Page:Gissing - Born In Exile, vol. I, 1892.djvu/9



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summer day in 1874 which closed the annual session of Whitelaw College was marked by a special  ceremony, preceding the wonted distribution of academic  rewards. At eleven in the morning (just as a heavy shower fell from the smoke -canopy above the roaring streets) the municipal authorities, educational dignitaries,  and prominent burgesses of Kingsmill assembled on  an open space before the college to unveil a statue  of Sir Job Whitelaw. The honoured baronet had been six months dead. Living, he opposed the desire of his fellow-citizens to exhibit even on canvas his  gnarled features and bald crown; but when his modesty