tch, amongst whom we now are, and since I have been here I
have observed them attentively. From what I have heard and seen, I
should say that upon the whole they are a very decent set of people; they
seem acute and intelligent, and I am told that their system of education
is so excellent, that every person is learned--more or less acquainted
with Greek and Latin. There is one thing, however, connected with them,
which is a great drawback--the horrid jargon which they speak. However
learned they may be in Greek and Latin, their English is execrable; and
yet I'm told it is not so bad as it was. I was in company, the other
day, with an Englishman who has resided here many years. We were talking
about the country and the people. 'I should like both very well,' said
I, 'were it not for the language. I wish sincerely our Parliament, which
is passing so many foolish Acts every year, would pass one to force these
Scotch to speak English.' 'I wish so, too,' said he. 'The language is a
disgrace to the British Government; but, if you had heard it twenty years
ago, captain!--if you had heard it as it was spoken when I first came to
Edinburgh!'"

"Only custom," said my mother. "I daresay the language is now what it
was then."

"I don't know," said my father; "though I daresay you are right; it could
never have been worse than it is at present. But now to the point. Were
it not for the language, which, if the boys were to pick it up, might
ruin their prospects in life,--were it not for that, I should very much
like to send them to a school there is in this place, which everybody
talks about--the High School I think they call it. 'Tis said to be the
best school in the whole island; but the idea of one's children speaking
Scotch--broad Scotch! I must think the matter over."

And he did think the matter over; and the result of his deliberation was
a determination to send us to the school. {71} Let me call thee up
before my mind's eye, High School, to which, every morning, the two
English brothers took their way from the proud old Castle through the
lofty streets of the Old Town. High School!--called so, I scarcely know
why; neither lofty in thyself nor by position, being situated in a flat
bottom; oblong structure of tawny stone, with many windows fenced with
iron netting--with thy long hall below, and thy five chambers above, for
the reception of the five classes, into which the eight hundred urchins,
who styled thee