"ARE YE THE GOAVERMENT?"

43

meet me with a conveyance. I took his advice and arrived at the station comfortably dressed in winter costume, roughish greatcoat and wideawake hat. I saw a gig at the station, the driver of which was evidently on the outlook for some one. He looked at me, but it was quite clear that I did not come up to his expectation of the person he was sent to meet. I fancy he expected to see a person faultlessly apparelled, and with at any rate the finishing touch of a tall hat. While he kept looking round for such a person, and quite overlooking me, I went up to him and asked if he came from the manse of Rhynie. "Yes," he replied, in a tone in which combined respect and disappointment were quite evident, and with a glance at my wideawake hat, "Are ye the Goaverment?" I said I was, and got into the gig. I felt, however, that I had seriously lowered his respect for a Government official.

An experience a few days later led me to suspect that in the matter of dress I was possibly somewhat below par. My work for a fortnight or so was in the neighbourhood of Huntly, which I intended to make my headquarters for the time. I was then busy writing my essay for the Burney prize, open to all Cambridge graduates of not

more than three years' standing, and wishing to avoid the bustle and noise of a hotel, I decided to take private lodgings. Suitable quarters were recommended to me-two comfortable rooms in a quiet part of the town. I said to the landlady that they would suit me very well, and asked if I could have them. "How long," she asked, "will you be wanting them for?"

"A fortnight or so," I replied.

"Ah!" she answered; "I never let my rooms for less than a month."

"I am sorry for that. They would suit me nicely, but I cannot possibly stay for a month," and I made a step towards the door.

Not wishing to have the rooms unlet, she turned an inquisitive eye on me, and said, "Will you be much in the house when you are here?"

Amused at the question, and beginning to fence, I said, "I shall be both in and out a good deal."

"Will you be out much at night?"

"Not much, and at any rate not very late." Failing to make much headway by these questions, she went direct to the point. "What will you be doing when you are here?"

MISTAKEN FOR SOME ONE ELSE. 45

Fencing was no longer possible, and when I told her my business in Huntly, she said with many apologies, "Oh, you'll get the rooms for as long or as short as you like; but I saw that some folk were coming to give some concerts here, and I thought you might be one of them."

CHAPTER VI.

GRATUITOUS VISITS AND THEIR RESULTS-INSPECTION BEFORE THE CODE-ACT OF 1861 FOR INCREASE OF SALARIES OF PARISH TEACHERS AND REMOVAL OF THE INCOMPETENTAN AMUSING CASE-“I JIST FUSHED TOO MICH."

I HAVE said that we were not going about like roaring lions with devouring tendencies. We had time to visit, and did visit, many schools which were not in receipt of grants. Those interested in the success of any school had only to ask for inspection and they got it, if other engagements made it possible. Many, many schools, badly ventilated, miserably furnished, and poorly taught, have I visited in the wilds of Inverness, Ross, Sutherland, Caithness, Orkney, and Shetland, for which no grant was claimed or could be paid, simply to carry out the instruction given to inspectors to furnish information respecting the state of education in particular districts. Probably some may have difficulty in believing that there could be so

GRATUITOUS VISITS.

47

much of the milk of human kindness in either Department or inspector as is implied in these purely gratuitous visits. Incredible as it may seem, it is solid fact.

But

visits were far from fruitless.

these gratuitous While many of

hopelessly below

the teachers were old and certificate mark, there were not a few on whom kindly encouragement had a quickening effect, and who, when the possibility of a certificate was suggested to them, set to work pluckily and gained the coveted parchment which they had thought quite beyond their reach. Instances of this kind occurred in every one of the counties I have named. I need scarcely add that they were all most grateful. I never more fully realised that kind words cost little and are worth much.

During the first three or four years of my service the method of examination was very simple. There was a delightful absence of blue pencils, standards, and examination schedules. But though it was simple, it must not be inferred that it was necessarily slipshod or ineffective. On the contrary, it was thorough, and brought out clearly the strong and weak points of a school, simply because in the absence of a prescribed minimum of attainment up to which