AGS Magazine November 1931

THE

ABERDEEN GRAMMAR SCHOU MAGAZINE

ABERDEEN rintz-ct for The Fortner PuFas. Club ar The Rosernounr Press•

p

November, 1931.

Volume XXXV, No. I. PRICE ONE SHILLING.

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JAMES G. BISSET, Classical, Medical, and Educational Bookseller,

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ESTABLISHED 1586.

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Curr's Coffee is equally acceptable and invariably delicious.

There is 60 years' experience of Coffee making in it—hence the reason of its excellence.

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Students of the College may also present themselves for the Degree of Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Veterinary Science conferred by the University of Edinburgh.

The College being recognised as a Central Institution under the Education (Scotland) Act, 1908, Students are eligible for Bursaries granted by Education Committees in Scotland.

A Copy of the College Calendar, containing particulars of Scholarships, Fellowships, etc., may be obtained on application to A. C. DOULL, C.A., A.S.A.A., Secretary and Treasurer.

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SPECIALITIES-WEDDING CAKES. SHORTBREADROYAL DEESIDE IN TARTAN TINS, ALSO A LARGE SELECTION OF PLAIN AND FANCY ICED CAKES.

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ARCHIBALD McKELLAR Family Grocer and Wine Merchant,

454-456 Union Street, Aberdeen. . . We Specialise iii . .

Cooked Gammons, " Sinclair's "

Belfast Smoked Hams, " Harris's " Wiltshire Bacon.

Medicinal Wines—Vibrona, Hall's, Wincarnis, Glendenning's._

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1 DESSWOOD PLACE, MATTHEW ABERDEEN. N. BOOTH, THE MASTRICK DAIRY. WE offer you a Choice Selection of DAIRY PRODUCE from our own Farms, and produced under the direct supervision of members of the family. Our Customers may rely upon the absolute Purity and Cleanliness of all our products.

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Co-operation HE enthusiastic co-operation of many minds and hands make possible the fine productions of the HOUSE OF OGILVIE. For over three-quarters of a century our constant endeavour has been to give the best possible service to our Customers. We base our claim to your patronage on our ability to please you.

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OP CORRECT SCHOOL WEAR ALWAYS IN STOCK.

A. & J. SCOTT ) Tailors, Clothiers, and Outfitters,

29 GEORGE STREET, ABERDEEN. CONTENTS. Portrait of Sir Alexander Hendry, K.C.V.O., M.D. . .

Portrait of Lower III in 1881-8z .

Portrait of William A. B. Hamilton, M.A. . .

Portrait of Miss Alexandra C. Adam, L.L.A. . .

A.G.S. Art Club Sketch Book, No. 12 . . .

A Message to Former Pupils . . .

• • .

F.P.s in Singapore . .

• The Way We Talk. By W.M.A. . . .

Innse-Ghall. By E.R.B. .

• • . .

Notes about Old Boys Two Recent Books by Professor A. F. Munson .

An Octogenarian's Rendering of Horace . . . . . .

Obituary.

• . . . . . . .

Marriages . . . . .

Death of Miss Adam School Section— . .

School Notes .

A Visit to Spain and Portugal. By R.B.N. • . . .

Amateur Book-Binding . . . . . .

Random Notes . . . . .

School Rugby . . .

• • .

House Notes . . .

The Literary and Debating Society .

The Dramatic Society. The I.ibrary . . . .

• .

Scout Notes .

The Former Pupils' Club— . . . .

The Annual Dinner . . . .

The School Boarding House .

• . .

The London Centre .

The Glasgow Centre. The Hockey Section . . .

The Rugby Football Section • • . .

List of New Members . . . .

An Old Class Group

Facing page 32 „ 33 „ 46 47 Between pp. 38 and 39 •

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7z 73 74 77 78

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine Vol. XXXV.

NOVEMBER, 1931.

No. I

The " Grammar School Magazine " is issued under the auspices of The Former Pupils' Club, in March, June, and November. All communications with regard to the " Magazine " should be addressed to the Editor (the Secretary and Treasurer of the Club), THEODORE WATT, M.A., The Rosemount Press, Aberdeen. ** * Members of the Club are requested to inform the Secretary of any change of address.

A Message to Former Pupils.

What seems to stand out most vividly in my impressions of the present term is the sequence of lovely autumn days with which we were favoured. The School Garden was a riot of variegated colour, giving compensation to the full for the cutting of the old trees which used to overshadow it.

Rubislaw Field never looked in better condition. A thick carpet of well-knit turf held out the promise of fine playing conditions for the season, and this promise has been fulfilled.

There have been years when the School XV showed to better advantage in terms of results, but this year they are a young and comparatively inexperienced pack, lacking in weight but steadily improving. We have the prospect of a really fine team next year, and should be able to face our fixture list with more confidence. The large proportion of Rugby-playing boys in the School and the active participation of the younger masters in games are specially gratifying features.

In the sphere of scholarship the most outstanding event of the term was the success of W. A. B. Hamilton in the examination for the Home and Indian Civil Services. To take the first place at his first attempt in what is admittedly the stiffest competitive examination in the country, in a field which includes many of the most brilliant products of the Universities of the Empire, is an achievement of which the Grammar School and

z

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

Aberdeen University may well be proud. Coming on the top of our successes at Cambridge last term and our record results in the Leaving Certificate, it marks the present year as a memorable one in the history of the School.

We did not forget Armistice Day. The whole of the Upper School and the two senior classes in the Lower School assembled in the Hall. Professor Henderson presided, and the short service was deeply impressive. There must be few, even among the older boys, who have memories of the War years, but every boy has the beautiful memorial to remind him every morning of the School's sacrifice.

In a former issue of the Magazine I gave some figures relating to the choice of careers by our boys, and I was led to understand that many of you found them interesting. I have recently taken another census, and the position is as follows :—There are presently 179 boys in Classes IV, V, and VI. Of these, 41 are undecided and 8 were absent when the census was taken.

Of the remaining 130, 41 have declared for Medicine, zz for Engineering, 15 for Accountancy, 14 for Law, 8 each for Banking and Insurance, 6 for Business, 3 each for the Church and Analytical Chemistry, 1 each for the Civil Service, Dentistry, and Veterinary Science, 1 each for Journalism, Teaching, and Agriculture. No fewer than 115 out of the total of 179 intend to enter one or other of the faculties at the University. Allowing for an occasional case where a boy may change his mind, one may regard the figures as accurate. As last time, the Doctors have a commanding lead. Medicine is regarded at the moment as the career which is immune from the risks of unemployment.

But the Engineers must have their eyes on future prospects rather than the stern realities of the present.

I attended the Club Dinner last night and, personally, I should say that it was one of the most successful of the eight dinners of which I can speak. There was an unusually large gathering, and what struck one particularly was its representative character in point of age. The President was admirable, and set an example of grace and wit which the other speakers were not slow to follow. Moreover, we had a surprise packet in the form of a gift of Lzoo to the School from Mr. James A. Mackie to found a prize in memory of his son, Norman, whose untimely death as a medical student cut short a career of great promise. I

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

3

hope your Secretary has not censored, in his account of the Dinner, all the nice things that were said about his devoted work for the Club. The one thing that the Dinner lacks and the School lacks is a School Song. There is every likelihood, however, that the deficiency will soon be made good, as Dr. Bulloch—forgive me, J.M.B., if I am indiscreet !—has promised to try his hand, and is meantime awaiting the moment of inspiration.

We are entering on the thirteenth week of the term, and Christmas should be very near when many oc you receive the Magazine. Will you please accept the message of greeting and remembrance which I send you on behalf of the School ? The better times on which our hopes were centred last Christmas have not yet materialized, but there seems to be more solid grounds now for at least a chastened optimism. It has been an anxious and a difficult period for many, probably for most, of you, but deus dabit his quoque,.finem, and the better times, when they come, will taste all the sweeter by comparison with what went before.

D. M. A. 2 znd November, 19 3 1.

F.P.s in Singapore.

There is at present a small colony of F.P.s at Singapore, and they held a Re-union Dinner on 3oth May last, just before one of their number, J. M. Fraser, left for home on leave.

Unfortunately, at the last minute, three or four were prevented from coming to the Dinner, but the following six were present :— JAMES MILNER FRASER (1918-20), SYDNEY WATSON GRAY (191I -13), DOUGLAS Ross HARPER (1917-26), WILLIAM MOIR MCCRAE (1899-1910), HIAP TOCK WEE (1914), M.B., Ch.B., and WILLIAM BALFOUR PIGGE (1914-21), Acting Club Consul.

The gathering apparently made up in enthusiasm for what it lacked in members. The toasts included " The Club," " The School," and " The Janny " (Kennedy).

At the Dinner it was suggested that for the sake of F.P.s resident up country there should be some small regular functions at which they could rely on meeting other F.P.s. It was accordingly arranged that there should be quarterly tiffins, and these are to be held on the first Saturdays of July, October, January, and April, at i p.m., in the Europe Hotel, Singapore.

F.P.s in Singapore and the neighbourhood are particularly asked to note this arrangement and to attend these informal meetings if they possibly can.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

The Way We Talk. " We do well to give our speech an un-native air (rouiv Eivtiv rnv 81aNcirrov) ; because people rather admire what is not too homely."

—ARISTOTLE, Rhetoric, III, 2.

When broadcasting English first began to penetrate the ether, some scoffer said that it sounded like a cross between the speech of a well-trained family butler and that of an Oxford don. It sounded for a time like something new ; but when the novelty wore off, it was seen that there is nothing really new about radio elocution. It was merely a new phase of an existing process. That process has gone on since long before our day, and is bound to go on. It is the conscious striving towards some ideal of refinement in speech.

This ideal, what is it ? No one can tell. Many years ago, in a school which it is unnecessary to name, the writer remembers being told by a teacher that " in wir books " is not the right way to pronounce the words " in our books." So be it ; but both he and the teacher may live to see the day when the authoritative pronunciation is " in awa books." There can be no finality in these matters, and the joke of it is that we are all involved in the search for " fine English."

The tendency of people to aim at what has been called a " refaned " kind of speech operates more or less, one gathers, over the whole of the British Islands. With us in Scotland it is a well-marked phenomenon, and is so abundantly represented as to be almost commonplace. The motive force behind it is social pressure ; we want to be like the best people, and the problem of how to talk like the best people is faced in quite a simple way. To us the " best people " in this matter are the English, and it is them that we strive to imitate. We exercise, it is true, some discrimination. We do not imitate a voice from Leeds or Bethnal Green ; our beau-ideal would seem to be such English voices as are to be heard in the lounges of sporting hotels and such places.

In this imitation of what is supposed to be good English speech the different parts of Scotland achieve some very remarkable results. Thus the Glasgow people, when they put a layer of fine English on top of their tone-system, produce a sort of phonological sandwich. Still more striking results are obtained in Edinburgh, where the underlying tone-system is more subtle, and in an amalgam with fine English a rich fluty utterance is arrived at. At least half of the so-called learned professions in Scotland use these kinds of speech with varying degrees of excellence. The field student of phonetics will probably find the best specimens in the law-courts and assemblies in Edinburgh ; he is also recommended to hear any available Scottish members of Parliament, whose " fine English" is frequently of museum standard, the best example of all being, it would

Aberdeen Grammar .School Magazine.

5

seem, one of the University members. The latter's utterances border on unintelligibility, so that he may be said to touch the extreme limit of this form of speech.

The North-East of Scotland also has its " refaned" speech.

Has not an Aberdonian spoken of " Albyn Place English " ?

Specimens of it are not far to seek. But alongside the corresponding products of Glasgow and Edinburgh (Kelvinside English, Parliament House English, or whatever they may be called) the Aberdeen variety, while conscientious and well meant, is markedly lacking in tone-colour. This arises from the fact that the underlying melos of Aberdeen speech is a monotone, or very nearly ; that is to say, in the dialect as spoken by our forefathers the voice had little range in the matter of pitch, compared with the dialects to the south. So our " fine English " is less striking than that of our fellow-Scotchmen beyond the Grampians ; although, for that very reason it possibly approaches nearer than theirs to the ideal of " refaned " speech which we all have in view.

The tendency towards a conscious refinement of speech is exceptionally well-marked in the Scotch because of their self-conscious mentality. This element in the national character converts a tendency into a compulsitor so far as the Scotch middle class is concerned. The old landed gentry of the country have long since ceased to be Scotch except for their surnames ; and so it would appear that people of lesser quality, such as the urban bourgeoisie, must seek what elocutionary salvation they can find by converting Farquharson into Fakwarson, Forbes (two syllables) into Fawbs, Banchory into Bengkry, and so on. The key position was given up long before our day, when the Aberdeen people were compelled to alter the very name of their town, a name which, as we all know, should by rights be pronounced Aiberdeen. You may say there is no compulsion about it, but that merely shows that you have not considered how compelling can be mass opinion. We dare not call it Aiberdeen, and so we honestly prefer to say Aberdeen, or, in fine English, Ebbideen.

Here then, in the social drive towards fine English, we have tyranny in its most refined form, that tyranny, namely, which leaves its victims under the sincere belief that they are exercising their own freedom of choice. We can find analogies in the realm of clothes, men's headgear for instance. Every summer there is a law in force on one side of the Atlantic that every man shall wear a flat straw hat ; while on the other side of the Atlantic—ours—there is a law in force to the opposite effect, namely, that no man shall on any account wear such a hat. And the funny thing is not merely that the flat straw hat was well known in this country until it was made illegal, by public opinion ; but that on opposite sides of the sea masses of convention-slaves are annually marched in opposite directions, each

6

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

individual being sincerely convinced that he is doing what he " prefers " to do.

So it is with our " fine English." We have to keep it up, because to let it down is to let ourselves down. We have all to take our place in the procession, for reasons that are mainly social ; and, as frequent on social occasions, one finds that all the judicious people look for safety somewhere towards the middle of the movement, neither pushing officiously on ahead of the rest, nor lagging conspicuously behind in the rear. In the middle of the procession you are sometimes torn between two pronunciations. Thus, the word " garage " is called " garridge " in the rear of our procession and " garaadge " in the front, while at the extreme head of the column it becomes " garaash," because the leaders of our column know French, or let on they do. In the rear they speak about " tomaitoes " ; while in front they speak about "tomawtoes." "Apricot," however, goes the other way ; it is " appricot " behind, and " aipricot " in front.

Or consider for a little the word " cafe." This, it is common knowledge, is the French for " coffee." It is not the English for coffee, and the less said about English coffee the better any-way.

It is also French for coffee-house, a term foolishly dropped from our language, although in the form " coffee-shop," now much used in America. " Cafe " with us now means a place where they sell sausage and mashed, sair heedies, cuppateena pie, and so on. Forty years ago the first establishment in Aberdeen to bear this name handed out copious plates of beef and tatties near the top of the Shiprow. No one will ever see again such value as it gave for the money. It was called simply the " kaif " ; and it catered well to the " dura ilia " of those days. But refined speech came there. It was whispered that people who knew what's what were calling it " kaffy," and one still remembers one individual who played for safety by calling it " kaiffy."

To-day nobody is so heathen as to call it anything but " kaffy," because they say, that's the French way, don't you know. But the French, if one has heard them right, do not say " kaffy " ; they get about equal breath on to each syllable. We are as much in error as the Germans, who use the same word with the accent on the last syllable.

The pronunciation of foreign words and foreign names like that just mentioned might be made the subject of a separate study if anyone cared to work it out. The whole English people —and incidentally the B.B.C.—seems to be on the wrong track in this matter. They strive to imitate what is supposed to be the correct native sounds of these words. Now, as every language has its own system of sounds, this at best means halting in your speech and adjusting the vocal mechanism to another sound-system. Only very, very few English speakers can pronounce " Marseilles " as a Frenchman does ; and yet we persist in trying to give a correct French sound to the name.

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Apparently we lack the courage to say, in plain English, " Marsails." That is what the French do with English names ; they make them fit their own sound-system ; and the result is far better than making what is generally a mere approximation to the native sound. Our laborious way of imitating foreign pronunciations is moreover a modern development. There is sufficient evidence that the name " Calais " was always pronounced "Kalis" or " Kales" by educated Englishmen of the eighteenth century, who spoke French probably better than the corresponding class of their countrymen do to-day.

As for " Boulogne," no Englishman will ever speak it correctly unless he takes the trouble to study its phonetic composition.

We Scotch do our best, or worst, in this same direction ; but it is not we, but the English, who reach the most unsatisfactory results in striving to be " correct" in the pronunciation of words that are outside our system.

We have used the term sound-system more than once.

It seems important for our purpose that the meaning and implications of such a term should be grasped. Every language has its own peculiar set of sounds, and English is no exception.

But within the bounds of each language there are always plenty of regional provinces, of greater or less extent; and these provinces are territorial in character. At least you can always find in any district a basis consisting of a regional native speech, with a regional system of spoken sounds, which under present conditions many forces, such as commercial intercourse, social aspiration, and so on, tend to obliterate in favour of some vague standard of correctness. You have only to consider the sounds to be heard every day in the town of Aberdeen.

The underlying basis, the datum line from which we start, is the dialect of North-Eastern Scotland, with its distinctive set of sounds. Between the dialect in its pure form and "fine English " the natives of our town show every gradation. But you can readily mark off four grades, which are easily separable.

These grades can be called dialect, debased dialect, middle class, and fine English. It is simplest to set these out by the pronunciation of a specimen word. Let us take the numeral ' eight," which exhibits these four grades fairly well. Firstly, we have the pure dialectal form " acht," still used in the surrounding country; secondly, the debased dialectal sound " echt" or " aicht," where English influence has altered the vowel ; thirdly, we have the urban middle-class sound " ate," which is now the standard; fourthly, there are individual refinements of the last aiming at a sound like " ite."

While it is possible to get some amusement by listening to refined speech, the more strictly scientific attitude towards the fine English movement is the purely objective one. The movement is a phenomenon in the domain of phonetics, whatever the motive forces behind it may be. What does the tendency

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resolve itself into ? In large part it seems to be an alteration of the vowel sounds. Listen, for instance, to an average Aberdeen voice uttering such a sentence as " They may say so too." Every one of these vowel sounds gets its true value.

The process of Anglicisation demands that all these vowels be turned into diphthongs ; while if we are, in addition, aiming at " fine English," we have to make the breath-stream impinge on the hard palate. The result is the sort of speech we have been discussing. It would appear that any consciously-arrived-at sort of utterance involves an excessive employment of the lips, the operations of more natural speech being located well back in the mouth. The phonetic student will accordingly do well to watch the lips and mouth of public speakers when in action.

There is classical warrant for doing so, provided by the celebrated phrase about " round-mouthed " oratory. When Horace used the words ore rotundo—" with round mouth "—what, let us ask ourselves, did he mean? The traditional interpretation is " polished or elegant speech " ; but a freer and not illegitimate rendering would be " consciously refined speech ; fine English."

The phonetician, however, will seek to go further, and will claim a right to read the phrase literally—" with rounded mouth." On this reading the words refer to the actual lips of the orator ; and what is more, they tell us the quality of the vowel sounds that were used by such ancient orators as were esteemed elegant speakers. Because rounding of the lips can only produce rounded vowels (e.g. the exclamation " oh," as pronounced in Scotland). And the picture which it is possible to extract from these two Latin words is that of -a dualism, fine speech and ordinary speech, exactly like what exists in English to-day.

The Roman orator, on this showing, mouthing the word " Roma " from the rostrum, gave it the same sound as the name gets in the Grammar School of Aberdeen; and this sound was much admired by his audience, who themselves spoke with " unrounded " mouths, that is to say, used open vowels, and made " Roma " sound possibly like " Rawma," the same as it does in modern Italian.

Such a digression into the past takes us, of course, on to very debatable ground. It is made rather for the purpose of throwing the whole of our present-day fine English movement into its historical perspective. We are merely in the present phase of a process running through the ages. Thus, if I accept an invitation with the words : " Ow yiss, I'm shaw I shell be chermed " ; or if, at a certain hour in the evening, I hear someone say : " Good night—everybawddy—good night" ; or if I listen to a Scotch M.P. talking about a " netional gaverment," there is a cheering feeling of being all in the same boat together. We are all striving to improve our speech ; to reach some ideal of "pyaw" English, to which, perhaps, we can at best only approach. The ideal itself is unattainable, probably the nearest

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approximation to it is the case of the head waiter of a fashionable hotel saying good-morning to his guests.

Whether a head waiter's English is much of an ideal to have before us is, of course, another matter. As is the other question, whether that English can fittingly carry any ideas worth uttering, and whether it does not from its very nature stifle such ideas as it may contain. Its practitioners will answer that it is not the content but the refinement of the speech which counts ; and they will add the cogent argument that if you are to live in a modern civilized community you cannot afford to go about in a frayed collar, neither actually nor metaphorically ; a head waiter who does that will lose his job.

W. M. A. Innse-Ghall. " That a day in the Highlands is worth a week on the Continent " was the subject for debate at a recent meeting of Edinburgh University Celtic Society. Few of us had ever been on the Continent at all, but the imagination of the Celt enabled vigorous support to be manifested in favour of the negative.

One of the most miserable periods of my life having been three days spent in Paris, I sided with the affirmative, and in support of that viewpoint I described the finest day in my experience of the Highlands.

Along with another A.G.S.F.P., Hamish Rutherford (1910-1912), I had spent a few days at Elgol, on the West Coast of Skye, from which one obtains the finest view in that island —but that is another story. Bidding the Isle of Mist goodbye one Wednesday morning in early September, we reached Kyle of Loch Alsh in old friend " Glencoe," and changed into the new motor-vessel " Lochmor," recently put on to the Outer Isles service in place of another old stager (but by no means another old friend), " Plover." Hamish and I had a substantial breakfast about ten o'clock : a good plan to delay it till then, as we consumed enough to last us till evening, so that we could have the whole day on deck. -And a grand day it was : what Ratcliffe Barnett would describe as " one of God's own days."

It is given to few Lowlanders to express in such beautiful language appreciation of the Highlands ; but this clergyman has surely penetrated to the soul of the Celt in those three books that one reads and re-reads with perpetual enjoyment.

Our day (for the purposes of the debate) started at 11.15 a.m., when the " Lochmor " glided gradually away from the quay at Kyle, and we were off to another world, for neither Hamish nor I had ever before visited the Isles of the Strangers, and they are in truth a different world from the mainland of Great Britain. As we steamed slowly through the kyles we looked astern down Loch Alsh to the mountains of Kintail in the distance—great masses of brown heather with cloud-shadows

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dancing on them in the sunlight. Nearer at hand, on the Skye shore, stands Caisteil Maoil, now in ruins, but a thousand years ago the eyrie of " Saucy Mary," a Scandinavian princess who married a Mackinnon, and, taking the purse strings into her hands straightaway, stretched a chain across the water and levied toll on all vessels passing through. A business-like woman indeed, but sentiment as well as materialism was well developed in those Viking damsels, for the sight of the cone of Beinn na Calllich above Broadford, eight miles away, reminds us of that other Norse princess who directed that her remains were to be buried on the top of that hill, in order that even in death her nostrils might receive the breath of her native land, carried by the wind across intervening miles from Norway.

Hence the name—" Mountain of the Old Woman." Beyond it we see others of the Red Hills, truly red now with the approach of Autumn, but the typical Skye hills, the Black Cuillin, are not visible for some time yet. We turn our eyes to the east, and are rewarded with the glorious view of Loch Carron and Loch Kishorn, with the mountains of Shieldaig and Lochalsh forming a striking background. In my opinion Loch Carron has never received justice from the majority of guide-book editors ; seen from the summit of Creag Dalaig, a mountain on its southern shore, it provides a magnificent scene.

Sailing between the islands of Crowlin and the mainland we get a close view of the wild peninsula of Applecross, and are amazed that so bleak and inhospitable a land should have been the cradle of Christianity on the mainland of Scotland.

It was to this shore that Saint Maol-rubha, a disciple of Columba, came from Iona in the sixth century A.D. to found a colony of monks, who journeyed over most of the North of Scotland preaching the gospel of Nazareth. Hence were named Loch Maree in Gairloch and Kilmaree in Skye—Maol-rubha's loch and Maol-rubha's burial ground respectively—while Applecross is known in Gaelic as A' Chomrach—the Sanctuary. We do not call at Applecross, but from the Sound we see the green slopes and clumps of trees behind the bay, a strong contrast to the brown-empurpled heather of the rocky shore and hills behind. The ship now veers to the west and our gaze naturally follows. Near at hand is the ancient castle of the MacLeods of Raarsaidh at Brochel, now in ruins, and behind it is Dun Caan, flat-topped and no longer volcanic. Then in the distance to the south-west the first of the Black Cuillin come into view, the twin peaks of Sgurr nan gillean (peak of the young men) and Sgurr a' Bhaisteir (executioner). We cannot discern at this season any trace of the snows that never melt in their northern corries, but in early Spring, on a clear day, it is easy to realise that this is Britain's finest mountain view.

The tide is full, and we are able to sail through Kyle Rona, the narrow passage separating the islands of Raarsaidh and

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Rona. Thus we get a close view of both islands, and are struck by the amazing disparity between the two ends of the former ; the southern half is beautifully wooded and has an abundance of grass, the northern part is predominantly bare rock, without a tree and with hardly a blade of grass. Nevertheless, a cottage or two are to be seen even on this barren shore, and on leaving the straits, we notice the lonely lighthouse on Rona ; lonely even in these modern days of comparatively good transport facilities, while as recently as fifty years ago it was often isolated for weeks on end. At that time my grandfather was doctor in Portree, and several times he was marooned on Rona by storms in winter. To-day, however, no such stormy thoughts enter our heads as the " Lochmor " enters the Little Minch, and we realise that there is no land between us and the North Pole.

