s,
much-loving, and, to me, inestimable wife, in memory of whom, and
of her constant nobleness and piety towards him and towards me, I am
now--she having been the last of her kindred--about to bequeath to
Edinburgh University with whatever piety is in me this Craigenputtoch,
which was theirs and hers, on the terms, and for the purposes, and
under the conditions underwritten. Therefore I do mortify and
dispose to and in favour of the said University of Edinburgh, for
the foundation and endowment of ten equal Bursaries, to be called
the 'John Welsh Bursaries,' in the said University, heritably and
irredeemably, all and whole the lands of Upper Craigenputtoch. The
said estate is not to be sold, but to be kept and administered as
land, the net annual revenue of it to be divided into ten equal
Bursaries, to be called, as aforesaid, the 'John Welsh Bursaries.' The
Senatus Academicus shall bestow them on the ten applicants entering
the University who, on strict and thorough examination and open
competitive trial by examiners whom the Senatus will appoint for that
end, are judged to show the best attainment of actual proficiency and
the best likelihood of more in the department or faculty called of
arts, as taught there. Examiners to be actual professors in said
faculty, the fittest whom the Senatus can select, with fit assessors
or coadjutors and witnesses, if the Senatus see good, and always the
report of the said examiners to be minuted and signed, and to govern
the appointments made, and to be recorded therewith. More specially I
appoint that five of the 'John Welsh Bursaries' shall be given for the
best proficiency in mathematics--I would rather say 'in mathesis,' if
that were a thing to be judged of from competition--but practically
above all in pure geometry, such being perennial, the symptom not
only of steady application, but of a clear, methodic intellect,
and offering in all epochs good promise for all manner of arts and
pursuits. The other five Bursaries I appoint to depend (for the
present and indefinitely onwards) on proficiency in classical
learning, that is to say, in knowledge of Latin, Greek, and English,
all of these, or any two of them. This also gives good promise of a
young mind, but as I do not feel certain that it gives perennially or
will perennially be thought in universities to give the best promise,
I am willing that the Senatus of the University, in case of a change
of its opinion on this point here