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ON the 18th of July, 1850, a
society was formed in the village of Auchleven, called the Mutual
Instruction Class.
The society was part of a
vigorous and extensive intellectual movement which originated in the upland
village of Rhynie, at the foot of the far-seen hill called the Tap o' Noth,
and which spread thence to a large number of rural and village centres in
the counties of Aberdeen and Banff. This movement was one of the earliest
and most systematic of its kind in the north, and deserves to be better
known. [For an account of this movement, I am indebted chiefly to the Rev.
R. Harvey Smith, M.A., its founder; and to Mr. William Anderson, Wellhouse,
Alford, an active promoter.] Like many other good things, this Mutual
Instruction organization had a very small beginning. The Rev. Robert Harvey
Smith, M.A., then a young man of some twenty summers, who had enjoyed the
usual education of the district, supplemented by a few years' business
training in Aberdeen, returned to his native village to prepare for the
grammar school and university. He collected eleven other young men at Rhynie,
and submitted to them a draft of rules for the formation of a Mutual
Instruction Class, and on the 9th of November, 1846, those apostles of
mutual instruction initiated, in a small hall in the village, the first "
class." The hall was an upper room, to which access was obtained by an
outside stair. It was seated with forms without backs, and lighted with as
above the fireplace, near to which the chairman sat, behind a small table
bearing writing materials and papers. The founder occupied the chair, and,
after a brief address, submitted to the meeting his draft of the proposed
rules. They were discussed seriatim, and adopted with some. alterations ; an
essayist was appointed for the next meeting; and thus the Mutual Instruction
movement began. The "class" became popular, and rapidly grew in numbers and
influence.
The rules which guided the
Rhynie class for many years, and which formed the basis of the rules of most
of the Mutual Instruction societies, were similar to those of all mutual
improvement societies, with which, happily, the world has since become more
familiar—the aim being "the mutual instruction" of the members, by the
reading of essays and criticisms thereupon. One uncommon and commendable
regulation was the fine of a penny from each member that came ten minutes
late, "unless an excuse satisfactory to the majority were given."
About a month after the
formation of the Rhynie class, its founder submitted a scheme for planting
such classes in the districts around, and a sort of propaganda fade, under
the name of "The Corresponding Committee" of the class, was constituted on
January 1st, 1847. This committee was very active and successful in
establishing societies, and its visits to various centres were numerous and
full of interesting incident.
Meanwhile the parent society,
while multiplying classes, continued to perfect its own organization, and
increase its method of influencing those in its immediate neighbourhood. A
class library was formed, scientific apparatus procured for the use of the
members, public social meetings were held, and annual courses of public
lectures delivered under its auspices.
In the spring of 1849, the
class entered the field of authorship, and published a tract entitled "An
Address to Farm Servants, on their Intellectual Condition, by the Rhynie
Mutual Instruction Class," the joint production of the class. It passed
through two editions, was favourably noticed by the press, and created no
small stir among those to whom it was addressed, as well as directed public
attention to the condition of farm servants. This led to considerable
discussion of this important social question in the public press at that
time, and many plans were proposed for their amelioration.
At a later date, the class
published a very valuable lecture delivered under its auspices by Mr.
William McCombie, of Cairnballoch, already mentioned, an honorary member of
the society. The delivery of this lecture, which quickly passed through two
large editions, was the occasion of Mr. McCombie's first appearance as a
public lecturer, a function which he frequently thereafter discharged, to
the great advantage of the country and city populations of Aberdeenshire.
Early in 1849, an important
step was taken by the Rhynie class for the consolidation of the l\Iutual
Instruction movement. This was the formation of "The Aberdeen and Banffshire
Mutual Instruction Union." This institution had 'a most beneficial influence
on the various classes, combining and directing their energies, and
rendering them a power in the two counties. The same hand that had to do
with so many of the schemes of the Rhynie class, was active in the
origination of this one. Aided by a committee, he submitted to the Rhynie
class a draft of the constitution of the proposed Union, which, with slight
alterations, was afterwards adopted by delegates from the various classes.