As we come further into the open, better views are obtained of some of the natural features of Skye. Sgurr nan gillean has already been mentioned, and indeed, not till darkness descends will its familiar form be lost to sight. Nearer at hand Beinn Ianabhaig stands guardian at the entrance to Portree Loch, and nearer still the cliffs of Trotternish, whose barrenness is relieved by the waterfalls at Rigg and Leak, culminate in " the mighty Storr, with its pinnacles hoar, towering against the sky." Finally, almost at the extreme north of Skye, Staffin Bay is overlooked by the extraordinary rock formation known as Quiraing (Cuith-fhir-Fhionn---recess of the men of Fingal).

While, from the scenic point of view, Kilmuir is the least attractive part of the island, it is very popular with visitors on account of its association with Flora MacDonald.

Crossing to the starboard side, we gaze across the water to the mountains of Gairloch and Torridon in Wester Ross, where sunshine and shadows playing on the heather make a beautiful picture. Farther away, as far as the eye can see, are the grey mountains of north-west Sutherland, and one can barely distinguish the fantastic shapes of Suilven and Canisp.

The sea is wonderfully calm to-day, unfortunately, as one misses the sight of great waves dashing against the half-submerged rocks of Fladda Chuan, and the rolling of the vessel ploughing her way across the Little Minch to Harris. However, we could never complain about the magnificent panorama to be obtained from the steamer's deck out here ; it is now about z.3o p.m.

(Greenwich time). The mainland of Ross and Sutherland has been mentioned ; due north we see the lonely Shiant Isles, and behind them Eye Peninsula and the few bleak hills of Lewis.

Straight ahead is the low green island of Scalpay, and in the background the numerous barren but attractive hills of Harris.

South-westwards, to the limit of the horizon, are the long, low lands of the Uists and Benbecula, relieved occasionally by the presence of a mountain of actual moderate height, though appearing to be immense by contrast with the lowness of its

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine. surroundings. Crossing the blue water between Outer and Inner Isles, our glance returns to Skye, and again " with a new and deep surprise, the Cuillin blue does hold our view, and fix our wond'ring eyes." From Sgurr nan gillean in the east to Gars-bheinn in the west, this blue-black sierra-like range piercing the clear sky on a late summer afternoon is an unforgettable sight, fully justifying the encomium of a recent English writer who said : " I have spent nights in the Sinai Desert ; I have slept in the Valley of the Dead in Egypt ; I have seen the sun rise from the summit of the Silvrettahorn in Switzerland . . . but I have never in all my life seen anything like the ' Black Coolins' standing grape-blue and still in morning sunshine."

The regular beating of the engines, the cries of one or two gulls, and all else silent ; a clear, sunny day ; and that magnificent panorama : surely, here is Heaven on Earth.

We approach Harris, and the steamer draws up at the pier at Scalpay, near the entrance to Loch Tarbert. No need for a Gaidhlig revival here ; not a word of English is spoken as passengers embark or goods are landed. A few minutes complete our business, and we continue up the loch to Tarbert, the principal place in Harris. How barren the land is we can easily see from the steamer—not a tree, hardly a trace of grass—small wonder the islesmen are a hardy race when they must eke out a livelihood from such meagre natural resources. Shortly after five o'clock we stop at Tarbert quay, and then commences a busy half-hour, for this is a bi-weekly service, and there is an abundance of goods, ama7ing and sometimes amusing in variety, to be landed: bananas, bedclothes, bicycles, books, bread, buttons, butter, boots, beads, blouses. What with all these articles on the quay, and the large turn-out of the islespeople to welcome home-comers and bid farewell to parting friends, it is not easy to move about, and indeed I would have been more at peace on board had I not caught sight of two friends on shore and landed to have a few minutes' chat with them. The steam-whistle sounds as a warning to passengers to return on board, and half-an-hour after berthing we cast off.

Our route, hitherto north-westerly, is now almost due southwards, and after passing Scalpay again, on the other side, we hug the coast of Harris for two hours or so. Away out on the Minch we see the white form of the new twin-screw steamer " Loch Ness," en route from Mallaig to Stornoway. This vessel of 777 tons, launched in 1929, is the second largest so far constructed for MacBrayne's services. Again we have fine views in various directions over the waves, enhanced if anything by the short shower of light rain-drops, behind which the sunlight plays on the western hills. Then as the sun begins to sink we enter the little bay at Rodel, surely one of the loveliest spots in the Isles, guarded night and day by Saint Clement's Church, the Cathedral of the Clan MacLeod. Perched on a rock overlooking the

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harbour, this picturesque old ruin has withstood the buffetings of wind and rain for nigh a thousand years. Rightly does Seton Gordon, in a most interesting book, describe the Outer Hebrides as " The Immortal Isles," for is it not in the West that the Celts have placed " Tir nan Oig "—" the land of the Ever-Young," where our souls find rest after our bodies are worn out? Although there is little traffic at Rodel we spend twenty minutes here, as there is no pier, and after " Lochmor " has come to the " stand-by," a small boat comes alongside.

Goods are transferred by hand, while passengers jump from one vessel to the other. This is a simple enough matter in the almost land-locked bay of Rodel, but it was a different case in pre-war days at Kyleakin, when the Portree-Mallaig steamer used to call there at low tide and " Glencoe " could not come in to the pier.

I still remember a stormy day in winter 1912, when considerable care was required in jumping into the small rowing-boat at the precise moment that a big wave lifted it up to the level of the hold of its big sister. However, there is no suggestion of a storm this evening, and when " Lochmor " regains the open sea, the rain has stopped and we hope to see a fine sunset through the Sound of Harris. This island-studded strait between North Uist and Harris is often the scene of magnificent sunsets, but to-night our luck is out, and we see it only in imagination.

Clouds hide the sun too much for the golden rays to fall on the water, and a bright yellow patch behind the Ebbs of Berneray is all we see.

The evening becomes chilly, and most of the passengers go down to the saloon ; even Hamish, in spite of my lecture on the stupidity of going on a cruise in order to view the scenery and then, after paying your fare, depriving yourself of that benefit. But he declined to listen to such sound reasoning ; truly, Aberdonians are a thrawn lot 1 Quite the most remarkable of Scotland's islands is North Uist; it consists of almost as much water as land. Long, winding lochs run here, there, and everywhere through this amazing island, and it is with great difficulty that the four roads have been constructed and maintained fit for service. The island is very low-lying, too ; only in the east is there a hill of any height : it ends in a great cliff at the south side of the entrance to Loch Maddy. The loch gets its name from two huge, black rocks in its entrance. These are supposed to be watch-dogs for the harbour, hence it was named Loch a' Mhadaidh —" Loch of the Dogs." As darkness falls (7.5o p.m. Greenwich time), we steer between the Maddies and reduce speed gradually as we ascend the loch to the pier. Here we are again greeted by a crowd, and bid farewell to the Fiscal, John Davidson, with whom we had struck up a conversation shortly after leaving Kyle. Fully three-quarters of an hour is to be spent here, so I rout Hamish out of his slumber and we go for a stroll beyond

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the Hotel and climb a small eminence beyond. In the gathering gloom an extensive view is unobtainable ; I make a mental note to return next year in June, when there is no darkness in the Outer Isles. By the time the steamer leaves it is quite dark overhead. A pity there is no moon ; this sail would have provided some fine views if it had been a moonlit evening.

A few stray yellow dots in the darkness—some continuous, some intermittent—show where lighthouses stand; and a long row of lights, stretching right along the coast of Skye, indicates the position of herring fleets from Castlebay and Mallaig. The other passengers have by now settled down for the night, either in berths comfortably, or in most ungainly and, to the eye, far from comfortable positions on the lower deck. I decline to make such an error : it is only ten o'clock, the evening is mild, and despite the darkness it is well worth while to remain on deck. I sit on the rail at the stern ; my gaze wanders from the yellow dots in the east to the dim outlines of the hills of Benbecula in the west, their blackness piercing even the darkness of the night. Beneath me, the restless screws churn the water into a white foam ; accompanying this highpitched ratcheting is the deep, steady beat, beat, beat of the engines. All else—silence. . . .

It is midnight in The Immortal Isles.

We hug the shore of South Uist, " little brindled Uist of the shieldrakes." Westwards there loom up in the darkness the great masses of Hecla and Beinn Mor, 1,ooo feet above us.

We lose sight of some of the yellow dots that have kept us company since we came through the Maddies, and make acquaintance with others to guide us in the eerie gloom into the quiet waters of Loch Boisdale. Here " Loch Earn," our sister from Oban, has been waiting for us since nine the previous evening ; we draw up alongside her at 1.5 a.m. One or two powerful lamps light up the quay, the few passengers and small amount of cargo are soon transferred from ship to ship, and about two o'clock " Loch Earn " departs for Castlebay, Tiree, Mull, and Oban. She is an hour-and-a-half late, but what is that out here ?

I go ashore, and briskly, for the morning air is keen, stroll along the road for half-a-mile or so. Westwards, across the bog, one or two small lochs shimmer with the breeze ; beyond, darkness hides the Atlantic shore. The birds and the beasts are asleep ; not a sound disturbs the stillness. Even the bagpipes are at rest, as not often is the case in South Uist—" the Home of Pipers." Retracing my steps, I pass several houses where lamps are still burning, and a few " late-birds " return from the pier, where the silence is broken by the voices of men and the clanging of a crane as cargo is transhipped. Eventually the work is completed, and once more calmness and quiet reign over the inky waters of the loch. The eeriness is intensified by a huge arc-lamp on the mast, shedding its green rays over

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine. the deck. I go on board again at 2.3o a.m. and shave, for the first time in six days. A sore proceeding 1 At three o'clock, a " sair drouth " inveigled me into consuming a io4d. tin of peaches (fruit and juice). Stupid, on an empty stomach, in such circumstances, and sure enough, within an hour Nemesis had wreaked her wrath ! We left Loch Boisdale at 3.2o, and at once I began to feel internally (and infernally I) uncomfortable, although the morning was still fine. At four o'clock I thankfully consigned the entire contents of the tin into the sea 1 Thereafter I felt quite well again, but, being tired, wrapped myself in a rug and lay down in a coil of rope on deck. Sleep soon overtook me, but not for more than a couple of hours, and I was up again as we approached Canna. Very unfortunately the weather had now changed ; it was a thick, damp morning, and to my great disgust the Cuillin were most indistinct. For both Hamish's sake and my own I had looked forward to getting a good view of these jagged peaks from the sea to the south-west. (He was still slumbering, but had the morning been bright I would have ruthlessly hounded him up to view the sunrise.) Meantime my attention was attracted by the bold cliffs of Canna, culminating in the massive Compass Hill. This name arrests one's notice, and anyone but a lazy person would have ascertained the reason for it. We called at Canna pier at seven o'clock ; a few minutes sufficed for our business, then on again. By now Hamish had actually awakened, and at 7.30 we partook of a hearty breakfast. Numerous complaints as to high fares and freight charges, inadequate services, meagre accommodation, and so on, have for years been levelled at MacBrayne's, and as a semi-West-Coaster I have heard them well and truly aired, but the catering has ever been above reproach.

Consider our breakfast on this occasion—porridge, kipper, bacon and egg, toast, butter, marmalade, coffee (and such excellent coffee) for half-a-crown. We did full justice to the meal, and no doubt 1 At a quarter past eight we called at Rum. Though the largest of the Small Isles, Rum has no pier, and one may land only with a permit, obtainable from the factor. A small boat comes out from the shore and a mail-bag is thrown on to it; another comes on board '° Lochmor," thus the business of our visit is completed, and we depart again from the rather gloomy but nevertheless attractive waters of Loch Scresort.

For a few moments the sky brightens ; our hopes begin to rise ; but again clouds obscure the sun, and mist hides the higher parts of Skye. The Cuillin of Rum, however, stand out very clearly, and prove to be in truth magnificent hills—great darkblue or purple jags piercing the sky. But they are commonplace in comparison with the peak that we are now approaching —Sgurr Eig; this is quite the most remarkable hill I have ever seen. Can you visualise the crooked nose of " Mr. Punch " magnified ten thousand times, set on its base and placed on an

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island? That is Sgurr Eig, where three hundred years ago the MacLeods suffocated a thousand MacDonalds in a cave by kindling a fire at its entrance, whence the wind carried the fumes in on their enemies ; those who tried to escape were cut down by the sword. This morning the isle is peaceful enough as a little motor-boat cuts through the water and draws up alongside the steamer. Several passengers come aboard, including two clergymen, neither being, however, Eig's most famous cleric— Kenneth MacLeod, Bard of the Isles, who collaborated with Marjorie Kennedy-Fraser in collecting and publishing so many Songs of the Hebrides. Gazing at his native heath, we realise it is only natural that so beautiful an environment should fill a man's soul with poetry, and our regret is that he does not give utterance to it more freely. The green, wooded slopes beyond the gentle curve of the bay recede into the shadows as we leave at 9.3o across the Sound of Arisaig. The Sgurr still attracts our eyes, its weird outlines fascinating, willy-nilly. But we force ourselves to look around ; southwards, to Muic, shaped like a parson's hat, and the long peninsula of Ardnamorchuan in the distance ; northwards, to Skye, where heavy rain envelops the Cuillin, though Elgol is bathed in sunshine; eastwards to the Silver Sands of Morar, their intense whiteness standing out in strong contrast to the blue-black sea and the purple hills behind. Six weeks ago, in a train en route for Mallaig, a little girl amused the others in the compartment by exclaiming as we passed Morar Bay, " O ! look at the snow." But there was, indeed, good reason for the suggestion. The best view, however, of the White Sands is obtained at eventide from the south of Sleat, looking across the water to " Morar Beannachte " —" Blessed Morar" of the Catholics, because never was a Protestant service held in the parish until the railway came in 1897. This is the country of Clan Ranald, who remained true to the Old Faith when the MacDonalds of the Isles embraced the Reformed Order.

A short shower clears the air as we steam steadily across the lower end of the Sound of Sleat (" Brindled Sleat of the Beautiful Women ") to Mallaig, and we step on to the mainland again at 11.4 a.m., less than twenty-four hours after leaving Kyle yesterday. Let ignorant Southrons croak about lugubrious Highlanders and gloomy Highlands ; we of the North and the West ask for nothing better than a day in the Hebrid Seas round the Isles of the Strangers— Isles where the surge of Old Atlantic foams Ceaselessly day and night, or where there stand Grim-headed mountains where the red deer roams : These are before us, and that mighty band Ghosts of the Ancient Gael start up on every hand.

E. R. B. 0920-22.)

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** * It is requested that the Editor be informed of all new appointments and interesting incidents in the careers of Former Pupils.

The dates given in parentheses after names indicate the sessions of attendance at the School.

School Successes in the Civil Service.

William Aitken Brown Hamilton* (1921-27), M.A., was declared in September by the Civil Service Commissioners to have obtained the first place in the open competition for the Administrative Class of the Home Civil Service. Hamilton, who is a son of Mr. Brown Hamilton, H.M. Inspector of Schools, Aberdeen, was Classical Dux of the School in 1927, and gained the first place in the Aberdeen University Arts Bursary Competition both in 1926 and in 1927. This was then a unique distinction, but it has now been paralleled by a girl from Peterhead Academy. He graduated in arts in the spring of this year with First Class Honours in Classics, and at the same time he gained the Seafield Gold Medal in Latin and the Simpson Prize in Greek.

A few weeks ago he was awarded by the University of Aberdeen the Fullerton, Moir and Gray Scholarship in Classics, of £165 for two years. He has been posted to the Board of Education, Whitehall, London.

George Edmond Crombie* (1916-21), M.A., in the same examination gained the eighth place for the Home Civil Service and the second place for the Indian Civil Service, and has been appointed to the former. He is a son of Dr. JAMES M. P. CROMBIE* (1884-89), M.B., C.M., L.D.S., and entered Aberdeen University from Fettes College. He graduated with First Class Honours in Classics in 193o. Crombie had the distinction of scoring the highest marks in Greek secured by any candidate in the last ten years, that is to say since the present scheme of examination was established.

It is 7o years since an Aberdeen graduate took First Place in a Civil Service Examination, and he was an F.P.-JAMES WESTLAND (18 52-55), later Sir James Westland, K.C.S.I., LL.D., who rose in the Indian Civil Service to be Financial Member of the Supreme Council.

Since the War the following F.P.s have gained either Class I * Member of Former Pupils' Club.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

Clerkships in the Home Civil Service, or appointments in the Indian Civil Service :1919 William Robert Tennant* (1904-10), M.A. (I.C.S.).

Edmund Blaikie Boyd* (5900-12), M.A. (H.C.S.).

Alfred Buyers Valentine* (19o5-11), M.A. (H.C.S.).

1926 James Ian Cormack Crombie* (1908-21). M.A. (H.C.S.).

1928 Cecil Arthur Grant Savidge* (1913-24), M.A. (I.C.S.).

1929 William Wares Georgeson* (1955-23), M.A. (I.C.S.).

ANOTHER F.P. KNIGHTED. Alexander Hendry* (18 83-86), C.V.O., M.D. (Edin.), according to the Court Circular issued from Balmoral Castle on 26th September, " had the honour of being received by The King to-day, when His Majesty conferred upon him the Honour of Knighthood, and invested him with the Insignia of Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order." A son of the late Mr. John Hendry, Post Office, Braemar, he has been in practice at Ballater for 39 years. He was appointed medical attendant at. Balmoral Castle in 1904, and became Surgeon Apothecary to His Majesty's Household at Balmoral in 191o, a position from which he is retiring at the end of this year.

He was created an M.V.O. (4th Class) in 1911, and was promoted to be a C.V.O. in 1924.

John Blackhall Anderson (1885), M.A., head master of Logie-Coldstone Public School, Aberdeenshire, is retiring in January, under the age limit.

George Andrew (1885-86), M.A. (Aberd.), B.A. (Oxon.), H.M.I.S., has recently been promoted to the position of Chief Inspector of Schools of the Northern Division of Scotland, with headquarters at Inverness. He has been Inspector for Glasgow and the County of Bute for the past eight years, previous to which he was in the Dundee and Angus area. He is a son of the late Dr. Allan R. Andrew, M.A., Chief Inspector of Schools, Glasgow, and a brother of the present Rector of the Grammar School.

William Rogie Angus* (1915-21), M.A., B.Sc., who holds a Ramsay Memorial Fellowship of £3oo at University College, London, has had this continued for a second year.

Charles Alastair Aymer* (1913-15), M.B., Ch.B., is now practising his profession in Wimpole Street, London. He was previously at Boscombe, Hants.

Robert William Ingram Band* (5924-26), M.A., who has been studying at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, has been offered and has accepted an Eastern Cadetship on the results of the recent examination for appointments in the Home and

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Indian Civil Services. He will leave for Malay next March, after four months of training at the London School of Oriental Languages.

Bertram John A. G. Barr* (1909-13), who has been in the service of the Mercantile Bank of India, Ltd., for a good many years, has recently been transferred from Calcutta to Madras, where he has been appointed Accountant of the Bank. He has accepted office as F.P. Club Consul at Madras.

Charles Leith Barron* (1907-19) has since August been House Surgeon at the Royal Northern Infirmary, Inverness.

Claud Alexander Barron* (1880-87), C.S.I., C.I.E., C.V.O., has recently severed his connection finally with India, after 38i years' service there. He entered the Indian Civil Service in 1890, arrived in India in 1892, and retired in November, 1927, having completed the allotted span of 35 years. Thereafter he held the post of Revenue and Public Works Minister in the Bahawalpur State, where he supervised the bringing under cultivation by irrigation of about two million acres of hitherto waste land. From 1919 to 1924 he held the post of Chief Commissioner of Delhi, and his last position in the Indian Civil Service was that of Financial Commissioner (Development Branch) of the Punjab.

Walter Roland Jardine Beattie (1895), who has been rector of St. Michael's Episcopal Church, Edinburgh, since 1919, has recently resigned. He will, it is stated, retire into private life in the meantime, with the object of ultimately joining the Church of Rome.

William Beveridge (1875-8o), M.A., who was for 3z years minister of the U.F. Church, New Deer, Aberdeenshire, recently completed ten years' service at the Budapest Jewish Mission of the Church of Scotland. This event coincided with the celebration in Budapest of the 9oth anniversary of the founding of the Mission. It was on 2 i st August, 1841, that the first missionary arrived in the Hungarian capital, This was the famous Dr. John Duncan, better known as " Rabbi " Duncan, who was a pupil at the School from 18°6 to 1810.

Edmund Blaikie Boyd* (1900-12), M.A., who was appointed to the Higher Division of the Home Civil Service in 1920 and posted to the Colonial Office, has been made Private Secretary to Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister,- Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Jack Leslie Keith Brown (1921-25) is a planter on the Kerling Estate, Selangor, F.M.S., which is under the agency of Messrs. Guthrie & Co. His younger brother, Geoffrey Farquhar Brown* (1921-25), is on the Si Boelan Estate, Tebing Tinggi, Deli, Sumatra; and their father, Thomas Leslie Brown* (1887-89), is General Manager in Malaya for the Strath-

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

more Rubber Co., his address being Ulu Buloh Estate, Sungei Buloh Station, Selangor, F.M.S. Robert Douglas Bruce* (1913-22), M.B., Ch.B., who was for a year medical officer to the Angus Jute Company, Calcutta, and then House Surgeon at the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, London, is at present House Surgeon at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Great Portland Street, London.

Henry Jackson Butchart* (1890-99), D.S.O.,. B.L., Secretary of the University of Aberdeen, is a great enthusiast for ski-ing. He recently had a short article in the Sunday Times on " Winter Sports in Scotland," in which he pointed out the claims of Scotland as against those of Switzerland. He doubted " whether the majority of ski-ing centres in Switzerland have as good or as much snow as we had at Braemar at the beginning of January, 1931. I skied there on each of the first five days of the month. On two days the snow was slow ; there was a strong, cold wind, and no sun. On the other three the snow was excellent, with continuous sunshine. I have for a number of years spent the first week of January at Braemar, and have never failed to get ski-ing." The conclusion of his article was : " Let all those, then, who normally go to Switzerland, Austria, or France, come to Scotland this winter. They will get their holiday for less money, will support their country in its hour of need, and get a variety in winter sports which they have not so far experienced."

Charles William Morrison Cameron* (1916-18), M.B., Ch.B., purchased a medical practice in Barnes in November of last year. He has been appointed District Medical Officer for Barnes, and Public Vaccinator for Barnes and Mortlake.

James Ross Campbell (1886), M.A., has retired from the headmastership of the Public School, Daviot, Aberdeenshire, after nearly 35 years' service. His first appointment was to Keith Public School, then he was at Uig, in Skye, for two years, and after a year at Rothiemay, he came to Daviot in January, 1897.

Alexander Whincup Carle* (1914-20), B.Sc. Eng. (Glasgow), who left in the autumn of 1928 to take up an appointment as Assistant Locomotive Superintendent with the Bengal and North-Western Railway Co., Ltd., has recently become a Life Member of the F.P. Club. He is at present stationed at Gorakhpur, United Provinces, and says he is enjoying life there. He hopes to be home at the end of next year, and meantime always enjoys reading the Magazine.

-Joseph Robert Carry* (1918-30) has recently gained the Diploma for Optics and Sight Testing of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers, London.

James Alexander Catto (1913-2o) was for five years clerk and foreign correspondent of the Central Agency, Ltd., Glasgow.

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Thereafter he was credit information clerk and foreign correspondent in Glasgow of Messrs. Grace Bros. & Co., Ltd., bankers, London.

George Norman Clark* (1916-22), M.B., Ch.B., was in October appointed Junior Assistant Surgeon, attached to the wards of the Third Surgeon, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

Andrew Gourlay Clow (1896-98), C.I.E., M.A. (Cantab.), who entered the Indian Civil Service in 1914, was a member of the Royal Commission on Indian Labour, whose report was published in July last and made far-reaching recommendations.

Mr. Whitley, the late Speaker of the House of Commons, was Chairman of the Commission, which was appointed over two years ago and began its investigations in India in October, 1929.

Mr. Clow was the representative of official experience in India of labour questions. He is in the Department of Industries and Labour of the Government of India, and is regarded as one of the most widely informed members of the I.C.S. on industrial problems. He wrote a valuable survey of Indian industrial policy for the Simon Commission.

Duncan Scott Cochran* (1914-24) and George McNaughton Rae Duffus* (1920-25), who both graduated M.B., Ch.B. at Aberdeen University in the spring of this year, hold posts as House Physicians for a year at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

Alfred William Howden Cooper (1904-07), M.A., a son of Rev. ALFRED AUGUSTUS COOPER (1879-83), M.A., is at present an examiner in the Estate Duty Office, Somerset House, London.

He entered the Inland Revenue Department of the Civil Service in 1922, after taking the law course at Edinburgh University and qualifying as a solicitor.

B.A. (Cantab.), Patrick Ashley Cooper* (1896-19o LL.B. (Aberd.), it may be recalled, was one of the seven members of the Committee on National Expenditure, whose report, published at the beginning of August last, was mainly responsible for the recent political crisis in the country, and whose recommendations to a large extent underlay the revised Budget.

