CHAPTER I 
HIS BOYHOOD IN HARRIS 
The first period extends from the time of his 
leaving Aberdeen for Northtown when three years 
of age, until he returned to it at the age of eleven, 
for such further education as was not obtainable in 
the Hebrides. The parish school at Obbe in South 
Harris is within a boy’s walking distance of North- 
town, and it was, no doubt, to it that William 
MacGillivray daily resorted for his earlier education, 
which was probably little, if at all, inferior to what 
it was in many other parish schools in Scotland at 
that time. In addition to the ordinary branches 
of a parish school English education, it is not 
improbable that he made some progress in Latin, 
as he was only one year at school in Aberdeen 
when, at the age of twelve, he began his university 
course of study. At that time it was not unusual 
for young boys to enter the university. Nowadays 
the average age of entrants to Aberdeen University 
is about nineteen. 
But besides his school education in Harris, he 
must in these early years have learned much that 
favoured the native bent of his mind towards the 
