Page:Martha Spreull by Zachary Fleming.pdf/36

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HE Lord be praised, I dinna need to tak' in ludgers noo. Since the removal by death of Jen Spreull, my late first cousin—the last o' the Trongate Spreulls—as I have already telld ye, my temporalities have been provided for. Still-an-on, I canna forget the student lads that ate at my table and broke my furniture. At this moment I have in my hand four as touching sermons as ever were penned, by ane o' my divinity boarders, wha left them as payment in kind for six months' diet. Anither ane, wha had a turn for music, left me a fiddle-case; and a companion o' his, a doctor body, wha used to blacken his face wi' a brunt cork, and sing like a "Christy Minstrel,'" [sic] left ahint him a concerteeny wi' maist o' the keys broken, as a' I am ever likely to get for a hale session's up-keep and attendance. Yet I must alloo I passed through my rooms in George Street some as nice lads as ye could clap eyes on; but as the feck o' them were puir and had a bitter struggle, it has been borne in on me that I should mak' some observes in this chapter on the subject o' edication, and get twa or three things aff my mind that sooner or later I ettle to say.

In looking ower an auld batterless history lately, that I got wi' Jen Spreull's books, I saw that in the year 1494 an Act