In addition to rendering valuable service as a member of the Committee Mr. Cooper has recently accepted the very arduous post of Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. At the annual meeting of the Company at the end of July he scored a great triumph, being the dominating personality, and carried the meeting with him on point after point. As one commentator wrote : " Although he has for some time been marked out as a coming man in the City, he exceeded expectation to-day. A son of Mr. Patrick Cooper, adVocate, Aberdeen, he went into the City only after the War, and originally meant to follow the law as a profession. Travel, soldiering, rowing, and games have all engaged his attention. Six feet four inches in height, and still

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

in the early forties, he is in many ways a change from the older type of City man. He is reputed to have a special flair for company administration, and for coping successfully with times of stress." The following is from The Bon-Accord : " Some of the ' Society ' scribes are assuming that Mr. Patrick Ashley Cooper is of the same stock as the Ashley Coopers, Earls of Shaftesbury.

This is a mistake. Our Mr. Cooper derives the Ashley in his name from the fact that his mother is a daughter of the late Mr. John Cook of Ashley, head of a leading shipping firm, who for many years was one of the most prominent citizens of Aberdeen. Mr. George M. Cook [1864-69] is son and successor of Mr. Cook of Ashley in John Cook & Son. One of Mr. Cooper's maternal aunts is that brilliant writer, Lady Adams, wife of the distinguished educationist, Emeritus Professor Sir John Adams, who is well remembered in Aberdeen as Principal of the Free Church Training College. The Coopers of Aberdeen have a double descent from the family known two or three generations ago as the `Rogers of Rhynie.'

Sir Alexander Roger, who is now a great figure in international finance, is a Roger of Rhynie, and a cousin of Mr. Patrick Ashley Cooper. This may have assisted the latter in making his way, but he had, before settling in London, obtained a thorough grounding in financial work in the office of Messrs. Paull and Williamsons, advocates, of the Scottish Northern Investment Trust, Ltd., and of the Second and of the Third Scottish Northern Investment Trust, Ltd." Mr. Cooper sailed for Canada on and September to examine the position of the Hudson's Bay Company there, and it may be safely assumed that his examination will be thorough and will lead to drastic re-organization.

William James Craig* (1909-14), chartered accountant, was in January last promoted to the position of inspector for North Queensland of Burns, Philp & Co., Ltd., shipowners, and its subsidiary interests.

John Henry Newman Craigen* (1894-1905), who has been on the staff of the Glasgow Citizen for the last eight or nine years, has recently joined the art staff of the Daily Herald, Manchester. His departure from Glasgow is a distinct loss to the Glasgow Centre of the F.P. Club, especially on its social side.

Andrew John Maxton Cruickshank (1919-25) is one of the recent recruits to the ranks of the Arts League Players.

He is a promising young actor, well known in Aberdeen amateur dramatic and musical circles.

Francis Rennie Daniel (1905-14), M.C., M.B., Ch.B., is at present medical officer to the Nakachari Medical Association, Assam.

Ernest Denny Logie Danson* (1892-94), M.A., D.D., Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak since 1917, has recently taken

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up residence at The Abbey, Carlisle, following his appointment by the Bishop of Carlisle to the third canonry of Carlisle Cathedral. He is to be the chief guest of the Glasgow Centre of the F.P. Club at its Annual Dinner on 29th January next.

Peter McLaren Davidson* (1908-13), B.Sc., is at present working in London with a firm of manufacturing chemists.

Gordon Moncrieff Dean* (1909- I 8), B.A. (Cantab.), M.B., Ch.B., was in July awarded by the Rockefeller Foundation a Travelling Fellowship for the year 1931-32. He is at present studying at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. In 1929 he was awarded by the University of Aberdeen the George Thompson Fellowship in Medicine of the annual value of about £zoo, tenable for two years. He was the most distinguished Aberdeen graduate in medicine of the year 1926-27. The Fellowships under the Rockefeller Foundation are awarded to graduates who have had some training in research work, either in the primary sciences of medicine or in clinical medicine or surgery, and who are likely to profit by a period of work at a chosen centre in America, or, in special cases, in Europe, before taking up positions for higher training or research in the British Isles.

Vaughan Nicol Dean* (1913-20), C.A., was in March last appointed general manager of Regina Films, Ltd., a new and independent producing company. Writing to the Secretary of the F.P. Club in July, he mentioned that his company had just completed its first picture, entitled " Fascination." " The film industry in Great Britain," he went on, " is progressing by leaps and bounds, and each new production shows advancement in technical skill and direction. Already we have become serious competitors of the American film companies. The film industry meantime is one of the few in this country that is flourishing, and with constant improvement in the quality of pictures, the future appears very promising. The British public are getting rather bored with the American accent and slang, and appreciate good films, featuring well-known and experienced actors and actresses, in which the dialogue is delivered in the language they have been educated to, and are proud of. Life in the studios is most interesting, varied, and instructive ; and it is really amazing the hard work, brains, and organization that are employed before a film can be prepared in such a fashion as to be acceptable to the majority of the devotees of the silver screen."

Marshall Keith Duguid* (1919-29) is in the Companhia de Mocambique, which is the trading department Commercio do of the Sena Sugar Estates, Ltd., Caia, Portuguese East Africa.

In a letter written last summer he says : " In the near future I will set up a wireless here, and I hope I shall hear the School Orchestra, but a more interesting thing for me to hear would be a broadcast of the Masters versus Boys Cricket Match ! "

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Aberdeen Grammar School Mageqine.

Robert Hutton Duguid* (1918-23), B.Com., has passed the final examination of the Chartered Accountants of Scotland, and has been admitted a member of the Society of Accountants in Aberdeen.

Douglas McKenzie Duncan* (1918-15), B.Com., has obtained the First Class (14o words per minute) Certificate of the Royal Society of Arts, London, in Advanced Shorthand.

He passed with distinction. At present he is qualifying as a teacher of commercial subjects at the Aberdeen Training Centre.

James Lindsay Duncan* (1911-24), M.A., LL.B., in July received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in the Faculty of Law from the University of Edinburgh. His thesis was " The end and aim of Law." In November he was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates. He is a son of Mr. George Duncan, advocate, Aberdeen, one of the Honorary Members of the F.P. Club.

Douglas Watt Duthie* (1915-21), M.A., B.Sc., left in September to take up an appointment as Lecturer in Agricultural Chemistry in the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad, B.W.I. He was previously engaged in bio-chemical research at Cambridge under the Chilean Iodine Committee.

Alexander Gordon Glennie Ellis (1908-09), B.Sc. (Agr.), who was for a number of years in the Agricultural Service of the Federated Malay States, being latterly Inspector of Agriculture, Johore, has since 1923 been engaged in farming at Shempston, Elgin.

Victor Ralph Witcomb Engstrom* (1923-29) is at present undergoing his period of conscription in the Swedish Army, and is stationed at Uppsala.

Alexander John Findlay* (1898-1904), M.A., B.Sc. (Agr.), who has been Assistant Director of Agriculture in Nigeria since 1927, is being transferred to Zanzibar as Director of Agriculture there.

George Topham Forrest* (1879-89), F.R.I.B.A., Architect to the London County Council, has, in collaboration with Sir Frederick Palmer, K.C.M.G., designed the new bridge which the London County Council has decided to build at Chelsea at an estimated cost of £629,25o. It is to be a suspension bridge of steel design, with a central span over the navigable water and two shorter approach spans. The total width of the bridge will be about 98 feet, including two footways, each ix feet wide, and a carriageway 6o feet in width, sufficient for six lines of traffic. It will be remembered that Mr. Topham Forrest, in collaboration with Sir Reginald Blomfield, R.A., and Sir George Humphreys, K.B.E., was responsible for the design of another important bridge, namely Lambeth Bridge, which is now approaching completion.

Stanley Mayer Fraser* (1908-19), who returned to India in

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May last, after six months' furlough at home, was again posted to the Orangajuli Division of the Assam Dooars Tea Co., Ltd., but at the end of October was transferred to the Kurmah Division of the Patrakola Tea Co., Ltd. His address is Kurmah Tea Estate, Adampur P.O., South Sylhet.

James Chalmers Gall* (1926-27) is at present serving as an apprentice on M.S. King Ludd, with Messrs. Dodd, Thomson and Co., Ltd., London.

James Gillan (1860-62), M.A., D.D., celebrated his ministerial diamond jubilee on 5th July by preaching in Alford West Church, where he was ordained in 1871. After being for twenty-five years there he resigned, and next was in charge of a new congregation and parish in the Dalry district of Edinburgh from 1898 to 1904. In 1905 he was appointed minister of St. Margaret's Parish, Edinburgh. This charge he resigned in 1910, and since then he has continued to reside in Edinburgh.

George Norrie Gordon* (1908-19), B.Sc., graduated in law (B.L.) at Aberdeen University in March last, and is at present assistant in a law office in Aberdeen.

Sydney Watson Gray* (1911-13) is manager of the Johore River Estate, P.O. Bahru, Johore.

Ranald Forbes Greig* (1921-30) is at present studying for the L.D.S. diploma.

Herbert Charles Thomson Gunter* (r 9t 0-49), M.B., Ch.B., is now in medical practice at Billericay, Essex. He was previously in Bournemouth.

George Jamieson Hall* (1915-18), who for a number of years was engaged in sheep-rearing in Australia, has now come home and settled at Foxbury Poultry Farm, Burridgeheath, Bedwyn, Wilts. As will be seen from another page, he was married in July. His elder brother, James Christian Hall* (1911-14), M.B., Ch.B., is in medical practice at Caxton, near Cambridge.

Francis Gordon Harper* (1925-28) has been selected for an appointment in the Colonial Forest Service, and is to proceed to the Gold' Coast on completing a post-graduate course at the Imperial Forestry Institute, Oxford. He is to be for a year at Wadham College, Oxford.

George Hutcheson (1877-79), grain merchant and commission agent, Aberdeen, who died on 3oth May last, left estate valued at £158,121. zs. 9d.

Charles Ross Irvine* (1922-26) has been awarded by the University of Aberdeen a Robbie Scholarship in Mathematics of £roo.

Francis Charles Kelly* (1905-14), who in 1928 was appointed research chemist with the Chilean Iodine Committee, has recently been transferred from London to Paris.

2

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magcqine.

David Glass Larg* (r9o5-II), M.A. (Aberd.), D.Litt.

(London), was lecturer in French Literature at Sheffield University from 1920 to 1927, and thereafter reader in French Literature in London University till 1929, when he retired on acount of illhealth. Fortunately his health has now considerably improved.

He has been living in the Isle of Wight.

George Lawrence* (1901-03), agent at the Commercial Road Branch in Aberdeen of the North of Scotland Bank, was in August appointed assistant local manager at Glasgow, and has been succeeded by Andrew Ducat* (1902-06), previously agent at the Harbour Branch, Aberdeen.

Robert Grant Lindsay* (1924-26) has recently been transferred from the Aberdeen Branch to the London City Office of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Eric Robert Russell Linklater* (191 3 -16), M.A., whose " Juan in America" is now nearing its fiftieth thousand, has recently added to his growing list of works in prose and verse "Ben Jonson and King James: Biography and Portrait," published by Jonathan Cape at sos. 6d. According to a broadcast talk, this is " a good story of the richness and swagger of seventeenth-century England, and of a poet who began life as a bricklayer, fought a man in single combat between opposing armies, and nearly went to the gallows for killing one Gabriel Spenser, and finally achieved the position of Poet Laureate, with the most brilliant wits of London gathered all about him."

According to The Observer, " having conducted Juan on his rollicking tour through America, Mr. Linklater follows Ben Jonson's splendidly strident career through Elizabethan and Jacobean England. It is difficult to say which is the more entertaining book, for the same zest has gone to the making of both ; certainly this picture of London in the seventeenth century leaves the impression of being no more fantastic than that of the America the author visited in the twentieth. Mr. Linklater has a lively imagination, and an extraordinary gift for reconstructing scenes. . . . It is the modern impressionistic method of writing biography: picturesque, highly-coloured, rich in detail, and full of imaginative touches. Only a man who knows his subject as well as Mr. Linklater can bring it off successfully. ' Ben Jonson and King James ' is fine free brushwork, which impresses one as good portraiture." The Times review was less favourable : " The author of this book will probably one day regret that he did not leave out of it a good deal of childish showing off. Much of his book resembles what in one sort of journalism is known as a ' write-up.' " The author, replying in a letter to the Editor, starts characteristically: " To answer the review on ' Ben Jonson and King James,' published in your issue of October 22, one might, with pleasure and propriety, borrow its own introductory sentence,

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altering just one word : ' The author of this review will probably one day regret that he did not leave out of it a good deal of childish showing-off.' " Altogether the book has called forth a great deal of very entertaining criticism.

Norman H. S. Macbeth* (1919-24) is manager of Messrs.

Duncan, Macbeth & Co., Ltd., The Bonded Warehouses, Invergordon.

John Somerled Macdonald (1886-87), M.A., D.D., has resigned for health reasons from the pastorate of Sefton Park Presbyterian Church, Liverpool. He graduated in arts at Aberdeen University in 1891, and was successively minister of the Free Church, Stornoway, the United Free High Church, Nairn, and the U.F. Church, Skelmorlie, Ayrshire. Thereafter he was minister of the U.F. Church at Dalkeith, where he remained until 1921, when he went to Liverpool. He received the degree of D.D. from the University of Aberdeen in 1926.

Duncan McMillan* (1881-87), M.Inst.C.E., who was formerly engineer-in-chief to the Government Railways of Ceylon, is now resident in his retirement at Highclere, near Newbury, Berks.

Robert Machray (1846-47), D.D., LL.D., D.C.L., Prelate of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, the first Archbishop of Rupert's Land and the first Anglican Primate of All Canada, is to be commemorated by a stained glass window in St. John's Cathedral, Winnipeg. As a poor, fatherless, Highland boy he fought his way first to Aberdeen University and then to Cambridge. He became the dean of his College there, and vicar of Madingley. At the age of 34 he was consecrated as Bishop of the immense see of Rupert's Land, which then extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean. He died in 1904.

Roderick Philip Macrae* (1906-24) last June was one out of only eleven to get a " First " in Mathematical Moderations at the University of Oxford. He holds an Open Mathematical Scholarship at Balliol.

James William Slessor Marr* (1913-19), M.A., B.Sc., who for more than a year has been working on the " Discovery " Investigations in the British Museum, left London early in October in the Royal Research Ship Discovery II, which is now on a two years' cruise in the Far South.

Hamish MacPhail Massie* (1918-31) has entered the service of the Everest Upholstery Co., Ltd., Longeaton, Notts.

John Irvine Miler* (1918-25) went out to Northern Bengal last December, and holds an appointment there on the Chulsa Tea Estate, Matelli.

Charles Creighton Minto* (1888-98) has retired from the firm of Messrs. Williamson Booth, Mintos & Morrison, solicitors,

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Aberdeen. The business of the firm is being carried on under the same name as hitherto by Thomas Walker Hector* (188090), advocate, for his own behoof.

John Minto* (1878-80), M.A., Librarian to the Society of Writers to H.M. Signet, Edinburgh, published two years ago through the Library Association a volume entitled " Reference Books: A Classified and Annotated Guide to the Principal Works of Reference." He has followed this up with a Supplement, which was published in August.

Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell* (1879-80), C.B.E., M.A., D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.S., the Secretary of the Zoological Society of London, will be commemorated for long in the new Whipsnade Zoological Park in Bedfordshire by a fine avenue, nearly three-quarters of a mile long, from the south boundary of the park down to the village of Dagnall, which is to be called " Sir Peter's Way," in recognition of the circumstance that the Secretary of the Society first recognized the possibility of making the avenue, and shared in procuring the land for the Society.

Twenty-eight acres have been purchased alongside Sir Peter's Way, including a pretty wood, two paddocks, and a flat meadow, to be turned into a car-park capable of holding several thousand cars.

Sir Peter, in October, gave the first lecture at Oxford under the Estlin Carpenter Foundation. He intended it, he said, to arouse thought or even controversy by presenting the case, unfashionable just now, that life was a resultant of the structure and composition of protoplasm, and not a superphysical, detachable principle. Protoplasm, he went on, was limited to very narrow physical conditions ; it could display vital activities only between a temperature a little above the freezing point of water and a little below the boiling point. According to the recent conclusions of astronomers, the necessary conditions had come into existence in the universe only by the rarest of accidents.

In a recent debate in London the Bishop of Birmingham had expressed his distaste for such a view, and suggested that consciousness might exist at temperatures of millions of degrees.

That might be a supposition, remarked Sir Peter, interesting to those who believed in Hell, but it had nothing to do with biology I Hugh Alexander Murray (1919-25), M.A., was in June elected to the Craven Studentship in Classics at Cambridge University. The special subject of his studies there is " Libanius, his significance in the culture and education of his time." It will be remembered that in June, Murray was placed in Class I of the Classical Tripos, Part II, with Special Merit in History, and also in the rest of the examination.

Donald Fraser Mursell* (1921-22) is at present employed on a coffee plantation in the province of Coorg, Southern

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India. A short article by him will appear in the next issue of the Magazine.

Alexander Nicol (1905-11), M.A., who has been a journalist in Manchester since 1919, has recently been appointed editor of the Daily Dispatch there.

Alexander Adam McIntosh Nicol* (1915-17), M.B., Ch.B., has been appointed Assistant Physician to the Royal Infirmary and to the Sick Children's Hospital, Sunderland. lain H Pattison* (1921-30), who in December last was awarded the George Ernest Morrison Scholarship of the value of £2oo per annum tenable for two years at the Geelong College, Victoria, Australia, appears to have settled down in his new surroundings. From a copy of The Pegasus, the journal of the Geelong College, that has recently come to hand, we find that he has been taking part in an inter-school debate on the subject " That the disadvantages of the Public Schools outweigh the advantages." In a short article he gives to the readers of the journal a very attractive account of " The Misty Isle of Skye."

William Robinson Pirie* (1861-66), M.A., D.D., has resigned from the charge of the Old Parish Church, Nairn, on account of ill-health. He was ordained as a minister of the Church of Scotland in 1876, and as he was licensed two years before that, he has been in the ministry for the long period of 57 years. His successive charges have been Martyrs' Parish, Glasgow, 1876 ; North Parish, Stirling, 1878 ; Keith, 1880 ; and Nairn, 1898. He is a son of the late Rev. William Robinson Pirie, D.D., who was the Principal of the University of Aberdeen from 1877 to 1885, and a brother of the late Professor George Pirie (1852-56), of the Chair of Mathematics in the University.

Richard Pithie* (1875-76), who was for a considerable period a chief engineer with the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company, and since his retirement in 1921 has been resident at Polegate, Sussex, was one of the veterans of the Aberdeen Volunteer Royal Engineers who attended the " Wet " Review Jubilee Parade at Edinburgh in the beginning of September.

He thereafter paid a visit to Aberdeen.

James Robertson Reid* (1873-76), M.D., is now resident in retirement at Newby, Scarborough. He previously lived at Worsley, Manchester.

David Lindsay Rennet* (1914-26) is at present serving with Messrs. Burnett & Reid, advocates, Aberdeen.

James Leslie Rennett* (1913-26) has come home from Sumatra, where he was on a rubber estate, and is now studying law at Aberdeen University. He is a law apprentice with Mr. Hugh F. Campbell, advocate, Aberdeen (formerly English master of the School).

3o

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

James Bowie Riddell* (1876-77 and 1883-86), who has been on the staff of Robert Gordon's College for many years as an assistant teacher of English, resigned his appointment in August. He is one of the early Life Members of the F.P. Club.

Adam Alexander Ritchie* (1903-08), M.A., B.Sc., who joined the Indian Educational Service as Assistant Principal of Aitchison College, Lahore, in 1915, is now Assistant Principal of Mayo College, Ajmer, Rajputana.

Michael Balfour Hutchison Ritchie (1897-98), D.S.O., O.B.E., Lieutenant-Colonel, R.A.M.C., a son of the late Rev. Robert Ritchie, Inverurie, has worked out a scheme in connection with the formation of a new arm of the Nationalist Movement in Scotland, to which has been given the name of the Scottish Watch. This youth movement is intended to arouse the youth of Scotland to the needs of the Scottish nation, and is intended to include in its membership both sexes over the age of seventeen.

As its chief end it has the idea of fostering team work, esprit de corps, the art of leadership, tolerance, and uncritical helpfulness.

Built upon lines similar to those of the Rover Scouts and suchlike organizations, the Scottish Watch is to consist of units of ten, and each ten units will form a company. The Scottish Watch's out-of-doors activities include rambling and camping, and the playing of Scottish games, sports, and pastimes. Indoors there will be a systematic fostering of Scottish culture in all its many branches—literature, art, language, music, dancing, civil administration, economics, and the general work involved in every form of national uplift.

George Reginald Robertson* (1921-zz) of Pietermaritzburg, who is the Natal Rhodes Scholar for 1931, and holds the Scholarship, which is of the value of £4oo per annum, for three years, has arrived in this country, and is studying at University College, Oxford. He was in Aberdeen in September, when he became a member of the F.P. Club.

James Robertson* (1893-99), M.A., who was mathematical master in the Vale of Leven Academy from 1904, turned in 1918 from teaching to business. For a time he was general manager for Scotland and factory manager of Messrs. Lipton, Ltd., London. How he is manager of City Bakeries, Ltd., Glasgow.

Thomas Irvine Rowell* (1854-55), C.M.G., M.D., who is the Senior Member of the F.P. Club, is the person referred to in the following notice which appeared in The Times in August :63rd ANNIVERSARY. Rowell : Gale.—On Aug. 4, 1868, Dr. RowaLL to MARIA GRACE GALE. Formerly of Singapore, now in London.

Dr. Rowell entered his 9znd year on 3oth November.

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

31

Alexander Gordon Scott* (1925-29) is now serving in M.V. Clydebank, belonging to Messrs. Andrew Weir & Co., London.

James Richard Scott* (1895-19oz) is at present residing at Bieldside, Aberdeen. He was for a number of years in the Military Accounts Department of the Government of India, and latterly has been an accountant in Chicago.

Arthur Martin Scrimgeour* (1921-27), M.A., has joined the staff of Messrs. H. J. Foster & Co., Ltd., import and export merchants, Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras. He was for some time this year in Tangier, and left in July for Newfoundland and Kingston, Jamaica. He was to be away for about four months.

Percy Charles Brand Shirreffs* (1913-16), who entered the Government Service of the Gold Coast Colony in 1927, and not long afterwards was appointed a District Commissioner, was home on furlough this year, and sportingly occupied his time by continuing his previous studies in medicine, with the result that he graduated M.B., Ch.B. at Aberdeen University in July.

He believes that this qualification will stand him in good stead in the Gold Coast.

Edmond Sinclair* (1877-87), M.A., has been appointed Town Clerk of Banchory. He has had 14 years' experience in Local Government work, and up to last year was Clerk and Treasurer to the Upper Deeside District Committee of the Kincardine County Council.

Donald Trench Skeen* (1888 and 1895-99), M.B., Ch.B., who is the Club Consul for Negri Sembilan, F.M.S., has been in this country on furlough for several months. He returned to Malaya in November.

John Manson Sleigh* (1914-16), B Sc.(Eng.), is now Forest Engineer at Eba, via Lagos, Nigeria.

Ernest Robert Sorley* (1906-18), M.B., Ch.B., who holds the rank of Surgeon Lieutenant-Commander, Royal Navy, is at present serving in H.M.S. Enterprise, East Indies Squadron.

James Gordon Souter (1918-23), The Schoolhouse, Newmachar, has been appointed to the staff of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, London. He graduated M.R.C.V.S. at the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College, Edinburgh, in 1927, and D.V.S.M. in 1930.

John Sutherland* (1899-1904), M.A., was in June promoted to the grade of head master under the Aberdeen Town Council Education Committee, and was posted to the new Hilton Primary School.

George Joss Taggart* (1910-16), M.A., head master of Crudie School, Aberdeenshire, has been promoted to Rathen School.

32

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

Alexander Taylor* (1890-93) was in August appointed President of two important Canadian companies, the Lake Superior Corporation and the Algoma Consolidated Corporation, Ltd., which own and control twelve large concerns in Canada and the United States, including the Algoma Steel Corporation, the largest steel-manufacturing enterprise in Canada. He was formerly Vice-President of the companies mentioned, and before he went to Canada, was in the legal profession in Aberdeen. When in Aberdeen he took a great interest in the affairs of the F.P. Club, and was a member of the Executive. He is a brother of JAMES FRATER TAYLOR* (1886-88), who some years ago was brought back from Canada to this country by the Bank of England in connection with the crisis in the affairs of the Armstrong-Whitworth Company, and who recently served on the Macmillan Committee appointed by the late Chancellor of the Exchequer to inquire into banking finance and credit.

Ralph Aidan G. Thomson* (1916-25) returned last year from South Africa to London, and is now engaged in estate agency work, being at present agent for the Sunleigh Estates, Ltd., Wembley, Middlesex. He is also a director in the firm of Duncan (Sand & Ballast), Ltd., Embankment Chambers, Villiers Street, Strand.

Reginald Joseph Twort* (1916-25) was in June elected to an Exhibition in Natural Science and Medicine at Peterhouse, Cambridge. On leaving the School he went to Fettes College, Edinburgh.

Angus Munro Urquhart* (1892-94), M.A., LieutenantColonel, retired from the Indian Army in February, 1930, and since leaving India in the previous December has been to Ceylon, South Africa, back to India for a few months, to England, Switzerland, Scotland, and again back to England. He says that in all his wanderings his copy of the Magazine never failed to follow him up. He finds it always full of interest, and it brings back old memories.

