CAL SCHOOL.

There are now in the Highlands a number of excellent higher class public
schools, in which the elements of secondary education are taught. The
pupils in these schools are drawn from wide areas, and, by means of
bursaries, can board away from their own homes. The Golspie Technical
School is an altogether unique higher-grade institution. At a library
lecture delivered in Golspie, the boys belonging to the school
(forty-eight in number, divided into four clans, each with a chief) were
present, accompanied by the Principal and his staff. My attention was at
once drawn to them by their fine physique, their gentlemanly bearing,
and their earnest attention. Next day, I had the pleasure of visiting
the school and seeing the working of the scheme initiated by the Duchess
of Sutherland.

The institution is really a boarding-school for poor lads of talent
belonging to the northern counties. They are under the eye of some
teacher at every hour of the day, and are kept incessantly busy, not at
books alone. They are taught to do their own washing, dusting,
scrubbing, cooking, and darning. The training is excellent: one is
impressed by its practical character and educational thoroughness. Latin
and Greek are not attempted at all, the literary instruction being
entirely based on English and the modern tongues. The science part of
the curriculum is remarkably complete, and art is by no means neglected.

Before a pupil has the good fortune to be admitted, the Principal visits
the parents. It is almost incredible (so he told me) the squalor of some
of the cots he had seen. Too often, in the Highlands, the one bedroom of
the family (frequently identical with the kitchen) has free
communication with a malodorous byre or stye. What a contrast with the
dormitory of the Technical School, where there is no lullaby of lowing
kine, but a tranquil, high-roofed hall that would do for the siesta of
the Duke of Sutherland himself!

ON THE SIDLAWS.

High up on a spur of the Sidlaw Hills in the county of Forfar, there is
a wee school that supplies education for a wide and sparsely-peopled
countryside. The teacher is Mr. Brown, who was once a dominie in the
island of Whalsay. He is a jovial and courteous man, and leads you on
very astutely to ask him how long he taught there. Such a question gives
him the opportunity of replying with a laugh: "_I was there exactly the
length of time Napoleon was in St. Helena, five years and seven
m