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Institution, of which Mr Thomas Carlyle is president. The
lending library of this institution is extensive and valuable,
and its annual winter courses of lectures are of a high
character, and command great popular interest. ~The
Edinburgh Literary Institute, formed on a nearly similar
basis, has its building in South Clerk Street, in the
southern part of the city. ‘ :
Schools.—The public seminaries of Edinburgh, including
the hospitals and other charitable foundations chiefly
directed to the training and education of youth, are upon
a very liberal scale. The High School of the burgh dates
its existence from an early period in the 16th century. The
Burgh Record, under date March 12, 1554, contains an
order for the building of the grammar school on the east
side of the Kirk of Field Wynd. At a later date, and
down to the present century, it occupied the site of the
Blackfriars’ monastery founded by Alexander II. in 1230.
But in the year 1825 the foundation stone was laid of the
beautiful classical building which now occupies a prominent
site on the southern slope of the Calton Hill. It was
originally, and till a comparatively recent date, a purely
classical school; but it now furnishes systematic instruction
in all the departments of a liberal and commercial educa-
tion, including the ancient and modern languages, the
natural sciences, mathematics, &ec.
The Edinburgh Academy, which was established in 1824,
and incorporated by royal charter of George IV., is a
proprietary school under the superintendence of a board of
directors elected by the subscribers. It is arranged into
two divisions, the classical and the modern school, for the
senior classes. It has established a high character for
its classical training, and has already taken an honourable
rank among the public schools of Great Britain, by the dis-
tinctions achieved by its pupils both at the English and
Scottish universities.
Charitable Foundations.—Foremost among the charitable
foundations for the education and training of youth is
George Heriot’s Hospital, founded by the jeweller of James
VI. of Scotland and I. of England, who at his death in
1624 left his estate in trust to the magistrates and
ministers of Edinburgh for the maintenance and education
of poor fatherless sons of freemen of the city. The build-
ing erected for the purposes of the charity is a noble
quadrangular edifice, enriched with the elaborate details of
the transitional style of domestic architecture of the earlier
Stuart kings of England. It occupies a commanding site
on the summit of a ridge known of old as the High Riggs,
lying between the Grassmarket and the Meadows, and
forms a striking feature in the view of the city from various
points. 180 boys are maintained on the foundation, 120
resident, and 60 non-resident. Those among them who
give proof of diligence and ability are afterwards maintained
during a full course of four years at the university; and
those who are apprenticed to trades are also provided with
funds for five years, amounting in all to £50 sterling, with
an additional £5 on proof of good behaviour at the close.
The popular character of Heriot’s Hospital, and the
effective architecture of its building, have largely influenced
the disposition of later charitable bequests in Edinburgh,
somewhat to the detriment of the university. Following
the example of the jeweller of King James, successivz
benefactors have founded George Watson’s Hospital, the
Merchant Maiden Hospital, the Trades’ Maiden Hospital,
the Orphans’, John Watson’s, Donaldson’s, and Stewart’s
hospitals—all more or less modelled on the original founda-
tion. Several of their buildings are also possessed of con-
siderable architectural beauty, foremost among which is
Donaldson’s Hospital, the founder of which amassed a large
fortune as a printer, and bequeathed nearly the whole of
EDINBURGH
it in trust for the erection and endowment of a hospital for | Church Normal School, Merchiston Academy, occupying
the maintenance of poor boys and girls, The trustees have
taken advantage of the liberty of choice permissible under
such terms to select one-half of the children admitted to
the hospital from the class of the deaf and dumb, T}e
building has accommodation for 300 children. In 1877
it contained 214, of whom 120 were boys and 94 girls,
Of those 70 of the former and 45 of the latter were deaf
and dumb. Experience has thus far tended to show that
the constant intercourse between the deaf mutes and their
more fortunate companions exercises a beneficial influence
on both.
George Watson’s Hospital, founded by the bequest of another
citizen in 1738, and the Merchant Maiden Hospital, founded so
early as 1605, were designed to extend to the sons and daughters
of merchants of Edinburgh similar advantages to those which the
Heriot’s Hospital secured for burgesses’ sons. The Trades Maiden
Hospital provided for burgesses’ daughters, and John Watson’s,
Daniel Stewart’s, and other similar institutions provided in like
manner for the maintenance and education of poor children of
various classes. But the multiplication of such charities threatened
to outgrow the legitimate wants of the community, and needlessly
to withdraw many children from the healthful influences of home
training. Hence a growing feeling of the abuses of the system,
at the very time when the revenues of Heriot’s Hospital were
greatly increased in consequence of the extension of the New Town
over its lands, at length led to an application to Parliament for
power to modify the disposition of the surplus revenue. By the
Act thus obtained the governors of that institution were empowered
to expend such surplus funds in erecting and maintaining ele-
mentary schools for the free education of poor children of deceased
burgesses and freemen, and generally of the children of poor
citizens of Edinburgh. There are now eighteen of those Heriot
foundation schools, in different parts of the city, divided into the
two classes of juvenile and infant schools, giving free education,
and, in certain cases of extreme poverty, also a sum of money in
lieu of maintenance, to 4400 boys and girls.
The example thus set has been followed by the governing bodies
of other similar institutions. The Merchant Company, as trustees
of the George Watson’s, Merchant Maiden, Gillespie’s, and Stewart's
charities, taking advantage of powers given by the Endowed Institu-
tions (Scotland) Act, obtained power to convert the George Watson's
Hospital into a school ; and since then, they have sold the building
and grounds to the corporation of the Royal Infirmary, and the New
Infirmary is now in progress on the site. The Edinburgh Merchant
Company’s Schools now include the George Watson’s College-Schools,
in which ample provision is made for furnishing a liberal educa-
tion for boys, qualifying them for commercial or professional life,
for the civil service, and for entering the university. Bursaries are
also offered for competition, which secure a free enjoyment of the
entire course of studies to the successful competitors, and furnish
the sum of £25 annually, for four years, after leaving the schools.
A similar institution provides corresponding advantages'for girls;
and the Edinburgh Educational Institution, or Ladies’ College, in
like manner furnishes a high-class education in the ancient and
modern languages, mathematics, the natural sciences, and in
music and other more strictly feminine accomplishments; and
bursaries and other prizes, of like value to those offered for competi-
tion in the College Schools, are placed within reach of the ablest
and most diligent female students,
Experience has, therefore, amply confirmed the wisdom of the
course thus pursued in the readaptation of this class of charities to
the wants of the age ; and the example of Edinburgh is likely to
influence other cities where similar endowments are, in some cases
at least, very partially turned to useful account.
Edinburgh is otherwise well provided with both pubiic
and private schools, to which pupils resort, not only from
many parts of the kingdom, but from the colonies. The
Fettes College was apparently designed by the teums of the
will of its founder, Sir William Fettes, to correspond very
nearly to Heriot’s Hospital. But the trustees have so far
medified that idea as to establish a college for boys n_mdelled
after the great public schools of England, and designed to
furnish a liberal education in the fullest sense of the term.
The college building which has been erected at Comely Bank,
‘the estate of the founder, on the north side of Edinburgh,
is a structure of an imposing and stately character in the
" semi-Gothic style of architecture prevalent both in France
and Scotland in the 16th century.
The” Church of Scotland Training College, the Free
