r is supposed to be descended from the
ancient Border family of Douglas.

While Andrew Fairbairn (William's father) lived at Smailholm, Walter
Scott was living with his grandmother in Smailholm or Sandyknowe Tower,
whither he had been sent from Edinburgh in the hope that change of air
would help the cure of his diseased hip-joint; and Andrew, being nine
years his senior, and a strong youth for his age, was accustomed to
carry the little patient about in his arms, until he was able to walk
by himself. At a later period, when Miss Scott, Walter's aunt, removed
from Smailholm to Kelso, the intercourse between the families was
renewed. Scott was then an Edinburgh advocate, engaged in collecting
materials for his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, or, as his aunt
described his pursuit, "running after the auld wives of the country
gatherin' havers." He used frequently to read over by the fireside in
the evening the results of his curious industry, which, however, were
not very greatly appreciated by his nearest relatives; and they did not
scruple to declare that for the "Advocate" to go about collecting
"ballants" was mere waste of time as well as money.

William Fairbairn's first schoolmaster was a decrepit old man who went
by the name of "Bowed Johnnie Ker,"--a Cameronian, with a nasal twang,
which his pupils learnt much more readily than they did his lessons in
reading and arithmetic, notwithstanding a liberal use of "the tawse."
Yet Johnnie had a taste for music, and taught his pupils to SING their
reading lessons, which was reckoned quite a novelty in education.
After a short time our scholar was transferred to the parish-school of
the town, kept by a Mr. White, where he was placed under the charge of
a rather severe helper, who, instead of the tawse, administered
discipline by means of his knuckles, hard as horn, which he applied
with a peculiar jerk to the crania of his pupils. At this school
Willie Fairbairn lost the greater part of the singing accomplishments
which he had acquired under "Bowed Johnnie," but he learnt in lieu of
them to read from Scott and Barrow's collections of prose and poetry,
while he obtained some knowledge of arithmetic, in which he proceeded
as far as practice and the rule of three. This constituted his whole
stock of school-learning up to his tenth year. Out of school-hours he
learnt to climb the ruined walls of the old abbey of the town, and
there was scarcely an arch, or tower, or cr