Ralph Spence Walker* (i910-22), M.A., who in June was placed in Class I of the English Tripos, Part II, at Cambridge, has been appointed head of the English Department in the Derby School, Derby.

John Duthie Webster* (1879-80), owner of the famous Collynie herd of shorthorns, has retired from the agency of the North of Scotland Bank at Tarves after 44 years' connection with it. In October he was presented with a handsome oak bookcase from a number of his friends in the district. The rresentation was made by Lord Aberdeen, who mentioned that Mr. Webster's family had been associated with the Bank for seventy-one years. Mr. Duthie Webster, when replying, said

Sir ALEXANDER HENDRY, K.C.V.O., M.D. .lee p. IS.

Fifty Years Ago : Lower III in 1881-82.

Top Row-1 George D. Low, 2 Alex. K. Robb, 3 Janu W. Dutjus, 4 Au.hur J. Robb, 5 Edward Ewen, 6 James Imuside.

Second Row—I David A. Pope, 2 Henry C. Md:ormark, 3 Robert D. Moncor, 4 Robert H. Boulton, 5 George Thomson, 6 Edmund J. Bulled', 7 Stewart S. Buyers, 8 Robert A. Henderson, 9 Wm. Webster, 10 Alex. James Smith.

Third Row-1 Wm. D. Gibson, 2 Charles Helmrich, 3 Wm. Flett. 4 Edward F. Clark, 5 Douglas I. Watson, 6 Robert W. Allan, 7 George T. Watson, 8 Wm. J. Scott, 9 James Gray, 10 ----,

Fourth Row-1 Geo. Topham Forrest,

11 Wm. A. Robson.

2 Andrew W. Edmonston, 3 Francis L. Glennic, 4 (,orge C. Ironside, 6 William Ruthertooni, 7 ---, 8 Gorge A. Strath.

5 J Allan Bionic,

See p. 78.

Aberdeen Grammar School Magaine.

35

that reading was his chief recreation. He represented the seventh generation of his family serving the public in that place.

Mr. William Duthie, his grandfather, acted as agent of the Town and County Bank at Tarves and built the present shop and shophouse in which the banking office was incorporated. Later in life his grandfather went to live at Collynie, with Mr. Webster's mother as housekeeper. From there Mr. Webster attended Methlick School, and later the Aberdeen Grammar School. He was never clever nor a good scholar, he declared, but he had been fortunate all his life in being associated with clever, capable people, and his good fortune in that respect still continued.

When his grandfather left Tarves, the business of the Bank was carried on by his uncles, WILLIAM DUTHIE (1853-35) and ADAM ARGO DUTHIE (186o-62), both of whom were well known.

William Duthie would probably have made his mark in any line of life. Many Scotsmen went away and became famous, but a few stayed at home and made their native place famous. During the seven generations' connection of his family with Tarves the village had changed beyond recognition, but the business of the village had not fallen off. The Bank had prospered along with the community, and he sincerely hoped it would continue to do so.

Frederick Wigglesworth (1881-82), M.A., one of the directors of Messrs. Wigglesworth & Co., Ltd., fibre importers, London, has collaborated with a brother on a book called " The Gold Tangle and the Way Out : the Meaning and Cause of the Great Industrial Collapse," which has just been published.

Ian Hamilton Williamson* (1917-21) is in the service of Messrs. D. & T. Avery, Ltd., Soho Foundry, Birmingham, and is resident in London.

Norman Stuart Williamson* (191 5 -19) is with the Scottish Assam Tea Co., Ltd., at Kharikatia, Assam. Writing in September, he said that in Upper Assam they had not been affected much by the tea slump, as they turn out a good class of tea, which is in demand at present on the London market. Labour in the province had so far not been affected by the political situation in India, except in the towns, which had experienced a little trouble, but nothing to speak of. Williamson was then finishing the fifth year in his present billet, and in his opinion one could settle down in very much worse places than Assam.

Eric Blackett Wilson (1908-13), M.C., B.Sc., who was in the Department of Agriculture, Nigeria, from 1925 to 1927, is now director in Calcutta of the Indian Branch of the Chilean Nitrate Agricultural Service. .

Herbert George Macdonald Wilson (1899-1904), M.A., is manager of the British Columbia Insurance Underwriters' Association, Automobile Branch, Vancouver.

John Ewen Wilson* (1910-20), who is in the Public Works

34

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

Department of British Malaya, is at present assistant engineer in charge of the Kuala Krai Section, Kelantan.

Robert G. Wilson* (1885 -91), F.R.I.B.A., writing in September to the Secretary of the F.P. Club from the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company's Atlantis, then cruising in the Mediterranean, announced that he had met a " Grammar" F.P. blazer coining out of one of the state rooms. " On inquiring the identity of the man inside, I discovered it to be A. CRAWFORD GANSON* (1881-84), who had chosen the same mode as myself of having a holiday." There is no doubt that the wearing of the Club Colours, in one form or another, frequently leads to the renewal of old friendships and the establishing of new ones.

Ninian Blundell Wright* (1[910-2 3 ), B.D., is at present Acting Chaplain at St. Andrew's Church in Jerusalem. He recently reported that on learning of the death of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch he at once called at the Patriarchate and expressed the sympathy of the Church of Scotland in the loss that they had sustained. " The funeral itself," he writes, " was a strange affair—the service quite short and simple, except for a lengthy panegyric—with the dead Patriarch sitting in all his robes in his seat in the crowded chapel." As the procession passed through the crowded streets it was interesting to notice the representatives of the various Churches, including the Church of England, Franciscans, Dominicans, Copts, Abyssinians, Syrians, and Armenians, not to mention two representatives of the Church of Scotland.

Ian Hamilton Wylie* (1915 - 20) has been for the past two years on the technical staff of the L.N.E.R. Locomotive Running Superintendent at Queen Street Station, Glasgow.

Shao Ying Yeh (1913), M.A., LL.B., who left the service of the Republic of China in 1924, after being Secretary of the Chinese Delegation at the Washington Conference, is now a member of the firm of Yeh & Co., law agents, Shanghai.

He was one of the donors to the School of the Shanghai Clock.

ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY DEGREES AND PRIZES.

At the Summer Graduation at Aberdeen University degrees were conferred on the following F.P.s :— Doctor of Medicine (M.D.)— Brennan Scott Cran (1911-23), M.B., Ch.B., Aberdeen —with Honours. Thesis—" The Pathological Aspect of the Ischminic Diseases of the Myocardium resulting from Atheroma of the Coronary Arteries, with special reference to Spontaneous Cardic Rupture."

Aberdeen Grammar Schaal Magazine.

35

Master of Arts (M.A.)— Alexander Macdonald* (1921-27), with First Class Honours in English.

Norman Fordyce McKerron Henry* (1915-27), with First Class Honours in Geography.

Ian Forbes Begg (1926-28).

Alexander Merrie Hardie* (1918-28).

Charles Ross Irvine* (1922-26), B.Sc. Alan Douglas Morgan (2919-28).

John Hall Davidson Sharp* (1925-27).

John Low Stephen* (1922-28).

Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.)— Philip Argall Turner Bate (1917-27), with Second Class Honours in Geology.

Bachelor of Science in Forestry (B.Sc.For.)— Francis Gordon Harper* (1925-28).

Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.Sc.Eng.)— James Alexander* (1919-28).

Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.)— Joseph John Baker* (2916-2o and 1925-27).

Neil Munro* (1925-27).

Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.)— Clement Marshall* (1915-27), M.A. Bachelor of Law (B.L.)— Alan Smith* (1923-28).

Bachelor of Medicine (M.B.) and Bachelor of Surgery (Ch.B.)— Charles Leith Barron* (1907-19).

Alexander Chalmers* (1917-26).

William Sharp Davidson* (1921-26).

Eric Henry Weir Duncan* (1918-26).

William Harkins* (1916-22), M.A. Charles Mitchell McQuibban Murray* (1914-26).

Percy Charles Brand Shirreffs* (1913-16).

John Downie Trail (1920-26).

James Webster* (1920-26).

In the Faculty of Arts Gilbert F. Hamilton* (1921-3o) was awarded the de Grubs Prize in Mathematics.

In the Faculty of Law Clement Marshall* (1915-27), M.A., was awarded the Edmond Prize (to the student graduating in law in 193o-31 with the highest number of marks).

In the Faculty of Medicine William M. Davidson* (1914-28) was awarded the Lizars Gold Medal in Anatomy ; Alexander M. Rennie* (1925-28) was awarded the Bertie Russell Gold Medal in Pathology ; and Brennan S. Cran (1911-26) received the Thursfield Award for the best thesis for the degree of M.D. of the year 1930-31.

36

Aberdeen Grammar School Magaine.

Two Recent Books by Professor A. F. Murison.

An Appreciation by Dean Harper, Culross.

Some six years ago I contributed a series of articles to the Magazine under the title " 'Tis Fifty Years Ago," dealing with the masters and the method of education at the Aberdeen Grammar „ School in the 'Seventies of last century. One of these was devoted to Professor Murison, who was at that time master of the English Class. I knew him better than any of the other masters, and I have had the privilege of seeing him occasionally during the intervening years, and have frequently corresponded with him.

He is the only member of the staff of the School of these far-off days now remaining to us. He wears uncommonly well, and last time we met, he was as fresh and energetic, bodily and mentally, as ever.

A month or two ago the latest productions from his pen were kindly posted on to me, and I venture to send this note in order to pass on to others some of the pleasure derived from reading them. The first is entitled " Schiller's Wallenstein: A Dramatic Poem rendered in English Verse in the Original Metres." I read it through from beginning to end with delight.

Being perfectly unacquainted with the background, the history, and the original text, I found a new world opened to me : " fresh woods and pastures new." It would be impertinent on my part to attempt any review of the book, but I am glad to be able to set down here the estimate of a competent critic from the literary supplement of the Contemporary Review :— The best and most honest praise that can be given to Professor Murison's translation is that if it had been published as an original work, nobody who knew not " Wallenstein " could have taken it for a translation. The translator's profound linguistic gifts have enabled him to turn the German poet's phrases, and even his structure, into the purest English undefiled.

To read " Wallenstein " in its English dress is a pleasure, not only to those who know the German text, but to every lover of good literature. . . .

Gratitude is due to Professor Murison for having placed this great tragedy in the hands of English readers."

I feel a little more competent to appreciate the value of the second book that reached me—" Horace, rendered in English Verse." The two Latin poets that left the deepest impression on my contemporaries are Vergil and Horace. We were introduced to Vergil in Still's class, and a brief account thereof will be found in one of the series named above. We were introduced to the study of Horace in Professor Black's class at the University, when we were Semis. John Black (as we affectionately called him) was at his best in dealing with Horace.

A classfellow at King's College expresses his appreciation of the poetry and delicate touches of Horace. He says, " I have never heard or seen any translations equal to Black's. I have tried

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

3

to pass on to my son the lessons learned from John Black.

What a good, kindly man he was."

The self-revelation of Horace to his readers is candid, and that makes him a general favourite. He is genial, courteous, considerate, compassionate of error, while severe against dishonesty of every sort, and of genuine independence of mind.

His insight into the essentials of human nature was such that even to-day no poetry applies so readily to all sorts of social circumstances as that of Horace. (See article in " Harmsworth's Encyclopxclia.") It naturally follows that only one of mature years can fully appreciate Horace, and he is par excellence the poet beloved of old men.

Many attempts have been made to translate Horace into English, both in prose and verse. I believe it is true to say that this is one of the best. The task that Professor Murison set himself was to reproduce the whole of the works of Horace.

The translation deliberately adheres very closely to the original text, and frankly faces the acknowledged difficulties. I wish the late W. Keith Leask had been spared to give us his views on the book before us : it would have been both interesting and adequate. I had selected a considerable number of the Professor's renderings of well-known tags and purple patches ; but as one cannot show the beauty of an edifice by exhibiting half a dozen bricks taken from it, so it is impossible to prove the beauty of this work by random quotation. Let us be content with one—the immortal Exegi monumentum. Here is the commencement of Professor Murison's rendering:— I've raised a monument outlasting bronze, O'ertopping pyramids of kings of old, Which neither wearing rains nor tearing winds Shall e'er demolish, nor the years untold Successive rolling, nor the flight of ages.

Not all of me shall die : an ample shred Shall 'scape the Goddess of the Tomb. Still fresh My fame in time to come shall grow and spread While still the Pontiff climbs the Capitol, The Vestal Virgin silent with him led.

It will be seen that the character of the "Wallenstein" rendering is true here also. If it had been published as an original, nobody who does not know Horace would have suspected that it was a translation. And may one express the hope that the desire of the great Latin poet, so abundantly fulfilled, may equally apply to his latest translator : " 0 Melpomene, Take to thyself and wear the pride and praise Thy works have fairly earned, and, of thy grace, Set on my hair a crown of Delphic bays."

It may be noted, in conclusion, that the book is inscribed to

38

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

the memory of Professor Murison's brother, the Rev. George R. Munson, D.D., whom my classfellows who are still to the fore will remember with pleasure and gratitude.

JAMES W. HARPER (1873- 77).

An Octogenarian's Rendering of Horace.* Verse for verse and prose for prose seems a fair statement of the principle of equivalence which should operate in all translation. Yet the principle is difficult in practice, and supremely so with an author like Horace, whose curiosa felicitas has been at once the lure and the despair of many eminent translators.

Connington, Sir Theodore Martin, Gladstone, and, in our own day, Sir William Marris, have rendered Horace in whole or in part into English verse, but while Connington's rendering of the Satires and Epistles is spirited and eminently readable, a satisfying translation of the Odes has yet to be written.

It is no disparagement of Professor Murison's translation to say that in the Odes he is as good as the best of his predecessors.

He has consistently followed his principle of " adhering to the text as closely as idiom and the exigencies of verse permit," and within the limits of his self-imposed restraints he has succeeded remarkably well. In the Satires and Epistles his achievement is unquestionable. His choice of the rhyming couplet challenges comparison with Connington, and Professor Munson has no reason to fear the challenge. In many respects he is better, because he takes fewer liberties with the original. Satires I, 5 (A Journey to Brundisium), 1, 9 (The Encounter with the Bore), II, 6 (Country Life and Town Life), Epistles I, 7 (To Maecenas) may be cited as samples of first-rate work, but every page bears evidence of wide and exact scholarship and an unerring instinct for the mot piste.

The standard which he set in his recent translation of NNW Schiller's " Wallenstein" has been fully maintained.

Horace regarded himself as too old at forty for some at least of his activities. What are we to say of the remarkable intellectual vigour of his latest translator, who was English Master at the Grammar School from 1869 to 1877 ?

D. M. A. * HORACE, RENDERED IN ENGLISH VERSE,

Munson. London : Longmans, Green & Co.

by Alexander Falconer

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THE SCHOOL ART CLUB. For the twelfth time the members of the School Art Club have prepared a Sketch Book, and a number of the sketches are reproduced on the following pages. The method of reproduction is the " Half-tone Photo-Litho Offset Process."

A limited number of copies of the sketches have been printed on special paper, and any of them can be had at the School : framed complete at 4s. 6d. each, mounted in passe partout at 25. 6d. each, or mounted as calendars at is. each.

It may be suggested that the sketches would make very acceptable Christmas presents.

A set of four Christmas Cards with reproductions of sketches has also been prepared, and copies may be had at the price of is. per set.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magaine.

39

Obituary.

ALMOST A CENTENARIAN.

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Adam Lind (1845-48), M.A., died early in July at Llangollen, North Wales, aged 98 years. He was born at the farm of Tillycairn, Tarves, and graduated M.A. at King's College, Aberdeen, in 185z. After serving for a few years in the London office of the P. & O. Steam Navigation Company, he went to Suez, later to Bombay, then to Shanghai, and afterwards to Hongkong, where he was resident manager of the Company. He retired about 35 years ago, and for some time lived in South Devon, but latterly had been residing in North Wales. In all probability he was the oldest former pupil of the School, but he was never a member of the F.P. Club.

Gavin Elmslie Argo (1867-69), M.A., D.D., who had retired from the active charge of Kincardine O'Neil Parish Church only two months before, died at Aboyne on zoth August, 1931, aged 78 years. He graduated M.A. at Aberdeen in 1875, and four years later became minister of the parish of Kincardine O'Neil, Aberdeenshire. He was an ideal parish minister, and not only did he endear himself to his own people, but he also won the affection of members of other churches. That he continued to be a student long after he left the University is shown by the fact that he took the degree of B.D. in 19oz, twenty-seven years after he graduated M.A. In 192o his Alma Mater conferred on him the honorary degree of D.D. Alexander George Brebner (1 88 z-85), M.A., farmer, Balquhindochy, Methlick, died at Aberdeen on and August, 1931, aged 6z years. He was only 23 when he succeeded his father in farming, his holding being one of the largest in Aberdeenshire. For long he was the largest tenant on the Haddo House Estate. For the last 4o years he took an active part on all the public bodies and in everything pertaining to the welfare of the parish in which he lived.

Walter Henry Bulloch* (1881-88), third son of the late William Bulloch, Broadford Works, Aberdeen, died at Hornsey Central Hospital, London, on 3oth May, 1931, aged 56 years.

He served as an apprentice with Messrs. W. & J. Smith & Kelly, architects, Aberdeen, and was a Licentiate of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was an architect on the staff of the Directorate of Works and Buildings, Air Ministry, London.

Robert Callander (1895-98) died at Burbidge, Quebec, Canada, while on holiday, on 13th August, 1931, aged 4o years.

He was a son of the late Mr. William Callander, of the firm of Callander & Graham, proprietors of the Jericho (later Benachie) Distillery, near Insch. After leaving the Grammar School he

40

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

served for six years as an apprentice engineer, and went to Canada in 1905, entering Queen's University, Kingston, where he graduated as a Bachelor of Science, with honours, in 1910.

For the following three years he was employed with the Canadian National Railways, and in 1913 became associated with the Topographical Survey Branch of the Department of the Interior as examining engineer of surveyors' reports. In November, 1922, he joined the Dominion Observatory, Ottawa, as astronomer on research work, which included investigations of variable stars and radial velocities, in which work he was engaged at the time of his death. He is survived by five brothers, one of whom, Elphinstone, was at the School from 1904 to 1909. Another brother is Mr. John Graham Callander, the Director of the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland.

John George Elder (19oo-o5), M.B., Ch.B., died at Aberdeen on zest August, I 931, aged 43 years. He graduated in medicine at Aberdeen in 1912, and after the War, during which he served in the R.A.M.C., he settled in medical practice in Glenlivet, Banffshire. While serving with the 5ist Division in France, he was made a prisoner of war in March, 1918, and by the time he was released his health had been very badly impaired.

Frederick John Ewart (1881-83) died at Bournemouth on 8th November, 1931, aged 6o years. He was a Master Gunner in the Royal Artillery, and was discharged to pension in 1910.

When the Great War broke out, he rejoined the Army as a Lieutenant in the R.F.A., and shortly afterwards, having been promoted Captain, was appointed Adjutant to the 88th and 89th Brigades. He served in France in command of a unit from June 1915 to June 1916, and thereafter was an Assistant Inspector in the Inspection Department of the Ministry of Munitions.

He was an older brother of ERNEST ANDREW EWART* (188z-83), O.B.E., who became famous in the War as a writer under the nom-de-plume " Boyd Cable."

Charles Lawson Ferguson (1886-88) died at Johannesburg, South Africa, on 24th June, 1931, aged 57 years. He was formerly head warehouseman with Messrs. Peter Cran & Son, wholesale merchants and commission agents, Aberdeen.

Edward Gardiner (1882-86), senior partner of the firm of Edward Gardiner & Sons, Ltd., tweed manufacturers, Selkirk, died in London on 3oth June, 1931, aged 55 years. He was a son of the late Mr. Edward Gardiner, who many years ago started business as a tweed manufacturer in Galashiels, and later in Selkirk. He became senior partner of the firm on the death of his father, and as the representative of the firm travelled extensively on the Continent and in the United States. He was one of the best known and ablest representatives of the Border woollen industry.

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William Hector* (18 8o-8 5 ), M.B., C. M., died suddenly in Aberdeen on 27th October, 1931, aged 6z years. The fifth son of the late Mr. Andrew E. Hector, Aberdeen, he was one of six brothers who attended the Grammar School, and after leaving it he spent three years as a chemist before entering the University, where he graduated in medicine in 1893. For three years he was in practice in Yorkshire, and then settled at Tarland, Aberdeenshire, where he spent the rest of his active life as a doctor.

About three years ago ill-health compelled him to retire, and he came to live in Aberdeen. He is survived by two sons— WILLIAM LITSTER HECTOR* (1913-17), M.B., Ch.B., who is in medical practice at Letchworth; and EDWIN OSWALD HECTOR* (1916-21), C.A., who is an accountant with the Eastern Produce Co., Ltd., London. A brother of the deceased is JOHN HECTOR* (18 7 5 -78), salmon merchant, Aberdeen.

A SCOTTISH INTERNATIONAL.

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Robert Blake Worsley Holmes* (1895), O.B.E., late general manager of the Palestine and Hedjaz Railways, died at Hove, Sussex, on 29th October, 1931, aged 52 years. A son of the late Mr. Emra Holmes, he served as an apprentice with Messrs. Clyne, Mitchell & Co., Ltd., engineers, Aberdeen.

In 1900 he was made an assistant engineer on the Lagos Railway, West Africa. After being invalided home, he went out in 1901 to Selina Cruz in Mexico, and worked under Sir Weetman Pearson (later Lord Cowdray) at harbour works then under construction there. Three years later he returned to West Africa, and rejoined the staff of the Lagos Government Railway under the Colonial Office, as assistant locomotive superintendent.

Thereafter he was appointed successively works manager, district locomotive superintendent, and deputy chief mechanical engineer of the Nigerian Eastern Railway. Returning to England in 1916, he was gazetted Major in the Royal Engineers, and asked by the War Office to form mechanical and shipyard formations of the Inland Waterways and Docks Branch of the Royal Engineers at " The Mystery Port," Richborough, Kent. He was promoted Colonel in March, 1918, in which year he was also mentioned in dispatches, and awarded the O.B.E. In April, 1919, he was demobilized, but was recalled in the following June and went to Damascus as Assistant Director of Railway Traffic in charge of the Hedjaz Railway, and was responsible for the entire evacuation of troops by rail from Syria. In December, 1919, he was appointed Director of Railway Traffic, Egyptian Expeditionary Force ; while in March, 920; he was gazetted Colonel (grade T), and appointed General Manager, Palestine Military Railways. Later, though still retained in the Army, he was taken over by the Civil Government as General Manager, Palestine Railways, and in November, 1921, he was

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gazetted Colonel, Regular Army Reserve of Officers. He resigned his appointment in Palestine in 1929. Colonel Holmes was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and the Institute of Transport. He took a keen interest in the School F.P. Club, and was the Club Consul for Palestine at Haifa.

According to a writer in The Times, Colonel Robert Holmes " was indeed a ' big ' man in every sense—large-hearted, magnanimous, with a big, sympathetic tenor voice in a frame which turned the scale at 16 stone ; a man you would pick from a thousand as comrade in a tight corner. He carried his weight with an athlete's ease and kept up his Rugby football to an age when most men, even of lighter build, have long subsided into golf. As an old Scottish International, the boys [of Monmouth Grammar School] had him in some awe, and I can still hear the cheers when the School full-back (who happened to be exceptionally small and light, hardly half Holmes's 16 stone) emerged half-smothered, having brought Holmes down on top of him and saved what looked a certain try ! " John Lumsden (1907-13), M.B., Ch.B., died suddenly at Hounslow, Middlesex, on 4th August, 1931, aged 36 years. He was a son of the late Mr. John Lumsden, 23 Hamilton Place, Aberdeen. At the University his medical studies were interrupted by the War, in which he served first as a Private and then as a Lieutenant in the R.F.A. He was wounded in France in March, 19'7, and was demobilized in the following March.

He completed his medical course in 1922, and after gaining experience in the Kensington, Fulham and Chelsea General Hospital, started in practice at Willesborough, Ashford, Kent, and was latterly at Hounslow.

Robert Smith Machray (1880-88), M.A., B.L., died at Toronto, Canada, on 5th November, 1931, aged 6o years. He was the only son of the late Mr. Alexander Machray, C.A., a member of the firm of Messrs. Cochran & Macpherson, advocates, Aberdeen. According to a well-informed notice in The BonAccord, he was originally intended for the legal profession, and graduated M.A. and B.L. at Aberdeen. " Few students were more popular or more prominent than ' Bob ' Machray. The possessor of a fine baritone voice, he early acquired a high reputation in music circles as a vocalist. During the Boer War he sang at most of the entertainments arranged locally in aid of charities, and for other purposes. The Boer War changed the tenor of his career, and as a University candidate, he obtained a commission in the Royal Artillery." He served in India and West Africa, but after a few years resigned his commission and went to Canada, where he remained until the outbreak of the Great War. He then joined up and went to France as a Sergeant in the Canadian Field Artillery. After being demobilized, he

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spent some time in this country, but later returned to Canada, where he had latterly been in poor health.

Alfred Wise Marshall* (1876-81) died at 6 Queen's Gate, Aberdeen, on 19th October, 1931. He was formerly accountant with the Northern Assurance Co., Ltd., Aberdeen, and retired in 1920.

