to the living lamas and famous
shrines of the nomadic Mongols, incessantly acting the part of
travelling Hakim, itinerant book vendor, and fiery preacher of the
Gospel of Christ.'

In the year 1869 the policy of the London Missionary Society in the
education of its students was very different from that which now
obtains. After a course at a theological college of two, three, or four
years, according to the literary attainments of the man at the time of
his acceptance by the Directors, he was sent to the institution at
Highgate designed to give training suitable for the special requirements
of the embryo missionaries. In theory this institution was admirable; in
practice Gilmour and others, much as they esteemed the principal, the
Rev. J. Wardlaw, found it--or thought they found it--very largely a
waste of time. The year 1869 saw the beginning of an investigation which
ended in closing the missionary college at Highgate, and in the steps
that led to the enquiry Gilmour took a leading part. One of his
contemporaries at Highgate has thus described his influence upon both
his fellow-students and the institution to which they belonged.

'I first met Gilmour at Farquhar House, Highgate, the London Missionary
Society's Institution, where in those days missionary students spent
their last six months before going to the field. Some spent the time in
studying the elements of the language of the land to which they were
going; others attended University College Hospital, for the purpose of
getting a little medical knowledge; while all tried to make themselves
acquainted with the history of the people among whom they were to
labour. Courses of special missionary lectures, which were highly valued
by the men, were delivered by the Rev. J., afterwards Dr., Wardlaw.

'Some of us were at Highgate a day or two before Gilmour came up from
Scotland; and as his fame, or rather reports about him, had reached us
from Cheshunt College, we were all very anxious to meet with him. When
he did arrive we were, I think, all more or less disappointed, and yet I
doubt if any of us could have told why, except that he was not the man
we had pictured from the reports we had heard. When he walked quietly
into the library I, for one, could hardly believe that the almost
boyish-looking, open-faced, bright-eyed young man was really Gilmour.
His dress made him appear even more youthful than he was, while there
was an aspect of good humour about his face and