ly with their own number, prevented any
improvement in this matter. On the whole, their conduct in the class,
and their behaviour towards some of the professors, were anything but
gentlemanly."[2]

[Footnote 1: Marischal College. Mr M'Lean's descriptions refer to
King's; but the two colleges, close together, must have been pretty
similar in their manners and customs even before they were, as they now
are, formally united.]

[Footnote 2: Life in a Northern University. By Neil M'Lean, author of
'Memoirs of Marshal Keith,' 'Romance of the Seal and Whale Fishing,'
&c., &c. Glasgow; John S. Marr & Sons: London; Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.
1874.]

Another quotation from Mr M'Lean may be allowed, as embodying the
descriptions often given by Dr Burton of the motley crew of competitors
for the scholarships and bursaries dispensed by the university: "Gazing
round the room, I noted that my competitors consisted of raw-boned
red-haired Highlandmen, fresh from their native hills, with all their
rusticity about them. All the northern counties had sent their quota to
swell the number, and even the Orkney and Shetland Islands were
represented. Many rosy-faced young fellows were also to be seen, who had
left their country occupations for a little, and who, if
unsuccessful"--_i.e._, in gaining a bursary--"would return to them, and
work in their leisure hours at their favourite classics until another
competition came round. Here and there were to be seen a few rather
better dressed than the rest; whilst amongst the crowd the eye rested on
many a studious, thin, cadaverous, hard-worked face, which made you look
again, and feel in your heart that there sat a bursar. A more motley
crowd, as respects age, dress, and features, could scarcely be found
anywhere; and yet over all there was an intellectual, manly look, a look
of innocence and unacquaintance with the low ways of the world."[3]

[Footnote 3: Life in a Northern University.]

Among this motley crowd John Hill Burton was no model student. He took
his full share of the rough sport so well described in the 'Northern
University'--wrenched off door-knockers and house-bells, transplanted
sign-boards, &c. He was but a schoolboy in years when he left school for
college, and his mother was frequently obliged to provide him with a
private tutor, not so much to assist him in his studies as to keep him
from idleness during his hours at home. Home was, during these years,
for a time sad, and wa