George Arthur Reginald Paterson (1900- 02), M.C., died at Craigard, Bonar Bridge Sutherlandshire, on 19th July, 1931, aged 38 years. The eldest son of the late Mr. George Paterson, timber merchant, Glasgow, he went from the Grammar School to Glenalmond, and thence to Jesus College, Cambridge, taking his B.A. there in 1915, and his M.A. in 1919. On leaving Cambridge he joined his father in business. In the Great War he held a commission in the 7th Gordon Highlanders, and became a Captain in 1917. He served in France from July to December, 1915, when he was invalided home, and again from May, 1916, to October, 1918. Thereafter he was posted to the staff of the Assistant Director of Forestry, Paris, and sent to Bordeaux to the Forestry Directorate as Staff-Lieutenant. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1919.

William Alexander Durance Pennie* (1924-29), second son of the Rev. William Pennie, St. Machar's Episcopal Church, Bucksburn, died as the result of a fatal accident at Rubislaw Quarries, Aberdeen, on 27th October, 1931, aged 19 years.

He was serving his apprenticeship as a hanker.

John Gilbert Smith* (1891-1900) died at Blackpool on 27th June, 1931, aged 48 years. He was a son of the late Mr. Andrew Smith, of Craigielea, Mannofield, and was a trawlowner at Fleetwood.

Herbert William Forrestier Temple (1887-90), a son of the late Rev. William Temple, D.D., Forgue, died at Dinan, France, while on holiday there, on 19th September, 1931, aged 58 years.

For the last nine years he had been agent of the Union Bank of Scotland at Tarland, Aberdeenshire.

George Morrison Thomson (1906-12), M.A., died at Aberdeen on 18th August, aged 36 years. He served in the Great War as a Private in the 4th Battalion Gordon Highlanders, and next as a Lieutenant in the North Scottish R.G.A. On demobilization in 1919 he completed at the University his studies which had been interrupted by the War, and graduated M.A. He thereafter received an appointment as teacher in the Higher Grade School, Stromness, Orkney. After serving for four years there, he taught for a short time in Ballater Higher Grade School, and in 1926 he was appointed head master of Corse Public School, Aberdeenshire. He was compelled to resign from this post three years ago through ill-health.

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

Marriages.

Aitken (I9I7-r9).—At St. John's Church, Kensington, London, on 31st October, 1931, JoNN AITKEN,* B.Sc.(For.), son of Mr. John Aitken* <1882-87), 37 Beechgrove Terrace, Aberdeen, to Mary Robertson Levack, M.A., M.B., Ch.B., daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. D. R. Levack, London.

Anderson (T911-13).—At St. George's-in-the-West Church, Aberdeen, on 27th June, 1931, GEORGE FORBES MENNIE ANDERSON,* elder son of Mr. and Mrs. George Anderson, z6 Braemar Place, Aberdeen, to Mary, second daughter of the late Mr. Wm. Forbes, and of Mrs. Forbes, 55 Sunnyside Road, Aberdeen.

Bisset (1897-19o6).—At London, on 16th November, 1931, IAN GORDON BISSET, M.A., M.B., to Cecil, younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. B. C. Myers, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Cheyne (I918-24).—At Aberdeen, on 9th November, 1931, JAMES DALGARNO CHEYNE,* eldest son of Mr. Wm. Cheyne, 5 Hammerfield Avenue, Aberdeen, and of the late Mrs. Isabella Cheyne, to Dorothy, second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. Schofield, of Denham House, Denby Dale, Huddersfield.

Dean (1913-2o).—At Beechgrove Church, Aberdeen, on 1st August, 1931, VAUGHAN NICOL DEAN,* C.A., youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. James L. Dean, 32 Stanley Street, to Margaret Weir, youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cameron, 36 Rosebery Street, Aberdeen.

Esslemont (x9ro-22).—At Ogilvie Church, Dundee, on 1st August, 1931, JOHN CONNON ESSLEMONT, B.Com., younger son of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Esslemont, z1 Louisville Avenue, Aberdeen, to G. Muriel Milne, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Milne, 6 Moy Villas, Dundee.

Ferguson (I 905-I 4).—At Edinburgh, on 9th November, 1931, ARTHUR HERCULES PETER FERGUSON,* youngest son of the late Surgeon-Major J. E. Ferguson (1866-69), I.M.S., to Ethel Heddle, only daughter of T. Evans Johnston, St. Andrews.

Gauld (,9,7-z3).—At Liverpool, on znd July, 1931, EDGAR REUBEN GAULD,* M.B., Ch.B. (Aber), D.T.M. & H. (Liverp.), son of Mr. Edgar Gauld (1887-91), 16 Desswood Place, Aberdeen, to Gwendoline Marian, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stamp, Mutley, Plymouth.

Gordon (I94-i8).—At All Saints' Church, Yamethin, Burma, on ,5th July, 1931, JAMES MACPHERSON GORDON, Public Works Department, Pyinmana, Burma, son of Lieut.-Colonel and Mrs. Gordon, The Milestone, Cutter, to Evelyn Rose Reynolds, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ranger, Yamethin.

Gow (19o9-17).—At Uxbridge, on 18th July, 1931, Dr. HARRY HENDERSON Gow, x5 Osterley Park Road, Southall, to Janie Emslie, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Middleton, East Kinmonth, Drumlithie.

Hall (1915-18).-At Elsworth, Cambridge, on 3oth July, 193r, GEORGE JAMIESON HALL,* younger son of the late Rev. James Hall, Banchory, and of Mrs. Hall, Lancaster Gate Terrace, London, W.z., to Mollie, eldest daughter of Rev. L. and Mrs. Iggulden, The Rectory, Elsworth.

— Hay (1920-27).—At St. Mary's Cathedral, Aberdeen, on 5th August, 1931, JAMES ARCHIBALD HAY, elder son of Mr. and Mrs. A. D. Hay, 12 Salisbury Terrace, Aberdeen, to Vera, younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. G. Hay, 381 Union Street, Aberdeen.

Irvin (r9x4-I8).-At St. George's Street Congregational Church, Liverpool, on 3oth September, 193r, RICHARD IRVIN,* only son of Sir John and Lady Irvin, Aberdeen, to Joyce, elder daughter of Captain and Mrs. W. C. Ramsdell, Blackberry Hill, Baily, Co. Dublin.

Law (I9i8-zi).----At St. Alban's Church, Golder's Green, on loth October, 1931, ANTHONY CHARLES LAw,* younger son of the late Adam and Mrs. Law, Corsee, Banchory, to Kathlene Mary Ward, Avenue House, Golder's Green.

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Macgregor (t9to-23).—At Wankie, Southern Rhodesia, on 27th June, younger son of Mr. and Mrs. W. MacGregor, 8 Belvidere Street, Aberdeen, to Elizabeth Mary Thomson, only daughter of Mr. A. R. Thomson, M.L.A., and Mrs. Thomson, Wankie.

Mackintosh (1901-06).—At Aberdeen, on the 20th October, 1931, Mackintosh, JAMES URQUHART MACKINTOSH,* eldest son of the late Wm. Calcutta, and Mrs. Mackintosh, 164 Forest Avenue, Aberdeen, to Nellie Wilkins, youngest daughter of Alexander Cameron, 14 View Terrace, Aberdeen, and the late Mrs. Cameron.

I zth Munro (191 I-22).—At Dallington Church, Northampton, on M. Munro* September, 1931, IAN BARCLAY MUNRO, * second son of James (1880-84), 3 Bayview Road, Aberdeen, to Gwendoline Eleanor, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Cross, The Firs, Dallington.

Philip (1914-24).—In London, on 28th October, 1931, FREDERICK STRATHERN PHILIP (Nigeria Police), only son of the late Dr. and Mrs. Frederick Philip, of Aberdeen, to Phyllis Mary, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Records, of Ventnor, I.O.W. Philip (I918-20.—At King's College Chapel, Aberdeen, on 8th July, 1931, CECIL SLEIGH PHILIP,* M.B., Ch.B., Blackpool, youngest son of the to late James Philip, Strichen, and Mrs. Philip, 33 Burns Road, Aberdeen, Adeline Myron Duncan, M.A., eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Duncan, 13 Balvenie Street, Dufftown.

Smart (1907-19).—At Beechgrove Church, Aberdeen, on Izth September, the late A. A. 1931, EDWARD DAVID ALEXANDER SMART,* youngest son of of Smart, Rivermead, Bridge of Dee, to Rosa Elizabeth, younger daughter the late David Souttar and Mrs. Souttar, 202 Mid Stocket Road, Aberdeen.

Taggart (1897-19oo).—At Cadomin, Alberta, Canada, on 26th June, son of the 1931, GEORGE CHARLES TAGGART, of the Cadomin Coal Co., Ltd., Aberdeen, to late Sir James Taggart, and of Lady Taggart, Ashley Lodge, Margaret Scott, of Cadomin, Alberta, daughter of the late Harriet Roberts, and of Simon Roberts, of Sunderland, England. ;nth Walker (1917-23).—At Ferryhill North Church, Aberdeen, on Mr. and September, 1931, GEORGE ALEXANDER. CRAIG WALKER,* elder son ofBarbara, Mrs. Andrew Walker, "Windermere," Milltimber, to Mabel youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Allan, 5 Devanha Gardens South, Aberdeen. on 26th Williamson (1904-I2).---At Queen's Cross Church, Aberdeen,Aberdeen, August, 1931, GEORGE ALEXANDER WILLIAMSON,* advocate inMr. Robert of late Captain, Indian Army (2123rd Sikh Pioneers), eldest sondaughter of the Moir Williamson* (1882-83), Aberdeen, to Lucie, younger late Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Cran, Aberdeen.

1931, JAMES WYNESS MACGREGOR,*

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Death of Miss Adam.

Many of the older F.P.s will learn with regret of the death of Miss Alexandra Christian Adam, L.L.A., which took place on loth July, 1931. Miss Adam, who was 65 years of age, joined the staff of the Initiatory Department in 1887, and a year or two later was transferred to the Lower School. In 190I she was appointed Infant Mistress, and occupied that position for 16 years. She resigned in 1917 owing to a breakdown in her health, having given 3o years' service to the School. She was a daughter of the late Mr. Alexander Adam, land valuer, Union Terrace, Aberdeen, who also tenanted the farm of Baffling, Alford.

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SCHOOL SECTION. School Notes.

The School has to congratulate W. A. B. Hamilton on his brilliant success this year in the Civil Service Examination, in which he took first place ! We are glad that he belongs to us, for we can appreciate the credit he has done the School. And he must be glad to know that he won us a holiday. * * * One morning the School heard a short talk about the League of Nations from Sir Arthur Haworth, who was Member of Parliament for South Manchester, and is now Chairman of the Manchester Grammar School. He told us that he knew there Mr. D. G. Miller, formerly Rector of our School, and that he counted that that gave him the right to speak to the Aberdeen Grammar School. And so it did! Sir Arthur sketched the history and purpose of the League, and told how more than once the League had checked the development of war amongst nations already under arms, and in the field. * * * M. Besset, our new French master, requires no welcome now, for he is already very popular in School, because of his ready smile and his " sportiness." We hope he will be here for a long time to come, and we wish him jolly good luck. * * * The whole School welcomes Miss Raffan, who is now Art Mistress ; and we take this opportunity of wishing her a pleasant and successful time at the School. * * * The School 1st XV played an exciting, fast, muddy game with Gordon's College, and, as usual, won a victory. The ist XV have been playing quite well this season, and so have the znd and 3rd XVs. E. K. Cruickshank won his Cap in the Gordon's match; J. S. MacLachlan, R. M. Paterson, Lewis Middleton, J. M. McKiddie, A. G. Halliday, and J. M. Smith have got their First Colours. Congratulations to them all. * * * Literary The and Debating Society is this year flourishing —and no wonder, for the syllabus is a very attractive one.

Dr. Cormack, Bishop Deane, and Mr. Harry Townend have addressed the Society, while the Masters' Debate was hilariously successful as usual. * * * The Dramatic Society is busy rehearsing four short plays

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WILLIAM A. B. HAMILTON, M.A. •

See p. 17.

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for January, when the performance will prove varied, for the plays range from medieval comedy to modern melodrama— " The Invisible Duke," " The New Wing at Elsinore," " Elegy of a Country Churchyard," " The Kings of Orion," and " The Crimson Cocoa-nut." Mr. Farquharson, Mr. Himsworth, Mr. McLennan, and Mr. Dewar are very kindly producing the plays. * * * practice—a splendid, Orchestra has resumed School The first-class orchestra, too, under the charge of Mr. Falconer.

A. G. Halliday and D. M. C. Donald are President and VicePresident respectively. Mr. Falconer will organize a School Concert again this year. * * * who are the School Prefects following We congratulate the for 1931-32 :—J. S. MacLachlan, Alan D. D. Hutton, A. G. Halliday, Douglas S. S. Marr, J. M. Smith, J. Gillan, Ferguson Smith, and E. K. Cruickshank. They are busily hunting down our School defaulters. * * * In November several of the Aberdeen schools attended one afternoon in the Cowdray Hall a memorable recital of chamber music by the world-renowned Kolisch String Quartet. The Grammar School offers thanks to Mr. Henry, who is secretary to the Chamber Music Club, and to Mr. Falconer, for what they arranged in this connection. The quiet attention of the audience was a proof of their enchantment, and a sincere tribute to the Kolisch Quartet. * * * On nth November an impressive service, conducted by Professor Henderson, was held in Hall, in memory of those who were killed in the Great War. Two minutes' silence followed, between the Last Post and the Reveille on the bugle. * * * In September, last year's Classical VI held their second annual supper-party, and were entertained at the Pavilion. Is it true that they thereafter favoured the city with a selection of songs on their own account ?

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

A Visit to Spain and Portugal.

During the summer vacation, while on a voyage to the " Fortunate Isles," as they are called by Plutarch, I paid a visit to Spain and Portugal that will be ever memorable. My first glimpse of Spain was from the window of my cabin. It was early in the morning and we had arrived at Vigo, where a short stay of a few hours was to be made. As the harbour was too shallow to allow us admittance, we had to content ourselves with lying at anchor a quarter of a mile off. Rain was falling heavily, and I did not feel inclined to join the little parties which were leaving the ship every few minutes in motor launches for the shore. I was content to remain on the boat and watch the goods being taken aboard, which mostly consisted of boxes of sardines. To raise these the winches were being worked by Spaniards, who had come aboard. They wore great strips of tarpaulin over their heads, down which the rain dripped in an almost continual stream.

The loading proceeded from little rowing boats roped to the sides of the ship, and, as soon as one was emptied, another full boat came to take its place. This performance went on during the greater part of our stay at Vigo. There were a dozen or so emigrants taken aboard, who seemed to be very happy, and looked as though they were to enjoy every hour of their long journey to South America. They were to be from now onward accompanied by an official surgeon, who was to keep a watchful eye over their health till the end of the voyage.

On the promenade decks were traders displaying their goods, which included beautiful silk shawls and coloured handkerchiefs. There was keen competition among these vendors, and much vociferous bargaining, the whole scene being one of picturesque and noisy bustle. In the smoke room were dark-skinned Spaniards with boxes of cigars and cigarettes, the prices of which were far below the cost of tobacco in this country.

At length all was ready for commencing the next stage of our journey to Lisbon. During the sail thither frequent glimpses of the Spanish coast could be obtained, and by next morning we were approaching that town up the estuary of the Tagus.

Here we were enabled to stop at the quay-side, as the river-bed had been deepened several years ago.

I was greatly impressed with the grandeur of the scene I beheld from the deck. White-roofed houses towered up to the sky, all bright and glittering in the morning sunshine, while elegant palms of all varieties grew by the sides of the streets.

Racing up to the boat-deck, I found a spot that commanded a magnificent view. The red-tiled dwellings appeared as though they were terraced one above another, until far away on the horizon they seemed to touch the azure sky.

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Disembarking on the quay, I made my way to a small office to exchange English money for Portuguese. Then, hiring a taxi and an English-speaking guide, I directed him to drive me round Lisbon, and to point out and explain the principal sights.

Passing through numerous streets, we saw groups of sun-tanned girls on their way to market, balancing baskets of fish on their heads. I believe the market-place at Lisbon is worth seeing, but we did not visit it. Tram-cars run in nearly all the streets, and queer-looking vehicles they are, too. During my visit to these foreign parts I never saw such handsome tram-cars as we possess in Aberdeen. We next passed Rocio, a large open square, which possesses a statue dating back to the fourteenth century. Later we stopped outside a large building, which had on one side a pond of crystal dearness, filled with beautiful water-lilies, and with numerous white and black swans swimming on the surface. I was filled with wonder at the sight I beheld when I entered. The whole of the interior was a mass of verdant beauty and full of the fragrance of brilliantly-hued flowers. It was a rock-garden on a large scale. I walked on fairy-like paths, with romantic caves here and there overhung with ferns, and with water dripping in the interior. The sides of this wonderful indoor garden were covered with moss, and ferns with fronds of enormous size. At intervals, collections of stones were set, with giant cacti placed in the centre and long trails of creepers climbing throughout. Winding pathways existed everywhere, and at the sides grew begonias and geraniums, while towering above were great ledges of rock overhung with some wonderful trailing tropical plant and fuchsias of tremendous size. All these delicate plants were protected from the strong sunlight by a roof of latticed wood-work extending across the whole building. Taking a last look of this enchanting garden, which took three years to complete, I realised that " a thing of beauty is a joy for ever."

The next place of interest I visited was the Bull Ring. It had a large and spacious arena, with seating accommodation for well over ten thousand people. The seats were ledges of stone towering one above another. The old Portuguese custom of bull-fighting is gradually dying out and football is taking its place. There is no roof to this building, as rain comes only once or twice a year.

We next made our way to the shops, where the car was to leave me. At length we stopped in one of the principal streets, lined with shop windows gaily decorated with articles likely to be of interest to travellers. Here I compared the prices with those of our own country, and found that tobacco and hand-spun articles were cheaper, while watches and jewellery were much more highly priced than at home. As I had to be aboard the Highland Chieftain by one o'clock, I made my way to the quay under the •directions previously given by the guide. On the

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way I purchased a packet of Portuguese stamps to add to my collection at home.

Having safely arrived at the quay-side, I walked aboard the ship and watched the various operations which indicated that we were about to leave Lisbon. Tugs were chained to either end of the ship, and with their assistance the vessel was completely turned round. We then proceeded under our own power, and sailed away from Lisbon between a narrow neck of land and the coast of Portugal.

R. B. K. (Middle IIc).

Amateur Book-Binding.

The art of binding written sheets into books is very old.

It was known and practised by men long before Caxton set up his press in Westminster, for, although we have no existing examples of their work, it is known that the Roman scribes had some rude method of unifying their pages. It was not, however, until the 1 zth and 13th centuries that book-binding became a fine art. The monks, with plenty of money to buy pigskin and leather, and with abundance of time, took up the art which had so long lain dormant, so that at the present day we have many magnificently-bound books which are the results of their work.

With the advent of printing the art of book-binding spread to the laity, and, with an increasing demand for books, became a profession. This it has remained ever since, and comparatively few amateurs put their hand to it.

Perhaps the reason for the paucity of amateur binders is that " the man in the street " thinks book-binding a highly specialised art. This is untrue, for since the apparatus is very simple, and can be made in an hour or so, anyone can produce a perfect book with a little ordinary care.

A description of the various processes gone through in binding a book might be of interest to the reader, but it is doubtful if he would understand anything without long-winded explanations and also without sketches. I will, therefore, confine myself to the discussion of the joys of book-binding, ignoring the actual work, except to say that it is easy and interesting.

The greatest of the joys is, perhaps, choosing the cloth in which we are to bind our volume. The lair of the professional binder is invariably hidden away in some by-way or alley.

Hither we direct our steps, and as we enter a dingy building a bell jangles. We find ourselves in a room with laden shelves all round, and dust lying everywhere. From some inner recess comes an old man, who, on learning our errand, unfolds a seemingly interminable pattern card, from which we endeavour to choose our cloth. This is difficult, for we can never decide whether to take that dark brown, or that green with the curious

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grain ; but when we have made our final choice, the old man disappears into the innermost shrine, to return bearing a long roll wrapped in brown paper. Clasping this, we retire, full of the glorious feeling of possession.

The uses of book-binding for the amateur are not at first apparent. All books are bound when we buy them, so why should we trouble about the art of binding ? Yet the enthusiastic amateur finds many opportunities for exercising his art.

Doubtless he possesses many old favourites which have become dog-eared and tattered, and which are held together by a few threads. These he can make as strong and as neat as they were when they were bought. How fine that old coverless " Monte Cristo " would look, bound in a dignified blue buchram 1 We would then tread the echoing passages of Chateau D'If with double the satisfaction that we felt formerly, when the pages were loose.

The amateur can also build up a library of books whose cost, if new, would render their purchase impossible. By judicious gleanings from the musty shelves of second-hand bookstalls he can purchase for a few pence the works of all the masters of English prose and verse, which, when re-bound, go to make a splendid library.

Perhaps the greatest attraction of amateur book-binding is the cheapness of all the necessary equipment and apparatus connected with the art. This, and the satisfaction enjoyed in turning out an article which looks well, and is of practical use, goes, in my opinion, to make book-binding one of the best possible hobbies.

Cl. VI.

Random Notes.

Readers, if you have tears, prepare to shed them now. For years " howlers," real or imaginary, have been the mainstay of ' Random Notes." But this year " howlers " are at a discount.

Whether Grammarians were impressed by the national crisis or overawed by the imminence of the Christmas exams. we know not, but not a single mistranslation, not a single malapropism has brightened that Deep Depression known as the Autumn Term. *

*

*

And so we thought " Random Notes " were doomed ; but we reckoned without the versatile President of our Debating Society. He was discoursing at length on the subject, " Do the fittest always survive?" and, to strengthen his argument, referred in his own words to " that book ' All Quiet on the Western Front,' written by Mr. Sheriffs." At which point there was, as the newspapers say, " loud and prolonged laughter."

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The President retired in confusion—but " Random -Notes" were saved. * * * And now let us turn to more serious matters. For some time past there has existed in the School a flourishing branch of the I.D.B. (illicit doughnut buying). As a scandal, this practice outstrips even the buying of sliders from the itinerant vendor.

But the Prefects are on the warpath, and are imposing sheets and sheets of lines on these soulless sinners. There is a rumour that the Gym. is to be papered with these lines. This would be to the benefit of the School both artistically and morally. Who, indeed, would dare to look a doughnut in the face after being confronted week after week with a wallpaper like this :— " I must not buy doughnuts I must not buy doughnuts " ? * * * While still harping on this gastronomical subject, it may be fitting to insert this anonymous contribution (written with all due apologies to Mr. Yeats) :" I will arise and go now, and go to the baker's shop, And a small bean-feast have there, of cake and currant-bun : Nine doughnuts will I have there, a glass of ginger-pop, And eat alone till my money's done."

* * * We take this opportunity of reminding those in authority of a singularly heinous crime which is perpetrated with unfailing regularity on those of our former pupils who are attending 'Varsity for the first time. The victims this year are strangely reticent about the whole matter, but we have reliable information to the effect that the unfortunate youths were daubed with treacle, tar, and other viscous fluids, painted in vivid colours, robed in weird and wonderful articles of apparel, adorned with a motley collection of pots, pans, and other receptacles, paraded throughout the town, and left strung up on the railings outside a certain school for young ladies ; and to add insult to injury, we see, from a photograph in the local press, that " among those present " was none other than our last year's Senior Prefect ! * * * And finally, after weeks of searching, borne with most unChristian patience, we have discovered IT ; but we had to go to Classical VI before IT could be found. Strange that a member of the (supposedly) most highly-educated class in School, and a minister's son into the bargain, should be guilty of the one " howler " of the year 1 He was confronted with the words, " Vos habits sont mouilles," in a French version, but, like a true Grammarian, never at a loss, he wrote down, " Your clothes are mouldy," and hoped for the best.

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School Rugby.

School Rugby prospects at the beginning of the season were very much the reverse of bright. The fact that a record number of Leaving Certificates had been obtained last session meant that many boys who were expected to return to School and form the backbone of our 1st XV and znd XV did not after all come back.

We began with two only of last year's " Caps," and one " Colours." To make matters worse, the 2nd XV had also been largely cleared out by the School's scholastic successes, and it became a case of searching for players among the previous session's 3rd, 4th, and Junior XVs. As things began to take shape, it became evident that we were going to have a plentiful supply of backs, but for the first time for many years the forwards simply were not there. Not a single Rugby forward was available who weighed even 12 stone, and the great majority of the possibles were under it stone.

Of course, as always happens, time showed that our outlook was not nearly so bad as had appeared. In a few weeks the 1st, znd, and 3rd XVs settled down and were showing a big improvement with every game. Practice of the most faithful and intensive kind was going on daily and the rewards were coming.

Now, after twelve weeks' play, the position is—the 1st are quite a good side, clever behind the scrum, but lacking weight and strength at forward, and losing inter-school matches by small margins, largely because of the inability of the forwards to obtain the ball in the scrums. The znd are an excellent side, who set the seal on their quality by defeating soundly Dundee High School 1st XV. And the 3rd, too, are doing well.

On a recent Saturday the School fielded no less than nine XVs, which is naturally a record. It will no doubt interest our Old Boys to have a list of these nine teams and compare them with the days, not so long ago, when one team played regularly, a second fairly often, and a third, rarely : that was all :1st School, o ; Dollar Academy, 9 ; at Dollar. znd School, 4o ; 3rd 'Shire, 3 ; at Rubislaw.

