mentioned,
and on his having undertaken, in spite of the discouraging results of
that speculation, to cast a large and elegant Hebrew type for the
University press. He estimated that the building would cost no more
than the very modest sum of L40 sterling, and he offered to pay a fair
rent. This memorial came up for consideration on the 5th of April, and
it was Smith who proposed the motion which was ultimately carried, to
the effect that the University should build a new foundry for Mr.
Wilson on the site most convenient within the College grounds, at an
expense not exceeding the sum of L40 sterling, on condition (1) that
Mr. Wilson pay a reasonable rent, and (2) that if the house should
become useless to the College before the Senate were sufficiently
recouped for their expenditure, Mr. Wilson or his heirs should be
obliged to make adequate compensation. The foundry was erected in the
little College garden next the Physic Garden; it cost L19 more than
the estimate, and was let for L3:15s. a year, from which it would
appear that 6-1/2 per cent on the actual expenditure (irrespective of
any allowance for the site) was considered a fair rent by the
University authorities in those days.

The Senate of this little college, which was thus actively encouraging
every liberal art, which had in a few years added to the lecture-room
of Hutcheson and Smith the laboratory of Black, the workshop of Watt,
the press of Foulis, the academy of painting, sculpture, and
engraving, and the foundry and observatory of Wilson, entertained in
1761 the idea of doing something for the promotion of athletics among
the students, and had under consideration a proposal for the
establishment of a new academy of dancing, fencing, and riding in the
University. One of the active promoters of this scheme appears again
to have been Adam Smith, for it is he who is chosen by the Senate on
the 22nd December 1761 to go in their name and explain their design to
the Rector, Lord Erroll, and request his assistance. This idea seems,
however, to have borne no fruit. Dancing was an exercise they required
to be observed with considerable moderation, for they passed a rule in
1752 that no student should be present at balls or assemblies or the
like more than thrice in one session, but they treated it with no
austere proscription.

One art alone did they seek to proscribe, the art dramatic, and in
1762 the Senate was profoundly disturbed by a project then on foot