The object of the Union now
instituted was to cultivate friendly co-operation in everything relating to
the interests of the associated classes, and to promote these classes in
favourable localities. Annual meetings of the Union took place at different
centres, such as Rhynie, Gartly, Huntly, Forgue, Keith, and Alford. At
these, the various classes were represented by delegates, and public soir/es
held, which seem for several years to have been enthusiastic and successful,
under the honorary presidentship of Mr. McCombie.
In the same year, the active
Rhynie society considered the practicability of forming a Female Mutual
Instruction Class. This was successfully accomplished, on lines somewhat
similar to those of the other societies, combining, however, tutorial with
mutual instruction. Somewhat later, evening schools for artisans and farm
servants were organized by the same class.
In January, 1850, appeared
the first number of a monthly periodical published by the Lynturk club. It
was named "The Rural Echo and Magazine of the North of Scotland Mutual
Instruction Associations."
During the next eight years,
the Mutual Instruction movement made steady and satisfactory progress,
training through its various agencies a host of young men, who gradually
found positions of influence at a distance from the limited rural village
communities where they received their first intellectual stimulus. Authors,
editors, physicians, ministers of various sections of the church, and
business men rose from these classes and occupied important stations at home
and abroad. In consequence of this removal of their best members, many of
the societies were weakened; and the populations around them being sparse,
there was a lack of young men to fill the places of those removed. Hence
many of the classes decreased in numbers, and under such discouragements, a
few were extinguished—their very success contributing to this result.
The Union ceased to meet in
1857, and thus a most important bond was dissolved. Still, not a few
societies continued to flourish, and a number even now exist under slightly
changed names and conditions. Young Men's Christian Associations and Science
and Art classes absorbed a certain proportion. The parent Rhynie class
continued to meet, with some slight interruptions, for twenty-eight years, a
Science and Art class occupying its place down to the present time.
The Auchleven Instruction
Class lasted six or seven years. Young Dr. Mackay took an active part in it,
and the meetings were held fortnightly in a room in the mill, kindly allowed
by his father, and sometimes in private houses, till a cottage was built by
Mr. Mackay, partly for their accommodation. To Mr. R. H. Brewster, long
secretary of the society, I am greatly indebted for assistance and
information regarding John Duncan's life in Auchleven.
A pretty good library was
also formed in connection with the society. This was kept in a
three-cornered cupboard, in which the librarian, young Smith, had difficulty
in arranging the books. They used to hold yearly soirees in the mill. Their
grandest effort in this direction took place at their entering on new
premises in the cottage, when a select choir discoursed sweet music and John
Duncan held forth on Astronomy. The society had also its poet laureate, for
they cultivated the muses as well as science and philosophy.
Duncan was a member from the
first, and continued to be so during his stay in the village. He read essays
there, and took his part in the criticisms. There were several elderly men
connected with it, but John was the patriarch of the society, being then
fifty-six. He was a steady attender, and was counted "quite a treat" when he
read or spoke, on account of his wide knowledge, quaint aspect, and unusual
style of speech. In reading his papers, which he did with his face close to
the sheet, he was so absorbed in his subject that he became quite oblivious
to the smiles of the members, excited by his unusual earnestness and style
of reading; for he laboriously spelled aloud the more difficult technical
words, and, though breaking down with some of them more than once, still
attacked them till they were moulded to his mind, the final result being
often queer enough.
His essays were counted
"clever." In the discussions that followed the papers, he was frequently
humorous, if not droll, but was always instructive. His speech, till he
became animated, was slow and hesitating, and the ideas evidently crowded
themselves so close that the words were blocked up in their outward passage.
He would generally conclude his observations, as on other occasions, by
saying, "I cu'd tell ye a great deal, a great deal," though little came in
spite of his sawing with his hands backwards and downwards, according to his
custom when in vocal straits. To illustrate his essays, he brought
collections of dried specimens, which he laboriously explained, and he
wasdelighted to be questioned and listened to regarding them.
John's first paper was "An
essay, or short discourse, on Botany," delivered on the 16th of August,
1850, very soon after the formation of the society. Some extracts may be
interesting as showing our hero in a new phase. They arc reproduced as
written, having evidently been prepared with the greatest care, errors in
spelling and punctuation only being corrected. They were written in the dim
light and narrow bounds of "the philosopher."