3rd School, 9 ; 3rd F.P.s, 1 z ; at Rubislaw.

4th School, z7 ; 4th Gordon's College, 5 ; at Seafield.

5th School, 29 ; 5th Gordon's College, o ; at Rubislaw.

Juniors (under 15), 18 ; Gordon's Juniors, iz ; at Rubislaw.

Minors (under 14), 3 ; Gordon's Minors, 15 ; at Seafield.

Minors (under 13), 6 ; Gordon's Minors, x 2 ; at Rubislaw.

Minors (under rz), 3 ; Gordon's Minors, o ; at Seafield.

There is hardly any necessity then to ask, " Is Rugby thriving at the Grammar ? "

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The organization and coaching of the Juniors and Minors teams are in the hands of two members of the staff, to whom we, the School Rugby Club, would express our appreciation of what is for them entirely a labour of love.

D. McG. 1st XV Matches.

12th September.—v. Gordonians 2nd XV, at Seafield. In the opening game of the season School were a shade unfortunate to be beaten by a Gordonians XV with a strong sprinkling of ist XV players in it. Gordonians kicked off, and in the first minute scored an unconverted try. School could not get going, and at half-time were losing by 9 points to nil. On the resumption, School really found their game, and in quick succession Hutton and Halliday scored : Gillan converted one of these tries. For a period School did all the pressing, and their efforts were again rewarded when Bright dropped a brilliant goal to give School the lead by 12 points to II. School continued to press and were unfortunate not to score several times. In the last two minutes Gordonians, all against the run of play, scored two converted tries, to win the game by 21 points to i s. This game left the impression that the strength of this year's team lies in the backs, the forwards being too small and light.

19th September.—v. znd 'Shire, at Rubislaw. School started against the wind and the sun, but, in spite of this, were the more aggressive side.

Owing to a mistake by the School backs 'Shire got an unconverted try, but School equalised almost immediately through an unconverted try by Gillan. At half-time the score was still 3 points to 3. 'Shire started the second half with a great burst, and in quick succession scored three unconverted tries, to give them the lead by 1z points to 3. The threes could not get going, and the forwards had to take the game in hand, Hutton and Smith scoring tries. During the last five minutes of the game School absolutely dominated play, but they were unable to pierce the stubborn, and somewhat lucky, 'Shire defence. Against the run of play, School were narrowly defeated by i 2 points to is. Throughout the game the threes were very poor, although G. Fyfe gave occasional glimpses of brilliance. All the School forwards played heroically, with Middleton and F. Smith deserving mention.

26th September.—v. 2nd F.P.s, at Rubislaw. In this game School played very badly. In the first half the forwards more than held their own, but the passing and the defence of the backs was apathetic, and time and again only the fine kicking of Cruickshank, coupled with splendid work by the wing forwards, saved a score. At half-time the score was 14 points to nil against School. In the second half the forwards played well, Middleton and Smith again and again led great forward rushes, but these were nullified by the lack of penetration among the backs, who could not get going at all.

In the last quarter of an hour, however, School played much better, and tries were obtained by Hutton and MacLachlan, both of which were converted

by Gillan. But School lost the game by 19 points to to. Among the forwards Middleton was outstanding, but there was no good back except Bright at full back, who at times showed clever touches.

3rd October.—v. Strathallan, at Rubislaw. For this game, School's first inter-school game, we had two forwards off, but the backs were strengthened by the return to School of R. E. M. Paterson. Strathallan kicked off, and for the first twenty minutes play was confined to mid-field. Strathallan took the lead by scoring from a free kick given for off-side. Paterson, however, equalised with a good try far out, which Gillan just failed to convert with a beautiful kick. For the rest of the first half play was on level terms, and at half-time the score was 3 points to 3. In the second half, School had the advantage of the wind and were soon attacking. Time and again a score seemed certain, but the Strathallan defence was on its mettle. Fyfe

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appeared to score but was recalled for a straight pass on the twenty-five.

Paterson got over, but could not touch down. No-time came with the score still 3 points to 3. School was the better side and should have won by a substantial margin. The backs played well, but bad passing spoiled many good movements. A. Halliday was good, and Riach and Smith played very well. School team :—E. B. Bright ; J. McKiddie, R. E. M. Paterson, J. G. Fyfe and A. Halliday ; J. Gillan and F. K. Cruickshank ; A. D. D. Hutton, J. S. MacLachlan, L. Middleton, F. Smith, D. Donald, J. Meldrum, J. T. Riach, D. Begg. loth October.—v. Glasgow High School, at Anniesland. The High School kicked off, and for a short period play was confined to mid-field ; but the superior weight of the Glasgow forwards told, so that they were soon leading by i i points to nil. For the remainder of the first half School held their own, but, hopelessly outweighted, the School forwards were unable to give their backs the ball, and the High School forwards got it back with monotonous regularity. Only great marking by the School backs held out the eager Glasgow three-quarters, and at half-time the score was still as points in favour of the home team. In the second half the School team really got going, and time and again they were repelled on the High School goal line. They were extremely unlucky in not scoring. Fyfe got over, but Halliday had been in touch before he passed to Fyfe. A great School rush by the forwards was checked only by the full back falling on the ball on the line. The final whistle blew with School still attacking. Score : Glasgow, 1 x points ; Aberdeen, nil. School played a great game. The defence of the backs was excellent, R. Paterson being the best ; his tackling and defence work deserve special mention. Among the forwards (who played a rousing game) MacLachlan and Riach were predominating.

School team :—E. Bright; J. McKiddie, R. E. M. Paterson, J. Fyfe, and A. Halliday ; J. Gillan and E. Cruickshank ; A. D. D. Hutton, J. S. MacLachlan, L. Middleton, F. Smith, D. Donald, J. T. Riach, J. Meldrum, D. Begg.

I7th October.—v. Glenalmond, at Glenalmond. School took the field with the back division rearranged. The forwards were the same as usual.

In the first half School played with wind and sun, but Glenalmond was the more dangerous side. They were easily heavier and speedier, their forwards especially outweighing the light School pack, which had difficulty in holding its opponents in the tight. At half-time the score was 5 points to nil in favour of Glenalmond, the scoring coming just before the whistle. School started the second half very shakily and soon they found themselves 18 points in arrears. Later, School did better, and at times their play was brilliant, but they could not penetrate the Glenalmond defence. Their efforts were rewarded when Gillan kicked a beautiful penalty goal midway through the second half. At forward, Donald, Riach, Smith, and MacLachlan played well. The School backs were also good, McKiddie, Cruickshank, and Patterson deserving mention. R. Rust also played well, considering that he was making his debut in the 1st XV. School team :—E. Still ; J. McKiddie, R. R. Rust, R. E. M. Paterson, J. G. Fyfe ; J. Gillan and E. Cruickshank ; A. D. D. Hutton, J. S. MacLachlan, L. Middleton, F. Smith, D. M. C. Donald, J. T. Riach, J. Meldrum, D. Begg.

24th October.—v. Gordon's College, at Seafield. For this important game School was virtually at full strength. The whole team was very fast, but wind and sleet slowed down the game. School lost the toss, and had to play against the wind. As the ball was wet and greasy, the game was consequently confined, for the most part, to the forwards. School forwards soon took the game in hand. The forward rushes were great, and the " threes," considering the slippery nature of the ball, played well. At half-time School was leading by 3 points to nil, a good try having been scored by McKiddie. In the second half School had advantage of the wind.

They pressed the whole time, and two more tries were scored, by Cruickshank and Middleton respectively, both being unconverted, to give us the lead by 9 points to nil, which was the final score. The School forwards played

1

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well and held the superiority throughout the game. Middleton, McPherson, and MacLachlan all deserve special mention. The backs did not have so much to do, but what they did they did well, Halliday, Gillan, and Cruickshank all playing well. School team :—E. Still ; J. McKiddie, R. E. M. Paterson, J. G. Fyfe, A. Halliday ; J. Gillan and E. Cruickshank ; A. D. D. Hutton, J. S. MacLachlan, J. M. Smith, L. Middleton, F. G. D. Smith, D. M. C. Donald, J. T. Riach, and J. S. MacPherson.

3 ist October.—v. Stewart's College, at Edinburgh. Scrappy play characterized the opening stages, but, if anything, School were nippier in their movements, and Halliday, after a characteristic interception by Fyfe, outpaced the home defence, but his try was not converted. Stewart's could not get going at all, and we met with further success when, following a great forward rush, Imes picked up and dived over in great style. Stewart's did better after this, and from a line-out reduced the leeway by an unconverted try.

When half-time came School was leading by 6 points to 3. Stewart's took a firm grip on resuming, and two quick tries put them in the lead. They had much heavier forwards and were always getting the ball back, so that our " threes " had no opportunity to score. When time came, the score was 20 points to 6 in favour of Stewart's. The School forwards could not do much against the big and heavy Stewart's pack. Donald, Begg, and J. Smith deserve mention. The " threes," who were defending most of the time, played well, the best of them being Fyfe and Innes. School team :—E. Still ; J. McKiddie, J. Innes, J. Fyfe, A. Halliday ; J. Gillan and E. Cruickshank ; A. D. D. Hutton, J. S. MacLachlan, J. Smith, F. Smith, L. Middleton, D. M. C. Donald, J. T. Riach, D. Begg.

7th November.—v. 'Varsity znd XV, at Rubislaw. The ball was very wet and, consequently, it was a forwards' game. At half-time School led by 16 points to nil. Tries were scored by Hutton (z), Gillan, and Fyfe, two of which were converted. During the second half School went further ahead, tries being scored by Halliday and McKiddie. School easily won by zz points to nil. The handling of the School backs was good under the circumstances, easily beating that of the heavier opposition. The forwards played a rousing game, with J. Smith, Riach, and Donald ever in the midst of the fray. Best of the backs were E. Still, Gillan, and Halliday, whose play with a greasy ball was excellent.

Second XV Matches.

19th September.—v. 3rd 'Shire. School attacked from the kick-off, and play remained in the 'Shire "twenty-five." In spite of this, 'Shire opened the scoring with an unconverted try. This reverse roused the School forwards and they played with plenty of dash. The School backs, too, were in a sprightly mood, and McKiddie levelled the score with a try at the corner. School continued to attack, and before half-time Gauld, Rust, and McKiddie added further tries, one of which was converted. In the second half, School continued to dominate play, and McKiddie scored again. Shortly afterwards Gauld kicked a penalty goal from an easy position, and just before full-time 'Shire managed to score an unconverted try. Final score—School, zz points; 'Shire, 6 points. Best for School—Riach, Donald, Begg, and Watt among the forwards, while all the backs, especially Rust and McKiddie, played well.

3rd October.—v. znd Strathallan. School were a trifle unfortunate to lose this game to Strathallan. The forwards did not play as well as they did against 'Shire, and their heeling was slow. The backs, however, were far faster and cleverer than the Strathallan backs and should have scored more than one try. Strathallan opened the scoring with a penalty goal, and shortly afterwards added an unconverted try. Play then centered round mid-field and half-time arrived without further scoring. In the second half School played much better, and Rules cut through to score a good try, which he himself converted with a splendid kick. The School forwards began to improve, and from one of the scrums the ball went right out the entire three-quarter line to Thomson, who ran in at the corner but was

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recalled, and a touch was given. At this stage, Strathallan retaliated and scored another try in the corner. Final score—Strathallan, 9 points ; School, 5 points. Best for School—Still, Bain, Watt, and Cameron. loth October.—v. and Gordon's College. School showed a welcome return to form in this game, and completely overran Gordons. Both the backs and the forwards played magnificently, the individual efforts of the backs being very spectacular. Rust and Innes were always prominent with their elusive bursts in the centre, and scored three and four tries respectively.

Final score—School, 56 points ; Gordon, 5 points. Best for School— Bain, Rust, Innes, Cameron among the backs, and Watt, Donald, and Lees among a very effective pack.

17th October.—v. 3rd 'Varsity. In the first half School did not play up to form, and they were extremely lucky to have only two unconverted tries scored against them. The forwards were beaten back by a much heavier pack, while the marking of the backs was not so keen as usual. This, perhaps, was mainly due to the fact that our vice-captain and effective left centre, R. Rust, was not playing. In the second half, however, School began to settle down. The forwards not only held their heavier opponents but actually got the ball back in the tight. This gave the backs plenty of the ball, but they could do anything except score. At last, after twenty minutes, School were awarded a penalty in front of the posts, and the kick at goal was successful. School continued to attack, and Lees scored beneath the posts.

Gauld failed to convert from an easy position. School now went all out for the lead, but 'Varsity wakened up and scored a penalty goal and an unconverted try. Final score-3rd 'Varsity, sz points; School, 6 points.

Best for School—Bain at back, who played a brilliant game, and Morrice, Gibb, and Lees among the forwards.

31st October.—v. znd Engineers. From the kick-off Engineers took the ball up to the School line, where one of their forwards dropped over, to score an unconverted try. Nettled by this reverse, School quickly attacked, and Rust, after beating man after man in a fine, swerving run, scored in the corner. Bain gave School the lead with a beautifully judged kick. School continued to press, and Meldrum and Rust added further tries, both of which were unconverted. In the second half, School began in great style, Gauld cutting through to score near the posts. Soon afterwards Rust went right through to score a try, which was also converted. It was all School now, and Thomson added another try, which was unconverted. Engineers then attacked and scored three unconverted tries and one goal. School seemed to slack off at this period, and Engineers added two unconverted tries. School, however, came away at the end, and Rust crowned a splendid afternoon's work by scoring a very spectacular try, which was unconverted. Final whistle came with School still pressing. Final score—School, 27 points ; and Engineers, 23 points. Best for School—Rust, Bain, Cameron, Thomson, Stevens, and Meldrum.

7th November.—v. and Glenalmond. This was one of the finest znd XV games ever seen at Rubislaw, the Rugby throughout being of a very high standard. Glenalmond kicked off, and School carried the ball down to their " twenty-five." From the first scrum, School heeled the ball quickly and the backs got started. The ball went out from man to man as they were tackled by a very sound defence, and Cowan on the wing made ground before he was bundled into touch. From the line-out Glenalmond took play up to mid-field by a determined forward rush. The School " threes " were playing great football, their handling of the wet ball being far in advance of that of Glenalmond. At this point Rust picked up a loose ball, and running strongly from his own " twenty-five," scored beneath the posts. Innes converted.

School were really playing well, the forwards holding their own and the backs running strongly. Glenalmond attacked, but could make nothing of a very sound School defence, in which Bain at full-back was ever prominent, with his clean fielding and long kicks to touch. Half-time came with School leading by 5 points to nil.

In the second half the School backs continued to play well, but the Glen-

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almond pack gradually outplayed the School forwards in all departments of the game. The Glenalmond pack took the ball well down field, and from a scrum on the School line, their scrum-half dived over to score an unconverted try. School attacked from the kick-off, and were unlucky not to score after Gauld had cut right through and passed out to Black. School kept hammering away at the Glenalmond line, and Bain was unlucky with a drop kick, which just passed outside the posts. From the " twenty-five " the Glenalmond forwards, who were showing wonderful team spirit and clever play, took play into the School " twenty-five" and, from a scrum, after the ball had gone right along their whole three-quarter line, their right wing three-quarter scrambled over with Rust hanging on to him. The kick-at-goal failed. School attacked from the kick-off and were unfortunate not to score. Time and again the Glenalmond full-back repelled them with superb tackles and kicks to touch. No-side came with School pressing.

Final score—School, 5 points ; 2nd Glenalmond, 6 points. Best for School —Bain, Rust, Inns, and Cameron among the backs, and Black and Begg among the forwards. The forwards failed to show their usual form and were slow on the ball in the second half.

E. W. GAULD.

HOUSE NOTES. Byron House.

We must first congratulate Keith House on winning the Trophy from us last year, but we can assure Keith that we intend to take it back this session.

At a meeting of the House, A. D. D. Hutton was elected House Captain and E. B. Bright Rugby Captain. The latter has now unfortunately left School, and A. D. D. Hutton has been elected Rugby Captain in his stead, with R. N. Lees as Vice-Captain.

Our rugger prospects are none too bright, for we have only one 1st XV player in the House. In our first game against Melvin, after leading by 8 points to nil in the first half, we were unexpectedly beaten. E. Bright and J. Donald played well. In our second game against Keith we were much under strength, and were well beaten by a team with seven of the 1st XV players in it. Our juniors are a bright lot. They have won all their games and are likely to win the rest.

Our prospects for cricket and for the athletic sports are very good, and provided that every Byron lad sticks in, I can with confidence prophesy that Byron will once again be " Cock " House.

A. D. D. HurroN, Howe Captain.

Dun House.

At a meeting held at the beginning of the session the following officials were elected :—House Captain and Rugby Captain, J. Gillan ; Vice-Captain, E. M. Gauld ; Swimming Captain, D. M. Marr.

This year's Rugby XV is not so strong as it was in previous years, and it has been beaten in the first two House games, which were played against Keith and Melvin respectively. The znd XV were beaten by Keith, but had a decisive victory over Melvin. The Juniors have won both games and are to be congratulated upon their victories.

In the opening game against Keith, our forwards were never able to obtain possession of the ball, as the opposing pack was much heavier and stronger. This meant that we were on the defensive right from the kick-off, and it was only a matter of time before our forwards were worn down.

The result was Keith, z7 points ; Dun, 3 points.

The team showed a big improvement in the game against Melvin. In the first half the forwards were always pressing, and, with a little more luck, a few tries should have resulted. Little headway could be made in the second half, as a strong wind was blowing, and, although Gauld made some fine openings, we had not our star back, R. E. M. Paterson, to help

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to finish off the movements and score. Result : Melvin, 22 points ; Dun, 3 points.

J. GtLLAN, House Captain.

Keith House.

Our first and most important duty is to congratulate the House upon its winning the House Trophy last session for the first time.

At a Fleeting of the House, held in September, the following appointments were unanimously made :—House Captain, J. S. MacLachlan; Rugby Captain, J. G. Fyfe ; Swimming Captain, J. M. Smith.

There is extreme keenness in the House this year, due no doubt to our last year's success. During the early practice games our prospects for Rugby seemed to be very good indeed, as our first House XV was composed of seven of the School 1st XV, three of the School znd, and five of the School ,rd. So, indeed, it proved in our first game against Dun, as the play was inclined to be somewhat one-sided. The forwards completely out-classed a lighter Dun pack, and consequently our backs were well supplied with the ball. Five tries were scored, the scorers being Fyfe, Rust, Innes, Cruickshank, and Anderson: two of these were converted, and Fyfe and MacLachlan each dropped a goal. Dun replied with a long-range penalty goal, converted by Galan. We thus beat Dun by 27 points to 3. Our second team easily won by 39 points to 8, but the Juniors were rather badly beaten by 19 points to nil.

In our game against Byron, we won rather easily. The heavier Keith forwards again held the mastery, and our backs scored almost at will. Six tries were scored by Fyfe (a), Halliday (a), Anderson, and MacLachlan, five of which were converted by Innes. Fyfe also dropped a goal. Byron replied with two tries by Cowan, one of which Hutton converted. We thus won by 32 points to 8. Our second team also won by 13 points to 3, but our Juniors were beaten by 12 points to nil.

Not for many years have Keith had such a clever team as this year's, and we are shaping well for carrying off the Rugby honours.

Our prospects for cricket are very good indeed, ten of last year's House XI having returned to School. The swimming outlook, too, is good ; and if Keith players manage to steer clear of injuries and illness throughout the session, there is absolutely no doubt that Keith will occupy a high place in the House Competition, especially if the present keenness continues.

J. S. MACLACHLAN, House Captain.

Melvin House.

Before reviewing the events of the present term, we offer congratulations to all Melvin athletes who did so well in the School Sports. We must also congratulate G. Rowton, our former House Captain, on his winning the All-Round Trophy, and we wish him every success at Cambridge.

At the beginning of the term our Rugby prospects seemed black, but actual events have been otherwise. Our 1st XV have defeated Byron and Dun, but our znd and Junior XVs have not had the same measure of success.

This has been due to their inability to field a full team in their matches.

The 1st XV this year are especially strong forward, and it has been mainly due to the pack that we have been able to overcome our opponents. The backs, although clever, have little penetrating power, while weak handling has spoilt many of their movements. We did very well to beat Byron in our first match, for it was only in the last quarter of an hour that our winning tries came. Middleton, Rae, Gibb, and Begg were outstanding among the forwards, with McKiddie the best back. Our game against Dun was rather an easy one, the marked superiority of our forwards giving the backs many opportunities for scoring. Middleton, O. Still, and McKiddie were prominent in this match.

So far, then, we have been quite successful but I am sure we can do better.

The Seniors are showing the way to the House Trophy ; let the Juniors helplin the good work.

F. G. D. SMITH, Howse Captain.

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The Literary and Debating Society.

16th October.—On this date the Society held its first meeting of the session, when the Masters' Debate, " That the Modem Juggernaut is a Baby Austin," took place. Mr. Park, in a humorous speech for the affirmative, compared the motorist's view of our beautiful countryside with that of the " hiker," and quoted several stanzas of poetry to strengthen his argument.

Mr. Himsworth, for the negative, scathingly described the " hiker" as a " horror," who lived in " unhygienic filth," and was akin to an " aboriginal native." He concluded by saying that " hiking" was borrowed from the Continent and was unsuitable for our climate. Replying for the affirmative, Mr. Maclver described Mr. Himsworth's remarks as " babbling." He maintained that the mass-production of Baby Austins was a soul-destroying industry. People became " robots " by driving cars, and only by going " back to the hills " could they become " men " again. Mr. MacLennan, for the negative, also waxed poetical, and compared a Baby Austin to a knight's charger. In his opinion the " hiker," weighed down by a heavy " rucksack," had not the same opportunity to enjoy the scenery as the motorist.

The after-speaking was lively but not to the point, and developed into the exchanging of reminiscences of " hikes " by members of the Society. The affirmative won by a majority of six votes. z2nd October.—This evening the Society 'Welcomed one of its most popular speakers, namely, Dr. Cormack, of the School staff, who gave a talk on " The Census." In the course of a most interesting lecture, Dr. Cormack traced the history of the census, originally taken for purposes of war, from the Domesday Book to the Census of 1931. He then showed that Scotland, being no longer " the workshop of the world," was being depopulated, but that the population of Aberdeen itself was still increasing, originally owing to the introduction of trawlers, and now because of the many new housing schemes. Owing to better housing conditions and to the spread of education, the average length of life of human beings was now much longer than in " the good old days." After several questions had been satisfactorily answered by Dr. Cormack, he was accorded, on the call of the President, three hearty cheers. zgth October.—There was a large turn-out on this date to hear a debate on the subject : " Do the fittest always survive ? " Mr. E. K. Cruickshank, in the course of a witty speech for the affirmative, quoted examples from Nature where the fittest always survived. What held true for Nature also held true for human beings. In the Great War more men were killed by disease than by the enemy, and, since the fittest could best withstand disease, they naturally survived. Mr. Kellas, replying for the negative, admitted that in the Middle Ages, when there was real skill in war, the fittest did survive. In modern warfare, however, fit and unfit alike were slain. Life was formerly a continual struggle, but nowadays we did not have to exert ourselves, and thus the unfit survived with the fit. The after-speaking was keen and humorous, and was sustained mainly by Messrs. Lees, Hewet, Bryant, and Hutton. The negative won by a decisive majority.

5th November.—The Society welcomed to-night a favourite lecturer, Bishop Deane, who gave a talk on " True History." The Bishop began by quoting a remark by Mr. Henry Ford, " All history is nothing but bunk," and went on to prove that this sweeping statement is not altogether without foundation. Where there is passion and prejudice there can be no " true " history. For that reason British. and German accounts of various incidents during the War are entirely different. There are similar instances to be found in Shakespeare : Macbeth is portrayed as a coward and a murderer, yet other histories say he was a wise and good king. Richard II, also, is generally considered a villain and a rogue—but his life-history was written by his worst enemy. The Bishop quoted several more examples showing how few really " true " histories we possess, and concluded by telling the story of

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the King of Persia, whose counsellor defined " true " history in a sentence : " They were born, they suffered, and they died." Bishop Deane was then accorded a hearty vote of thanks. i zth November.—There was a large attendance to hear a debate on the subject: " That the Motive of Human Life is Self-Interest." Mr. Marr, for the affirmative, pointed out that by the awarding of prizes during our life school career, we are encouraged to become egotists, and that in later quoted we are still influenced by this motive of " self." Mr. Mitchellminister, the several examples in support of the negative. The scientist, benefit of the the judge, and the politician all exercised their powers for the self-interest. community, and showed dearly that their motive in life was not maintained A gratifying feature of the after speaking was the fact that it was too often by a large number of those present, and not, as has formerly beenrevealed a the case, by a few members of the Society. After a vote had substantial majority in favour of the affirmative, the speakers were heartily thanked on the call of the President.

E. K. M.

Dramatic Society.

