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 1 704, I visited the 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, who 
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 tlicir children 
educated. The school is kept in the church of Kil- 
choman, and the schoolmaster is precentor and 
