6d., and a hat 75. 6d. 

 These details are quoted by J. H. Tuke from a little account book, since 

 deposited at Ackworth School. 



2 " Ecce Mathematician, vatem, medicumque, sophumque, 

 Pitcairnum magnum haec urnula parva tenet." 



Epitaph on Dr. Archibald Pitcairne's tomb in Greyfriars' Churchyard, 

 Edinburgh. Pitcairne (b. 1652, d. 1713) belonged to a Fifeshire family, which 

 yielded at a later date the two Pitcairns, uncle and nephew, who adorned the 