The activities of the Society have recommenced, and at a meeting of the members in September the following office-bearers were elected :—President, ; J. S. MacLachlan ; Vice-President, E. K. Morrison ; Secretary, W. Mitchell D. M. Assistant Treasurer, J. R. Tocher; Committee, E. Cruickshank,Walker ; Donald, J. F. Mackay, I. G. Ross, C. Sang, W. M. Todd, and L. Business Committee—Stage Manager, J. Fiddes; Property Manager, M. Ritchie A. Milne ; Assistant Property Manager, H. Nelson ; Electricians,before. and P. Bell. The Patrons and Honorary President remain as work, Mr. We regret to say that owing to pressure of Evening School MacIver has had to resign, but we have great pleasure in welcoming Mr. T. W. Himsworth, who succeeds Mr. MacIver as an Honorary Producer. of the Four one-act plays will be produced in the Hall in the beginning next term. The dates at present fixed for the production are the 7th and 8th of January, but these are liable to alteration.

The Plays to be produced are :—Mr. Gilbert Hamilton's original play, "Wing The New Kings of Orion " ; Mr. St. John Hankin's one-act play, " Invisible Duke ; at Elsinore" ; Mr. Sladen Smith's one-act play, " The Mr. Laurence Housman's "Elegy of a Country Churchyard," and Mr. Ian Hay's " The Crimson Cocoa-nut."

Rehearsals started several weeks ago, and by January the plays should be well on the way to the necessary standard for production.

The Junior Reading Circle has well-attended meetings every week under the direction of Mr. C. MacLennan. D. A. H. MacNaught has again been appointed Secretary to this branch of the Society.

W. MITCHELL, Secretary.

The Library. session, During the nine weeks that the Library has been open this volumes of 140 1,266 volumes have been borrowed—a satisfactory average. with 336, per week. During the period, Qualifying IV holds the recordbeing made use is and in the Upper School Ic is best with 123. Satisfactoryvolumes), IB (50. of the Library by most classes, particularly by IA (88 the Sixth (46), but IIw (S4), IIIC (52), Classical IV (38), Classical V (43), and they seem the three classes in Modern V should all be reading more thanhis services to be. The Library Prefect, A. G. Halliday, has been giving in a way that is much appreciated.

6z

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

Scout Notes.

During the summer holidays the four Troops camped as usual for the first fortnight of July. The 1st returned to an old haunt of the School Troops, Scolly's Cross, Glendye, that excellent spot for camping, remote from human habitation, with plenty of water and fuel to hand, on the side of the slope down to the stream of Dye, which provides a bathing-place at a few hundred yards' distance. Kerloch, Cloch-na-ben, and Mount Battock gave opportunities for mountaineering. The 9th, under A.S.M. Norman Clark, camped in the grounds of Haddo House, a site once a favourite of this Troop, but unoccupied by them for the last seven years, and therefore new to all the campers but two. The lake, they found, had become somewhat silted with mud, but one of them discovered accidentally that the burn that flows into it near the camp is deep enough, at one stretch, to fall into, and consequently deep enough to bathe in. The x 7th explored a new camp-site : Tillyminate, near Gartly, which proved an excellent change from Deeside.

The camp stood in a deep defile with steep banks, almost a canyon, through which the Kirkney Burn meanders. The bathing facilities were left by nature in a defective state until her work was supplemented by the laborious efforts of the Troop, which happens to include a couple of Civil Engineers, in building a substantial dam. As usual, each Patrol went a day's excursion by itself ; the Troop, also, spent a day in Huntly, seeing the Castle and other sights of that historic city. On one of the few really fine days of the fortnight they climbed the Tap o' Noth ; and six scouts went their " first-class hikes " from camp, finding the surrounding country unusually suitable for the purpose. The 38th, under A.S.M. Francis Lindsay, camped far afield, the farthest a School Troop has ever gone—except to Paris. Their site, near Dufftown, was similar to that at Tillyminate, but even more inaccessible, lying in a flat haugh between steep, wooded slopes, one of which is crested by a ruined castle. A feature of this camp was one of the cook-houses, that of the Peewit Patrol, the most artistically elaborated cook-house that we have ever seen. A Troop from Fochabers were encamped at a little distance and proved pleasant companions and rivals in games. For the first week of the month the 9th Pack of Wolf-cubs held a camp, with C.M. Leslie Boyd in charge, at Pitfour. The cubmaster was assisted by two scouts of the 9th Troop and Patrol-Leader John S. Watson, late of the 1st, all of whom deserve warm thanks for their ready help and their success in making the camp an entirely happy one. As the weather proved too wet for tent life to be possible for Cubs, the Pack shifted into the old laundry buildings, which the proprietor kindly allowed them to use. All four Troops have but one criticism to offer of this year's camps—the weather was foul ; but there were a few warm and sunny days, and the rain hurt no one, for in camp the wettest weather never causes illness : if the scouts had been at home, most of them would probably have caught colds. At the September Holiday week-end the weather was much better and camps were held, by the 1st Troop, under A.S.M. Alan Cruickshank, at Clinterty Hut ; by the 9th, under A.S.M. Norman Clark, at Mill of Dyce ; and by the 17th, under A.S.M. Harold Duff, at Midmar Castle.

After that, outdoor employments were laid aside for the winter, and the Troops are now at their indoor work and play again, meeting on Friday evenings to pursue the various lines of training. It falls this year to the turn of the 1st Troop to hold its quadrennial Café Chantant and Concert, in order to replenish its funds for the next four years. The function is to take place earlier than usual—on the 1zth of December. We need say no more about it, since by the time this number of the Magazine is printed the Café Chantant will be over and you, gentle reader, who are sufficiently interested in the School Scouts to read the Notes, will doubtless have been there (if you live in Aberdeen). The tst Troop have also been making improvements in their headquarters. Some members have tarred the hut, splashing as much tar on themselves as on it—so we are credibly informed ; while the gasmantles, till now an unfailing source of annoyance and expense, have been

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barricaded strongly with football-proof wire. The 17th Troop have been holding excursions, paying visits of an instructional character to Messrs.

William Hay & Sons' lemonade factory, and to the Corporation Gas Works.

As this Troop was unable to accommodate all the Cubs that were promoted this September from the Pack to the Troop, a new Patrol has been formed, called the Swifts, making five Patrols. In its reorganized state the Troop is now running admirably. The 9th also have formed a new Patrol, as they have had to find room for four newcomers and six Cubs. The 9th's winter programme consists mainly of Badge Work. The Patrol Leaders have been taking turns to give talks to the Troop on subjects of their own choosing, mainly on " hikes " during the summer holidays.

The following promotions have been made :-1st Troop—A.S.M. J. Gordon Bisset to S.M. '• Patrol Leaders Alan Cruickshank and John Smith to A.S.M.s ; Seconds David Donald and Edward Still to Patrol Leaders ; and Scouts Hamish Meldrum and George Robertson to Seconds.

9th Troop—Patrol Leaders R. Arthur Smart and John R. Lawrence to C.M. and A.C.M. of the 1st Pack ; Seconds Robert Gibb, A. Forbes Moir, and Harold Nelson to Patrol Leaders ; Scouts J. Gordon Dawson, John Innes, William Shepherd, and Ian Thomson to Seconds. 17th Troop—Patrol Leader Gordon Henderson to A.C.M. ; Seconds Ian Cowan, Alistair Halliday and Thomas Hogg to Patrol Leaders ; Scouts David Bisset, George Boyd, Alex. Lightbody, Alex. Templeton, and Alistair Wylie to Seconds. 38th Troop—Seconds Arthur Kellas, Douglas Russell, and Oswald Still to Patrol Leaders ; Scouts Douglas Dempster, Ian Drummond, and Harry Slater to Seconds.

During the summer 38th Troop lost its oldest member, A.S.M. Francis Lindsay, who has left Aberdeen for Dundee. The only original member of the Troop that was still connected with scouting in Aberdeen, he was the most hard-working and reliable of Assistant Scoutmasters, his last service to the Troop being to manage, with complete success, their Summer Camp at Dufftown. There is hope, however, that he may return to Aberdeen before long, and then the 38th Troop may be fortunate enough to regain him. The two Senior Patrol Leaders of the 17th Troop, A. Fraser MacBean and John A. Fox, have, in accordance with 17th Troop custom, moved up into the Rover Crew " to make room for younger men." The Troop hopes to enjoy their services again shortly, when new Scouters may be required. The 1st Pack has lost its Cubmaster, F. Floyd Stott, who has had to resign after leading the Pack for the last two years. He managed the Pack excellently : in 193o, while he was Cubmaster, the Pack won the Totem Pole awarded yearly to the best Pack in the city. He also had two camps, both of which were thoroughly enjoyed by the cubs, with whom he was a great favourite. He kept the xst Troop supplied year by year with a stream of boys, well prepared for scouting, by a sound wolf-cub training, and brought up in the spirit that is needed in a Scout Troop. His loss is the more regrettable that it follows close upon that of his invaluable assistant, Fraser McCluskey, who left Aberdeen for Edinburgh in the Spring. These two formed a partnership hard to beat in Pack management, and hard to replace. But the awkward breach has been filled by two Patrol Leaders of the 9th Troop, Arthur Smart and John Lawrence, in whose hands the Pack may be left with perfect safety. The ist Troup's tale of woe is not yet completed : it has also lost its Scoutmaster.

Mr. John L. Johnston came to the 1st Troop just a year ago, having for some time been Scoutmaster of the 9th. His previous experience, combined with his natural gift of leadership and his organizing ability, made him a Scoutmaster of exceptional power and personality. In his short tenure of office he did wonderful work for the xst Troop. His firmness, tact, and good humour made him a perfect disciplinarian, and his enthusiasm and devotion set the very example that a Troop needs most of all. We are glad to say that he has not left us entirely, as he remains Rover-mate of the 9th Rover Crew. His place as Scoutmaster of the 1st Troop is taken by A.S.M, J. Gordon Bisset, to whom we wish a successful and a long period in office,

_Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

64

The Former Pupils' Club.

Founded 1893.

President : The Honourable LORD MACKAY, M.A., LL.D. Vice-President and Chairman of Executive : ALAN MCBAIN, M.A., C.A. Secretary and Treasurer : THEODORE WATT, M.A., The Rosemount Press, Aberdeen.

•

Secretaries of Centres : London Centre—THos. D. H. BRowx, Esbourn, Lawrie Park Cresent, Sydenham S.E. z6.

[The Centre comprises, without additional subscription, all Members of the Club resident in London, and within a radius of 5o miles.]

Glasgow Centre—HENRY G. EDWARDS, 1 2 Cresswell Street, Glasgow, W. 2.

[The Centre comprises, without additional subscription, all Members of the Club resident in the South-Western Counties of Scotland—west of a line drawn from Stirling to Carlisle.]

Secretaries of Sections : Rugby Section—D. P. COCHRAN, 15O Union Street.

Hockey Section—EDWARD L. YULE, 15 Union Terrace.

Tennis Section— Rates of Subscription for Membership : Life Membership . . . . . .

Ordinary Membership— For those under 21 years of age at commencement of Club year (1st January) . . o For those of 21 years of age and upwards . o

5

0

a

6

5

o

Visitors' Register.

For a number of years a Visitors' Register has been kept at the School, under the charge of the Rector's clerk. The idea is that Former Pupils, and particularly members of the F.P. Club, who are paying a visit to Aberdeen and renewing their acquaintance with the School, should sign the Register.

From the comparatively few entries in the Register it would appear that its existence is not well known, and it is hoped that in future many more visits to the School will be recorded in it, so that its interest and value may be greatly enhanced.

The Secretary of the F.P. Club will be pleased if members from a distance visiting Aberdeen will, in addition to signing the Register at the School, pay him a call at The Rosemount Press. He is always delighted to be brought into personal touch with F.P.s, and is pleased that so many of the younger members, before leaving for posts abroad, spare a few minutes to report themselves and say good-bye.

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

65

The Annual Club Dinner.

'The Annual Dinner of the Club was held in the Caledonian Hotel, Union Terrace, Aberdeen, on Saturday, 21st November, 1931, the Chairman being the President of the Club, The Hon. Lord Mackay, M.A., LL.D., Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland. There was an unusually large attendance of members and friends, and the gathering, from every point of view, was undoubtedly one of the most successful and enjoyable in the history of the Club.

Among those at the head table supporting the Chairman, were : The Very Rev. Principal Sir George Adam Smith ; Mr. D. M. Andrew, the Rector of the School ; Rev. Professor G. D. Henderson, Convener of the Secondary Schools Management Committee ; Professor J. J. R. Macleod, Immediate Past President of the Club; Professor Alexander Souter, representing Robert Gordon's College F.P. Association ; Mr. George Duncan, advocate ; and Mr. Theodore Watt, Secretary of the Club.

The Company.

The following is a list of the members of the Club who were present, arranged in order of School seniority :— John Stewart Watt, M.A., LL.B. (1869-75).

R. Gordon Nicol, O.B.E., C.E. (1871-73).

George B. Currie, M.A., M.D. (1871-74).

James Monro, C.A., Edinburgh (1878-80).

A. G. Nicol Smith, D.S.O. (1880-88).

Henry Alexander, M.A. (1881-91).

George H. Fyfe (1882-84).

Charles Davidson, M.A. (1882-86).

Alexander Morrice Mackay (Lord Mackay), M.A., LL.D. (188z-91).

Edward W. Watt, M.A. (1883-94).

James F. Robson (188 3-95).

John J. R. Macleod, D.Sc., LL.D., M.B., F.R.C.P., F.R.S. (1884-93).

William Mackay, M.A., B.L. (1884-94)Frank W. Michie, M.A., H.M.I.S. (1885-91).

James W. Monro (1885-93).

Robert Bruce, M.A.; M.D., Cults (1886-89).

David Scott, Colombo (1886-94).

John G. McWillie, M.B., C.M., Banchory (1889-92).

Stephen J. Hunter (1889-99).

Theodore Watt, M.A. (1889-1901).

Henry J. Butchart, D.S.O., B.L. (1890-99).

William Alex. McRobbie (1893-97).

Rev. William W. Gauld, M.A. (1893-98).

Norman J. J. Walker, M.A., LL.B. (1893-19oz).

William G. Craigen, M.A., LL.B. (1894-97 and 1900-02).

James R. Scott (1895-1902).

Alexander M. Watt (18 95-1903).

John C. Richards (1896-99).

John Bruce (1896-1903).

James C. Duffus, M.C., M.A., LL.B. (1897-1904).

Harry J. Rae, M.A., M.B., Ch.B. (1898-1904).

Adrian L. Stronach (1899-1902).

N. Keith Robson, B.Sc.(Agr.) (1900-13).

William M. Littlejohn, A.M.Inst.C.E. (190I-oz).

W. Douglas Simpson, M.A., D.Litt. (1901-13).

George Forbes (1902-04).

Andrew Ducat (1902-06).

E. Birnie Reid, C.A. (1902-I3).

A. Eric Bruce, M.A., LL.B. (1902-15).

Ranald Esslcmont (1903-13).

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

William S. Benton, P.W.D., India (1904-1 I).

George A. Williamson, B.L. (5904-12).

John G. Elmslie, M.B., Ch.B. (1904-13).

Ian McBain, C.A. (1904-14).

Lessel M. Davidson, C.A. (1905-14).

Henry G. Edwards (1905-14)Norman J. Wilson, M.A., LL.B. (1905-15).

James Leith (1905-17).

James Patterson, M.A., LL.B. (1906-12).

Douglas P. Cochran (1906-15).

Herbert J. Edwards, M.A., LL.B. (59°6-17).

J. Patrick Jeffrey, C.A. (1906-18).

R. Bertram Williamson, M.A., LL.B. (1906-18).

Allan C. Hendry, M.C., M.B., Ch.B. (1907-14).

John Doeg (1910-15).

Alexander Gray, M.A., LL.B. (1910-22).

Alexander 0. Wishart (1911-16).

Robert J. Duthie, M.B., Ch.B. (1911-17).

Norman B. Sellar (1912-20.

John M. Yule (1914-19 and 1923-24).

Harold Esslemont (1915-19).

Ian G. Meff (1915-26).

Thomas Walker (1917-21).

Alexander Robson (1917-30).

Ian G. Shinnie (5958-28).

A. Raymond G. Emslie (1959-22).

Patrick C. B. Simpson (1921-25).

David M. Andrew, M.A. (Honorary Member).

George Duncan, M.A. (Honorary Member).

GUESTS OF MEMBERS. Dr. C. C. Abbott, Mr. Robert Addie, Dr. A. G. Anderson, Mr. C. E. Beveridge, Professor J. B. Black, Professor W. Blackadder, Mr. J. M. Brown, Professor David Campbell, Messrs. John Cooper, A. W. Davidson, James L. Dean, Councillor John S. Doeg, Messrs. W. 0. Duncan, advocate ; W. D. Esslemont, advocate ; Alexander Forbes, G. S. Fraser, Town Clerk ; Robert A. Gillis, R. Leslie J. Henderson, C.A. ; Ralph Hunter, John M. Ironside, Dr. H. J. Longmore ; Messrs. James A. Mackie, William Mackie, Charles Maclay, Dr. H. G. Magee, Sir John Maxwell, C.M.G. ; Mr. Walter B. Menzies, Professor A. C. Morrison, Councillor A. T. Morrison, Messrs.

James Hay Petrie, Harbour Treasurer; Jack Reid, Patrick N. Shinnie, Dean of Guild Spencer, and Mr. A. A. Williamson.

Before the toast list was entered upon the Chairman extended a welcome to the company. He was extremely gratified at the very fine turn-out, he said, and he welcomed them one and all—Old Boys and " old boys " who were not Old Boys, like the Principal.—(Laughter and applause.)

" The Club."

Mr. George Duncan, advocate, proposed the toast of " The Club." " The Club was formed," he said, " to promote the continuance of the friendships formed at the School, and it has made its influence felt, I think we may say literally, from China to Peru. It has its Consuls in every Continent of the world. Its Magazine—and no better school magazine was ever printed—(applause)—its Magazine reaches to the farthest parts of civilization. I often think that Theodore Watt might quite well exclaim in the words of the pious /Eneas : Quae regio in terris nostri non plena /aboris ?

He might quite well adopt that as the motto of the School Magazine.

—(Laughter.)

Aberdeen Grammar School Magcqine.

67

" The labours of the members of the Club have not been confined to the promotion of their own welfare. They have ever been mindful of their School. They have ever been mindful of the welfare of the present pupils of the School, and time and again they have spent themselves freely, they have spent their money, they have spent their labour in doing many things for the benefit of their old School."

Coupling the toast with the name of the Chairman, Mr. Duncan said he had always looked upon him as the Admirable Crichton of the Grammar School, no less distinguished in athletics than he was in scholarship, and no life. less distinguished in scholarship than he was in the practical affairs of " In his early youth at the School, as I remember,"' continued Mr. Duncan, " he was a footballer of no mean prowess. Then he developed into a champion tennis player, and then he became a climber, not merely on the mountains his of his native land but, if all stories are true, over the crazy pinnaclestoofplay College at Cambridge, and it is long since he has been accustomed golf, starting at scratch or very near it. " As regards scholarship, three Universities boast of the achievements may say of Lord Mackay; and as regards his subsequent life, I think one truly that he has been one of the outstanding successes of his own profession.

—(Applause.) More than that, I think one can say he has been one of the outstanding personalities of his profession in this generation, and he has crowned what was a very successful career at the Bar by attaining to the the dignity of a Judge of the Supreme Court of Scotland, the first native of has city of Aberdeen, I think, to do so.—(Applause.) And for all that, he remained a loyal Old Boy of the Grammar School and a loyal Aberdonian."

(Applause.)

The President's Reply.

Lord Mackay, replying to the toast, which was enthusiastically pledged, say, said that he would like to make the keynote of everything he hoped to that in not the word " old," but the word " youth," for he was going to claim all respects the Club was the embodiment of youth, of energy, and of the future.

Boys, " The toast involved three clear topics—I The Club, a The Old " This is the 3 The Old School. First of all about the Club," he proceeded. to somethird time within about a year on which I have been called upon ofsay exthing to such a gathering as this. Just about a year ago one theyour guests Presidents, Lord Alness, and I were invited to London to be was a among others of the Grammar School F.P. Centre in London. That the English great occasion. We had Lord Meston, Lord Justice Greer of and we Bench among the guests, Dr. J. M. Bulloch was in the chair,within no had a number of other distinguished Londoners there. Then, this Club long time of that, I was invited to be the guest of a new Centre of gathering just formed in Glasgow, and there again we had a very impressiveentrancing of Old Boys. I well remember in particular the extremely Club.

He account Theodore Watt gave of the work and progress of the occasion held the audience, and they would have liked more. On this third 1 stand as your President Elect for the year, and I must thank you for the honour you have done me. of " I have mentioned the proposition that the Club is a movement It was the progress and youth. That was the keynote struck in London. there started keynote of the meeting in Glasgow, where, I think, the branch to-night is going to go on and grow. I should like to make it the keynote on its —the idea of how the little nucleus of old Grammarians has hurried this original expanding course and has sent its tentacles out from this School, building, little stone building, now represented by not such a very little in the city of Aberdeen, far and wide unto the uttermost parts of the earth. " It was mentioned at some of these meetings that the Club is not merely a club for the social gathering together of old pals or for talk of old times,

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Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

but that it is a nerve centre whose innervations, whose impulse our Magazine, with Theodore Watt at its head, provides. It is also a gathering ground of common ideas, those ideas that have inspired Scotsmen and Aberdonians, and Grammarians in particular, from the year 1256 at least, if not for centuries before; and with that communication of thought it is not at all impossible that this Club of ours should become a real maker of history in the best sense. It might well provide, as for instance in the present anxious juncture of the world's history, for those who after all are the formers of public opinion, people like our guests, like ourselves, some real idea, transmitted through the Club, of the actual conditions under which the Old Boys live in China, Manchuria, Australia, South Africa, Canada—wherever, indeed, there is a world problem, and where is there not one to be met to-day ? " A general communion of thought about difficulties, such as the commercial difficulty of the management of gold and silver, the difficulty of peace, the difficulty of India, I cannot see why our organization should not do something to promote.—(Applause.) " So much for the Club. Let me turn to the Old Boys. There again we are proud. I am not going to go over by name the many friends I have met to-night. Mr. Duncan I only mention, not because he is in the least prominent over the rest—(laughter)—but merely because he did say such nice things about me, and he himself has been and is now a real force in the north-east of Scotland.—(Applause.) " I believe that one of our Grammar boys has put himself at the top of the Home Civil examination. (Applause.) It is a wonderful achievement, for there is no examination in the whole world, I do not say so stiff, but in which the standard of competition is so enormously high and the place of prominence so hard to win.—(Applause.) " Of the innumerable Old Boys it is impossible to mention many, but I would like to endorse with Mr. Duncan the extraordinary value to us of Theodore Watt.—(Applause.) I have seen many school magazines, I know a good deal about other school clubs, but I am quite convinced that nowhere in the world has there ever been published a magazine which gets so much from the Old Boys, keeps us all so much in touch with Old Boys, and means so much to Old Boys, one which does so much to represent as this one does the almost complete history of all our chums of all ages in the last fifty years.—(Applause.) " So much for the Old Boys, and lastly let me say a word on the old School. No doubt it has been said to you by other Presidents, but it is really a school of schools, a school that, I think, is beyond all other schools in many historical respects, and not least in that it goes on from strength to strength through changing conditions. I understand that while in my time an attendance of about 500 was our top figure, it is now approaching the thousand every year, and there is no reason why it should not produce scholars better than any of us in greater numbers in the future. It is going on ; and going on, it is young.—(Applause.) " But it also is old. When I was speaking in Glasgow, I said to them, on information which had been conveyed to me in London, that I thought there was one other school in the whole British Empire that could or did claim a longer pedigree and I think I must now retract that, because I do not think there is.

"The information had been conveyed to me that Winchester, 1386, was older than we were, but that was on the footing that our oldest date was 1418.

I think it is now well established, as Dr. Morland Simpson's book shows, that the Grammar School of Aberdeen was continuously run by the Town Council of Aberdeen, on the nomination of the Chancellor of the St. Nicholas Church—nay, I think there may also be evidence that Royal consent was also signified—from at least 1256, and at that early date, half a century before Bannockburn, the historical evidence is only a reference to the nomination by the Chancellor of a master to the then existing School. There seems no doubt that our Grammar School has run from before that time for a longer continuous period than any University in this country, than any known

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69

school in this country, and as a teaching institution can be equalled only by, perhaps, one or two Universities, such as Paris or Bologna.—(Applause.) " More than that, if you look into the old documents, there is a deal of very special history in our School Records that is both remarkable and interesting. I doubt if any other school—as far as I know there is none— can show published Laws and Statutes dating over four centuries back.