"Botany," he began, "is that
science which teaches us to distinguish one plant from another; and consists
in associating together into classes or groups, such plants as possess
certain permanent characters in common, and in separating and distinguishing
those. that are dissimilar in character and appearance by fixed rules
correctly drawn from nature; thereby enabling us to distinguish the
properties and uses of the multifarious and variously organized bodies in
the vegetable kingdom. The purpose of this scheme, besides giving the
nomenclature of Botany, is to guide the student, in the clearest and
concisest manner, to an intimate acquaintance with the anatomy of a plant
and the functions of its particular parts."
"When a plant is taken up for
examination, it is an object to obtain several flowers, some of them fully
expanded, some just opening, others whose seed-vessels may be nearly ripe,
and, if possible, an entire specimen of the. plant."
After speaking of plants being characterised according to their habitats, as
aquatic, marine, fluvial, palustrous, and fontinal, he divides the vegetable
kingdom into the three grand divisions of grasses, trees, and the rest, and
continues: "There are upwards of three hundred grasses upon the earth. [I
cannot say what classification of grasses John adopts, but there are now
almost 4000 known species of grasses ; that is, about one-twentieth of
phanerogamous plants.] They furnish pasturage for cattle. The smaller seeds
are food for birds, and the larger for man; such as corn and rye and wheat
and barley for man, and oats and hay for horses." It is curious to find such
a porridge eater as John practically adopting Dr. Johnson's famous
description of oats—"Food for man in Scotland, and for horses in England."
"Our most important articles
of food and clothing are derived from the grasses, such as bread to eat,
beer, milk, butter, cheese; and leather and wool and all the advantages
produced from the use of cattle would be lost without them."
He advocates the teaching of
Natural History to children by the argument that, "the very first time that
an infant exercises its feet upon the sward or grass, or stretches its arms
in the open air, it is to chase butterflies or pull wild flowers."
After remarking that there
were then "upwards of eighty botanists from one time to another," [Pritzel
enumerates 15,000 publications in his "Thesaurus" (1851)!] he could not
proceed without an enthusiastic reference to the greatest botanist of all in
his estimation, and one of his chief heroes among men, Charles Linnaeus. "He
was born," John continues, "in Sweden, in the year 1707, and laid the
foundation and arrangement of the science. While yet a mere youth, he was
pitched upon by the Academy of Sciences of Upsala, to explore the dreary
regions of Lapland. He underwent great hardships ["hargepes" John spells it]
in want of books, in want of clothes, in want of bread to eat, even patching
up old shoes with the bark of trees. I have even risket my life myself in
rivers and lakes [the Loch of Drum being evidently present to his mind], all
for knowledge [knowelg]." After speaking of the Linnaean and Jussieuan or
Natural systems, and the classes of the former, he observes that in it, the
flowers of plants were used as an index to the system " much in the same way
as one consults the index of a book, to find a particular chapter or page."
He concludes his essay by exclaiming, that, in the study of Botany, they
would find
"Tongues in trees, books in
the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything."
He gave discourses more than
once on Astronomy, but no notes of these now remain. There exists among his
papers also an essay on Weaving, but whether it was prepared for this
society or not, it is impossible now to say. After an introduction on the
use of clothing "as an indispensable piece of decency, even though the
exceeding calmness and serenity of the air might not oblige men to use any
precaution against it," and on the need of clothing " which begins at the
instant of birth;" he discovers the origin of weaving in "the pretty obvious
expedient of interweaving the long and narrow leaves of plants of the grass
kind in the form of a niat." He then gives a: history of 'weaving from the
time of the ancient Egyptians, "with whom the first species of cloth
invented in all likelihood originated," as did the sciences. In speaking of
the once universal use of the distaff and spindle, he mentions that, at one
time, he had himself woven sixty ells of sacking with yarn " spun with the
rock and spindle." He traces the history of weaving in Britain from the
Romans who "established a woollen and linen manufactory at Winchester for
clothing their army," down to the improvements of Hargreaves and Arkwright
and the modern power looms. He concludes, according to his custom, with two
lines of verse, evidently, in this case, from some original source, personal
or otherwise:
"'But the weaving it is
renowned so,
That pure [That is, "poor," according to local pronunciation.] nor rich
without it cannot go."
