Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/46

 After a life of great activity, and which proved of much immediate and remote service to mankind, the subject of this memoir expired, at Enfield, on the 20th of April, 1831.  , an eminent grammarian and writer on Roman antiquities, was born at Coats of Burgie, in the parish of Rafford, and county of Moray, about the month of June, 1741. His father, John Adam, rented one of those small farms which were formerly so common in the north of Scotland. In his earlier years, like many children of his own class, and even of a class higher removed above poverty, he occasionally tended his father's cattle. Being destined by his parents, poor as they were, for a learned profession, he was kept at the parish school till he was thought fit to come forward as a bursar, at the university of Aberdeen. He made this attempt, but failed, and was requested by the judges to go back and study for another year at school. This incident only stimulated him to fresh exertions. He was prevented, however, from renewing his attempt at Aberdeen, by the representations of the Rev. Mr Watson, a minister at Edinburgh, and a relation of his mother, who induced him to try his fortune in the metropolis. He removed thither early in the year 1758; but, it appears, without any assured means of supporting himself during the progress of his studies. For a considerable time, while attending the classes at the college, the only means of subsistence he enjoyed, consisted of the small sum of one guinea per quarter, which he derived from Mr Alan Macconochie, (afterwards Lord Meadowbank), for assisting him in the capacity of a tutor. The details of his system of life at this period, as given by his biographer Mr Henderson, are painfully interesting. "He lodged in a small room at Restalrig, in the north-eastern suburbs ; and for this accommodation he paid fourpence a-week. All his meals, except dinner, uniformly consisted of oat-meal made into porridge, together with small beer, of which he only allowed himself half a bottle at a time. When he wished to dine, he purchased a penny loaf at the nearest baker's shop ; and, if the day was fair, he would despatch his meal in a walk to the Meadows or Hope Park, which is adjoining to the southern part of the city ; but if the weather was foul, he had recourse to some long and lonely stair, which he would climb, eating his dinner at every step. By this means all expense for cookery was avoided, and he wasted neither coal nor candles ; for, when he was chill, he used to run till his blood began to glow, and his evening studies were always prosecuted under the roof of some one or other of his companions." There are many instances, we believe, among Scottish students, of the most rigid self-denial, crowned at length by splendid success ; but there is certainly no case known in which the self-denial was so chastened, and the triumph so grand, as that of Dr Adam. In 1761, when he was exactly twenty, he stood a trial for the situation of head teacher in George Watson's Hospital, Edinburgh, and was successful. In this place he is said to have continued about three years ; during which, he was anxiously engaged in cultivating an intimacy with the classics reading, with great care, and in a critical manner, the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Cicero, and Livy. His views were now directed towards the church, and he was on the eve of being licensed as a preacher of the gospel, when suddenly a prospect opened before him of becoming assistant, with the hope of being eventually the successor, of Mr Matheson, rector of the High School. This appointment he obtained, and in 1771 the increased infirmities of Mr Matheson threw the whole of this charge into the hands of Mr Adam. 