Introd. 
EAKLY LABOURS AND INSTRUCTION. 
3 
custom of that Company, pensioned off, so as to spend Ids de¬ 
clining years in ease and comfort. 
Our uncles all entered His Majesty’s service during the last 
French war, either as soldiers or sailors ; hut my father remained 
at home, and, though too conscientious ever to become rich as a 
small tea-dealer, by his kindliness of manner and winning ways 
he made the heartstrings of his children twine around him as 
firmly as if he had possessed, and could have bestowed upon 
them, every worldly advantage. He reared Ids cldldren in con¬ 
nection with the Kirk of Scotland — a religious establishment 
wldcli has been an mcalculable blessing to that country—but he 
afterwards left it, and during the last tv/enty years of Ids life 
held the office of deacon of an independent church in Hamilton, 
and deserved my lasting gratitude and homage for presenting 
me from infancy with a continuously consistent pious example, 
such as that the ideal of which is so beautifully and truthfully 
portrayed in Burns’ ‘Cottar’s Saturday Night.’ He died in 
February, 1856, in peaceful hope of that mercy wldch we all 
expect thi’ough the death of our Lord and Saviour: I was at 
the time on my way below Zumbo, expecting no greater pleasure 
in this country than sitting by our cottage fire and telling him 
my travels. I revere his memory. 
The earliest recollection of my mother recalls a picture so often 
seen among the Scottish poor—that of the anxious housewife 
striving to make both ends meet. At the age of ten I was put 
into the factory as a “ piecer,” to aid by my earidngs in lessening 
her anxiety. With a part of my first week’s wages I purchased 
Euddiman’s ‘ Eudiments of Latin,’ and pursued the study of that 
language for many years afterwards, with unabated ardour, at an 
evening school, which met between the hours of eight and ten. 
The dictionary part of my labours was follov/ed up till twelve 
o’clock, or later, if my mother did not interfere by jumping up 
and snatclnng the books out of my hands. I had to be back 
in the factory by six in the morning, and continue my work, with 
intervals for breakfast and dinner, till eight o’clock at night. I 
read in this way many of the classical authors, and knew Virgil 
and Horace better at sixteen than I do now. Our schoolmaster 
—happily still alive—was supported in part by the company ; 
he was attentive and kind, and so moderate in his charges that 
B 2 