John read another "short
discourse" before the class, on Practical Gardening, on the 2nd of April,
1852, at the opening of spring, when gardening operations were beginning.
After defining a garden as "a
place separate from the ordinary fields, and protected by an enclosure
either of a wall or hedge," he speaks, of course, of the occupation being "veary
Anchent," of the garden of Eden, "a most beautiful and charming spot,
enclosed and planted by God Himself, and hence called the garden of the
Lord," and of Sire Adam, "the first man and the first gardener." After
describing the hanging gardens of Babylon, he turns to the "most humble
gardens they were met to consider, which opened up sources of healthful and
innocent and pleasurable employment." "There is hardly a spot of earth so
rugged in which the art of the gardener will not be found to produce
something like loveliness in the scene; scarcely a tribe of man so rude
among whom it will not create some idea of beauty, to lift up his mind to
the Supreme Fountain of light and beauty and the Giver of all goodness; and
there is scarcely a cottage so small that may not have the rose and the
woodbine winding round its porch, and Cematis or virgin bower. I have heard
that even the poorest of the weavers of Paisley and elsewhere, much to their
credit, take especial pride in rearing their geraniums, hyacinths and
tulips. It would thus appear that there is a sort of spell or charm about
flowers, independent of fashion or the pleasures of sight and smell, which
tends to soothe the spirits and compose the mind."
In practising gardening, he
rightly pleads, like the scientific student he was, that, to do it properly,
"the first and great object to be attained is a thorough knowledge of the
constitution of plants, without which no correct idea can be formed of their
proper treatment." He then gives a series of advices about gardens and
gardening, showing good knowledge of the subject and practical acquaintance
with its details, with which we need not trouble even the most patient
reader. He mentions that Pliny describes about a thousand plants of all
kinds, and asks us to compare this with Loudon's estimate of our floral
wealth in the present century, which amounts to above 25,000 species. He
attributes the cankering, or "clubbing," that attacks cabbages and carrots
to dry ground and to drought, "which is the nursing mother of insects of
every description."
"I asked," he continues,
"some country people what they had growing. in their gardens. They said,
'Oh, we have nothing but green kale, but you may come and see our yard. [The
common name in Scotland for a garden, being the same as the first syllable
of the English word.] We were thinking to sow a pickle onion ["oin"] seed;
where would we sow them?' Weel, I looked around me in the yard, and all was
close with weeds. They said, 'Oh, you will delve a bit and sow the onion
seed.' I said to them, 'I have not a spade.' They said, 'We have a spade.'
They brought an old spade not above six inches long to me!
"I have walked by the way and
have looked in over yards in country places and seen nothing but a coquiny
[Evidently meaning "wheen," the Scotch form of an old Anglo-Saxon word,
hwaene, a few. The Scotch is also written quhene, quhoyne, etc.] of green
kale and berry bushes, growing like rasp bushes close with weeds—such as
ranunculus, and couch grass (triticum repends) and galeopsis (hemp nettle)
and the lamium purpureum (red dead nettle) and the staczys palustris (marsh
wound-wort) and the henbit nettle (lamium amplexicaule) and the Irolcus
molls, or Creeping Soft Grass. Now, they could have a good many useful ["yousefl"]
plants instead of all these weeds ; such as horehound and hyssop and sage
and caraway and rhubarb and scurvy grass and rue and sweet marjoram and
thyme and parsley and parsnips [These plants were greatly used by John in
his herbal pharmacopoeia and were cultivated by himself in his garden at
Droughsburn. He practised what he preached.] and plenty of green kale, and a
great many flowers of hardy annuals and biennials and perennials, of various
sorts, both for use and beauty ["boiuty"]. But it is a true saying of the
wise king, when he made a remark upon the slothful. He says 'I went by the
field of the vineyard of the man void of understanding, and, lo, it was all
grown over with thorns and nettles.' Nov, in the land of Canaan ["ceannind"]
vines were as plentiful in their gardens as our green kale is in Scotland ["cotclnd"].
But I shall add little more.
"Is there a heart that beats
and lives
To which no joy the spring time gives?
Alas, in that unfeeling heart
No love nor kindliness hath part.
Who round about him finds, unsought,
Fresh matter for improving thought,
And more, the more he looks abroad:
He marks and loves the present God!'" |