There are three such sets of `Laws.' One of them, perhaps with a certain plausibility, may be ascribed to the Grammar School of Old Aberdeen, although I do not personally think such a claim correct. The Laws have hung on our walls and historians like Kennedy and others have referred to them as ours. More, there is no evidence of any ' Old Gram ' at anything like that early date. Vaus, in whose works the Laws were published, was no doubt a Don of the University of Aberdeen, sited in Old Aberdeen, but then, till the Reformers set up Marischal College out of the ruins of the Grey Friars, that only University was the Patron of our Grammar. The Laws were older than t 553, and were published in a 3rd edition of Vaus in that year. Another set of ' Laws' is referred to in the minutes of the Town Council, and it was passed in 1636, and appears to have been issued to every entrant scholar for years after that ; and there was a third edition of laws or regulations in 1700. All these were laws with regard to the conduct of rector, masters, and scholars. " I have been struck by two or three points of great interest. The oldest laws are in Latin, very ancient Latin and rather difficult to interpret, but it is interesting Latin. It appears from those laws that scholars had to be at the School by 7 a.m. They were continuously occupied, with an interval for breakfast, till 11.30. Then they were allowed out, if oppidans only, to the town, and at two o'clock they gathered again and the real work of the day began.—(Laughter.) " They were limited in the languages they might speak. Apparently during the whole of these times they were bound to use Latin or Greek or Hebrew or Gallic (supposed to be French) or Hibernian (which probably meant Gaelic if the other meant French, or it may be Erse), but they might not use the vernacular. I find also there was a Hebdomadar or weekly master of play, who was bound to take them out to ' the hill ' to play. Where that hill was I do not know, unless it was the Schoolhill or, mayhap, Rosemount. He oversaw their play, and play at gambling or games of chance was strictly forbidden, because the poor folk were apt to be attracted by that form of play.—(Laughter.) I do not know how that excellent maxim fits in with the Dublin sweepstake.—(Laughter.) " There is also a large chapter dealing with castigation. Hi eastigandi veniunt. Apparently a half hour was set aside at 9.3o a.m, at which the person appointed for the duty appeared with a rod and castigated all those who deserved it. There is a long list of what merited castigation and among them autbores maii—` authors of evil.' Can you better that ? " Lord Mackay asked the company, amid laughter. " The laws go on through many other matters, and I find that very special provision had to be made against what was called ' The superstition of Yuletide.' Apparently up to the Reformation the Catholic Church had allowed a prolonged holiday at Christmas-time or Yule. That was later by the Reformers called ' The superstitious time of Yule,' and they legislated against it in the Town Council, but apparently all to no purpose, for the Grammar boys, headed by the eldest scions of all the families in the county, captured the School from the Rector by the aid of guns, arrows, and other missiles, and held it for the whole fortnight of their ordinary holiday.—(Laughter.) They also raided the Burghers, let us hope only for food to keep themselves alive. " I think that shows the spirit of the Grammar boys," commented Lord Mackay. " I do not say I would support them to-day but (turning to Mr. Andrew, the Rector) I do not think you would be so niggardly in the matter of holidays.—(Laughter.)

7o

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

" Those are some of the old traditions of the School," Lord Mackay continued. " I commend to you also its modern history. A school that has had such people as Melvin, Geddes, Moir, Morland Simpson, right down to our present Rector, is a school that is not going backward. It is going forward on the lines of youth and progress."—(Applause.)

" Our Guests."

Dr. W. Douglas Simpson gave the toast of " Our Guests," with which he coupled the name of Principal Sir George Adam Smith. Paying a tribute to Sir George, he said they all reverenced his great scholarship and admired his wise and fruitful guidance of the affairs of the University, but their feelings in those two respects were topped by one other feeling. and that was love of the man himself.—(Applause.)

• " My first duty, as representing the University," said Sir George, in replying, " is to pay homage to her more ancient sister, the Grammar School of Aberdeen.—(Applause and laughter.) Since our more recent foundation —(laughter)—we have been partners closely associated in the education of the youth of Aberdeen and the north-east and north of Scotland.—(Applause.) " I also come to you as the chairman of the similar club of the Royal High School in Edinburgh, and here I refuse to greet the Grammar School as a more ancient sister, because I am perfectly sure that we go back to at least as ancient a date as you do.—(Laughter.) I was asked by your Secretary to produce the evidence. This is not the occasion for that.—(Laughter.)

I may say I have been reminded that the Glasgow High School, of whom there are several old members present to-night, claims an equal record, and I am perfectly sure that both the Glasgow High School and the Edinburgh High School can stand unashamed in the bonds of friendship and antiquity with yourselves.—(Laughter and applause.) " Compared with schools such as George Watson's, infants in their history —(laughter)—we can congratulate ourselves on our ancient history and on how from first to last we have produced an extraordinary number of fine graduates and men, from both the Grammar School and the University, who are influencing the politics and social life and educational life of our Empire all over the world.—(Applause.) It is also a very great pleasure to me to be the guest of the Club when its President is Lord Mackay. Both the University and the Grammar School are proud of him and of his career.

We have in him the first of our graduates to succeed to the Scottish Bench since, I suppose, Lord Monboddo. May we long continue the fruitful alliance that has in years that have passed produced so many servants of the Empire."—(Applause.)

" The School."

The toast of the School was given in a characteristically racy speech by Mr. David Scott, the Club Consul for Ceylon, who recalled numerous interesting incidents, grave and gay, of his School days.

The Rector, who replied, said he wished to associate the School with the congratulations which the Club had properly lavished on their new President.

"Lord Mackay," he said, " has taken a tremendous interest in his old School. On two separate occasions in my own time he has come and spoken to the boys, and he is a great favourite with all of them, and I cannot pay him any higher tribute than this, that they would like very much to have him back.

They all admire his splendid all-round career. He typifies in it the Grammarian spirit in excelsis—fine sportsman, good scholar, human, and altogether one of the very best,"—(Applause.)

INTIMATION OF THE FOUNDING OF A PRIZE. " Mr. Duncan spoke of what the School owed to the Club in many ways, and I have a most interesting announcement to make. It is one which, I feel,

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will give great satisfaction to the Club. Mr. James A. Mackie, whom we are delighted to have with us to-night, had the great misfortune not very long ago to lose a very promising son, who was a great favourite in the Grammar School and whose career, full of promise as a University student, was cut to short by his untimely death. Mr. and Mrs. Mackie have expressed a wishand commemorate their son, Norman Alexander, in the Grammar School, he has this evening handed me a cheque for Lzoo for the foundation of a prize to be associated with his son's name.—(Applause.) It is not possible the and, of course, it would not be proper for me to say anything about conditions which will attach to the award of the prize, because this matter will come in due course before the Education Committee of the Town Council. I may say, however, that the main condition is the qualification of all-roundness, and I think it is specially appropriate that the intimation of the prize should come on the occasion when this prince of all-round men, our President, is in the chair.—(Applause.) " Various speakers have been kind enough to suggest that the School is doing very well. I think we may claim in all modesty that it is maintaining its traditions, and I think this year may very properly be looked back upon as one of our great vintage years. We have had some wonderful successes. the At Cambridge we had a First Class in the second part of the Classical, Mathematical, and the English Tripos, and, as showing that these successes are not confined to the intellectual elite of the School, but are shared by the rank and file, the unknown warriors of the School, I may say that this year we gained the highest number of Leaving Certificates in the whole history of the School."—(Applause.)

Mr. J. C. Dulfus, advocate, in the absence through illness of Mr. Alan McBain, Vice-President of the F.P. Club, proposed the toast of "The Chairman." " We already have as a Past President the Lord Justice-Clerk of Scotland," he said, " and we now have as President another Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland. I doubt if any other school can claim such bookie ' a large proportion of the Scottish Bench at one time. To put it into' parlance, F.P.s would have about a seventeen to one chance of coming up before an F.P. for sentence."—(Laughter.)

Lord Mackay briefly acknowledged the toast and gave the toast of " Bon-Accord," with which and the singing of " Auld Lang Syne" the evening closed.

While dinner was being served piano selections were played by Mrs. Shand, entertaining and during the evening, at an interval between two speeches,Brownie and reminiscences of his schooldays—and particularly of William Charles Sleigh—were given by Mr. J. W. Monro.

The School Boarding House.

School The Third Annual General Meeting of the Aberdeen Grammar October, 1931, F.P. Club Boarding House Co., Ltd., was held on 14th when another very satisfactory report was submitted by the Directors. all parts The report stated that owing to the general business depression in during the of the world, several boys had been withdrawn from the House commencement year, with the result that while the House was full at theterm to 27. The of the session, the numbers had dropped in the summer 31. The average number of boys in residence during the year had been being 33.

House was well booked for the current year, the number of boys and Property and furnishings were being kept fully up to date by repairsprofit renewals and by allowing the usual depreciation before arriving at the for the year. The Directors, however, felt that it would be only prudent to deal very conservatively with an asset like furniture, and they were anxious

72

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

that it should be materially written down as soon as possible. Accordingly, they proposed to apply £ zoo to that purpose.

The profit for the year, after allowing for depreciation, etc., amounted to . . . . . . . . . £414 15 1 oi to which had to be added the amount carried forward at 31st Ju:y, 193 0 . . . . . . .

• . 142 3 3i making a total available of .

•

•

•

•

•

• Z:556 19

2

This amount was dealt with as follows :— (I) In writing off the Furniture Account . . . . £zoo 0 0 (2) In paying a Dividend on 14th October, 1931, of 5 per cent., less tax . . . . . . 220 17 6 . .

• (3) In carrying forward to next year . . . . . 136 1 8 £556 59

2

The Chairman of the Company, Mr. Edward W. Watt, moved the adoption of the report, which was adopted. The retiring Director, Mr. A. G. Nicol Smith, was re-elected, as also was the auditor, Mr. Alan McBain, C.A.

The London Centre.

As is generally known, the Club has in London a very flourishing Centre, which is composed of members residing in the Metropolis and within a radius of approximately 5o miles thereof. At present there are about 300 members in the Centre, the President of which is Mr. John Malcolm Bulloch, M.A., LL.D. • During the winter season the Centre arranges a series of Dinners. They arc well attended, and afford Old Boys resident in the neighbourhood an opportunity of meeting together and renewing friendships of bygone days.

The price of the Dinner (which is of excellent quality) is very moderate, and is collected during the evening.

The President and Committee of the London Centre accordingly desire to extend a very hearty welcome to any Old Boy visiting town to spend an evening with them.

The programme arranged for the current season is as follows :— Friday, 4th December, 1931 : Annual Dinner in the Hotel Victoria (Edward VII Rooms), Northumberland Avenue, W.C.z, at 7 for 7.3o p.m. The President of the Centre, Dr. J. M. Bulloch, who will be accompanied by Mrs. Bulloch, will be in the Chair, and will be supported by Lord Meston, who will be accompanied by Lady Meston, and by other distinguished Former Pupils. The guests of the London Centre on this occasion will be the Rector of the University of Aberdeen, Sir Arthur Keith, M.D., D.Sc., LL.D., F.R.C.S., F.R.S., and Lady Keith. In accordance with the general wish of the members of the Centre, ladies are in future to be invited to the Annual Dinner, and the President extends a very hearty welcome to the wives and other friends of the members on the occasion of the visit this year of Sir Arthur and Lady Keith.

Thursday, z8th January, 1932 : Informal Dinner in the Holborn Restaurant, Kingsway, after which Mr. Alistair N. Tayler, the wellknown writer on Jacobite subjects, will deliver an address on the four Jacobite attempts of the 18th century. This lecture will undoubtedly be a most interesting one.

The Secretary of the Centre is Mr. Thos. D. H. Brown, Esbourn, Lawrie Park Crescent, Sydenham, S.E. 26, who will be pleased to reserve a place for any provincial or other member who desires to attend one or both of these

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Aberdeon Grammar School Magaine.

73

functions, on hearing from him ; or, if time does not permit an Old Boy to make arrangements beforehand, all he need do is to ask for the Secretary on his arrival at the meeting.

Members of the Club taking up residence in the London Arca are requested to communicate with the Secretary of the London Centre, who will send to him a copy of the Rules of the Centre and a list of the London Members of the Club.

The Glasgow Centre.

The Annual General Meeting was held on Thuriday, 5th November, 1931, at 6 p.m., Mr. James Ledingham, the President of the Centre, occupying the chair.

It was reported that the membership at 3oth September, 1931, stood at 52, a figure which was regarded as satisfactory at the end of ten months of the Centre's existence.

The accounts for the period were found equally satisfactory, showing a balance in hand of £1. 8s. 7d.

The election of office-bearers, all of whom, with the exception of the President, retire annually in accordance with the Rules of the Centre, was then proceeded with. Mr. Henry G. Edwards was unanimously re-appointed Hon. Secretary and Treasurer, and the following members were elected to the Committee, Messrs. W. A. Allan, Launcelot H. Ross, G. A. M. Saunders, Rev. Sydney C. Still and Dr. Keith R. T. Matthew.

The Centre is holding a Social Evening, with Progressive Bridge, on Friday, 11th December, 1931, when it is hoped there will be a large attendance of members and their friends.

The Annual Dinner has been fixed for Friday, 29th January, 1932, when the Centre has been fortunate in arranging for the Right Rev. Bishop Logic Danson, D.D., to be present as the official guest.

There are still a number of F.P.s resident in the Glasgow area who are not members of the Club, and a cordial invitation is extended to them to participate in the activities of the Centre by joining the Club. Any such who have not received notice of meetings are invited to communicate with the Hon. Secretary of the Centre, Mr. Henry G. Edwards, 1z Cresswell Street, Glasgow, W. 2.

F.P. Hockey Section.

The Section is in a healthy condition, having a playing membership of thirty-six. The 1st XI is practically identical with that of last year. The defence, strengthened by the bringing of W. Menzies from centre-forward to left back, is definitely strong, but we are faced, as ever, with the problem of manufacturing an effective forward line. We started the season well, beating St. Ronald and Aberdeen, and being only narrowly beaten by 'Varsity, but since then we have had two bad defeats. With the return of our reliable goalkeeper, however, we are looking forward to a successful season.

The second team is, perhaps, the strongest for several seasons, and some of our third team players show great promise, although opportunities for coaching and instruction are lacking.

The following office-bearers have been elected for the season 1931-32 :— Hon. President, Mr. D. M. Andrew, Rector of the School ; Hon. VicePresidents, Messrs. J. Aitken, D. P. Cochran, A. T. Cruickshank, J. R, Donald, D. W. Duthie, J. J. Williamson, J. E. Wilson, and W. N. Stewart ; Captain of 1st XI, C. Maclennan; Vice-Captain, C. J. Stewart; Hon, Secretary and Treasurer, E. L. Yule, 61 Queen's Road ; Extra Members of Committee, W. Menzies and D. M. Wood,

74

..1berdeen Grammar ,School Magazine.

F.P. Rugby Football Section.

The notes for the March Magazine did not contain particulars of the remaining games for season 193o-31. Although the news is now rather ancient, it must be recorded that at last, after three years, 'Varsity have been beaten, their victors being F.P.s, in the cup-tie game at Rubislaw on z8th March, with a score for F.P.s of x z points as against 'Varsity's 8 points.

This game was the second round of the cup-tie, which had been postponed owing to the inclement weather, both teams having got a bye in the first round. On the following Wednesday the local final of the Cup was played between F.P.s and 'Shire at Rubislaw, and it will be seen from the account of the game given later that F.P.s were beaten by 8 points to 3 points, thus losing their chance of entering the final, which was played at Dundee.

The playing membership this season has actually increased by three over that of last, and now totals 63, the full membership being 108. F.P.s have been fortunate in getting the services of most of the players who left School at the end of last session, and already a few of them are playing regularly for the 1st XV, which team has not done too well during the period under review, having won only two out of the five games played to time of the Magazine going to press. The and XV have, on the other hand, lost only one game out of six played to date. The 3rd XV have also played six games and have to their credit some huge scores. It might be pointed out here, for the good of all playing members, that it is very difficult, if not impossible, for a Selection Committee to please everyone. It is no easy task when there is such an influx of new members as has been the case this season, and it takes some time before the teams are stabilised. It is unfortunate that several players every Saturday do not get a game. It may be mentioned that movements have been afoot since the beginning of the season to rectify this, and it is anticipated that within the next week or two every member will get a game regularly.

F.P.s have contributed their quota as usual to the Trials, etc., and the following are particulars :— Dunfermline v. Aberdeen Representative, on 3rd October, at King's— R. D. Bain, G. W. Bowes, W. F. Mayor, and J. Trail.

Local Trial, on 17th October, at Seafield—R. D. Bain, A. A. N. Bain, G. W. Bowes, N. S. Cowan, H. B. Grant, C. M. M. Liddell, and J. Trail.

North v. Midlands, on 7th November, at Dundee—R. D. Bain and G. W. Bowes.

North v. South, on 21st November, at Selkirk—R. D. Bain.

Results since beginning of Season 1931-32. tat XV. 1 931.

Sep. 19. v. ist Aberdeenshire, at Rubislaw Oct. to. v. ist Panmure, at Dundee ... „ 24. v. ist Gordonians, at Seafield 31. v. 1st Engineers, at Hazlehead Nov. 7. v. 1st Aberdeen University, at King's znd XV. Sep. z6. v. 1st School, at Rubislaw Oct. to. v. and Aberdeen University, at King's ,> 17. P. and Gordonians, at Rubislaw " 24. v. and Aberdeenshire, at Rubislaw 31. v. 1st Aberdeenshire, at Rubislaw Nov. 7. v. and Engineers, at Hazlehead

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ABERDEEN

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

3rd XV. Oct. to. v. 3rd Gordonians, at Rubislaw „ 17. v. and Aberdeenshire, at St. Machar 24. v. and Gordon's College, at Ruhislaw ft 31. P. 3rd School, at Ruhislaw

75

...

Won 5z-5 Lost o-xo Won io-6 Won 37-5

1st XV Matches.

28th March.—v. ist 'Varsity, at Rubislaw. F.P.s :—S. W. Wood; N. S. Cowan, G. W. Bowes, J. W. B. Cruickshank, and S. R. Smith ; W. F. Mayor and A. Macdonald ; R. D. Bain, J. I. Morrice, A. N. Smith, J. Trail, A. A. N. Bain, D. P. Cochran, J. F. Bothwell, and W. P. Smith.

F.P.s kicked off and at once attacked. Good touch-kicking by 'Varsity relieved pressure, and for a period play continued on even lines until a good three-quarter movement by 'Varsity resulted in an unconverted try. On the resumption, F.P.s attacked strongly, but the students' defence held out until a great cross-kick by Mayor nearly let S. R. Smith through, but he was just beaten by the bounce of the ball. 'Varsity were now attacking strongly, until an F.P. forward rush made good ground, with the result that Bowes got possession and passed to Cowan, who ran with determination to score a fine try, which was well converted by Mayor, thus giving F.P.s a lead of 2 points. A spell of even play followed until another good F.P. forward rush enabled Bowes to pick up again and, eluding several defenders, he went over to score a good although unconverted try. Half-time—F.P.s, 8 points ; 'Varsity, 3 points.

On resuming, F.P.s were hard pressed and 'Varsity looked like scoring, when Wood saved the situation by a fine tackle. Soon after, however, the 'Varsity backs got possession and crossed F.P.s' line at the corner. A goal resulted. F.P.s were having an anxious time, and only a good kick by Wood transferred play for a time to 'Varsity territory. No-side came, however, with the scores equal, and according to the cup-tie rules, extra time was allowed of ten minutes each way. F.P.s put up severe pressure, and just on half-time Mayor dropped a goal. On the resumption, 'Varsity attacked desperately, but F.P.s managed to keep their line intact until full time. Result: F.P.s, 12 points ; 'Varsity, 8 points.

1st April.--:'. Aberdeenshire, at Ruhislaw. F.P.s: S. W. Wood; N. S. Cowan, G. W. Bowes, J. W. B. Cruickshank, and A. S. Duncan ; W. F. Mayor and A. Macdonald ; J. I. Morrice, J. Trail, A. N. Smith, A. A. N. Bain, D. P. Cochran, J. E. Bothwell, W. P. Smith, and J. S. Dunnett.

F.P.s pressed in the early stages and almost went ahead after Morrice found touch near the 'Shire line from a penalty kick. After prolonged pressure by F.P.s, 'Shire relieved with a fine kick to touch near midfield.

F.P.s always looked more dangerous, and after Bowes had just failed with a drop at goal, Cochran threw out a long pass to Cowan, who raced over for an unconverted try. 'Shire had a spell of pressure now, but Mayor's return kicks kept them at bay. Half-time : F.P.s, ; points ; 'Shire, nil.

'Shire had the advantage of the wind in the second half and early looked dangerous. Only a fine tackle by Cowan saved a try being scored. 'Shire continued to press and a forward rush levelled the score. F.P.s then put on a spurt and Cowan was all but over when he was brought down. 'Shire came again, and their winger got over at the corner flag, full points resulting from a magnificent kick. F.P.s strove hard in the closing stages, but no-side came without further scoring. Result : F.P.s, 3 points ; 'Shire, 8 points.

19th September.—v. Aberdeenshire, at Rubislaw. F.P.s: S. W. Wood ; N. S. Cowan, G. W. Bowes, H. B. Grant, R. E. M. Paterson ; W. F. Mayor and A. Macdonald ; R. D. Bain, J. Trail, J. E. Bothwell, S. R. Smith, W. P. Smith, C. M. M. Liddell, A. Robertson, and J. S. Dunnett.

76

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

The weather was ideal, and play was concentrated in midfield for some time until a combined forward rush by F.P.s brought play to the visitors' " twenty-five," where Mayor hit the bar with a fine attempt at a drop goal.

A minute later Grant had a fine run from which Mayor gathered, to go over for the first try, the same player bringing out full points. Play was again confined for a period to midfield until 'Shire came away with a forward rush, and after taking the ball well up field, a forward gathered and got over for a try, which was not converted. F.P.s were doing most of the pressure, but no further scoring was added when the half-time whistle sounded. Halftime : F.P.s, 5 points ; 'Shire, 3 points.

Upon resuminfi play was very even for some time, and following some loose play in the Shire " twenty-five," Macdonald gathered well to drop a fine goal. F.P.s were all out now, and a brilliant passing movement by Bowes and Grant took play to the 'Shire " twenty-five," where, following a touch, Wood ran on finely to pass to Mayor, who let Bowes over for an unconverted try. F.P.s were penalised for off-side following a kick ahead, and 'Shire kicked a fine goal. Following some good forward play, 'Shire gathered to go ahead for a good try, which was not converted. A great dribble by F.P.s, followed by a three-quarter run, in which Grant was prominent, just failed to bring out points. F.P.s had another spell of pressure and Mayor just failed to drop a goal. F.P.s came back again and Paterson dribbled over for another try, Mayor just failing with a good kick. No-side came with play in mid-field. Result : F.P.s 55 points ; 'Shire, 9 points. z4th October.—v. Gordonians, at Seafield. F.P.s: S. W. Wood; N. S. Cowan, I. L. Smith, H. B. Grant, G. N. Gordon ; W. F. Mayor and A. Macdonald ; R. D. Bain, J. Trail, J. E. Bothwell, A. A. N. Bain, S. R. Smith, C. M. M. Liddell, A. Robertson, J. S. Dunnett.

F.P.s kicked off with the wind, and, obtaining the ball in the first three successive scrums, set up pressure on Gordonians' line. Faulty handling, however, of a greasy ball brought some promising movements to an end.

Making a clever mark, Gordon just failed to drop a goal. Macdonald let Cowan away, to score far out, the try being unconverted. F.P.s' forwards were now playing well in the loose, and Gordonians just saved a further score by determined tackling. From a free kick for F.P.s, Mayor struck the upright, and from a kick ahead Gordonians got over for a try, which was converted. Mid-field play ensued until half-time. Half-time: F.P.s, 3 points ; Gordonians, 5 points.

Gordonians started off again strongly, but Mayor relieved the pressure and took play to the Gordonians' line. A loose rush, however, took play to the F.P.s' line, where Gordonians scrambled over for a try, which was unconverted. F.P.s rallied, and play was in Gordonians' territory for a spell, but the difficult ball nullified scoring possibilities. F.P.s were subject to repeated pressure at this stage of the game. Play was now very scrappy, and a breakaway by Gordonians led to a score, full points being brought out.

Just on time F.P.s had a great three-quarter run, which just failed to bring out points. Result: F.P.s, 3 points ; Gordonians, 53 points.

31st October.—v. Engineers, at Hazlehead. F.P.s: S. W. Wood; N. S. Cowan, G. W. Bowes, I. S. Smith, G. N. Gordon ; C. W. France and A. Macdonald ; R. D. Bain, S. R. Smith, A. M. Robertson, C. M. M. Liddell, A. A. N. Bain, J. E. Bothwell, E. W. M. Watt, J. S. Dunnett.

Engineers kicked off under ideal conditions. France broke away cleverly and sent Bowes away, but he was well tackled. Play remained near the Engineers' " twenty-five," and Gordon ran over to score in an easy position for Watt to bring out full points. A good dribble by Smith soon had F.P.s back again, and a penalty kick by Watt just failed. Engineers pressed, and only a brilliant tackle by Bowes saved the situation. Half-time : F.P.s, 5 points ; Engineers, nil.

Pressure by Engineers on resumption nearly brought about a score.

F.P.s took play back, and a good dribble by Macdonald and Smith led to the

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ABERDEEN

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

77

latter going over for another try, which was converted by Watt. Another breakaway by F.P.s ended in Smith's sending Cowan over for an easy try, which was unconverted. Result: F.P.s, 53 points ; Engineers, nil.

7th November.—r. 1st 'Varsity, at King's. F.P.s : S. W. Wood ; N. S. Cowan, I. J. Stewart, A. Macdonald and A. S. Duncan ; C. W. France and I. L. Smith ; J. Trail, A. A. N. Bain, A. M. Robertson, C. M. M. Liddell, J. E. Bothwell, S. R. Smith, J. S. Dunnett, and E. W. M. Watt.

F.P.s kicked off and, after some end-to-end play, France had a good run but was brought down just on the 'Varsity goal line. From a line out, 'Varsity crossed F.P.s' line to score an unconverted try. After some mid-field play, 'Varsity again crossed F.P.s' line, full points being brought out. Another sudden burst by 'Varsity in the closing stages of the first half recorded another try, which was converted.

Half-time : F.P.s, nil ; 'Varsity, 13 points.

F.P.s started the second half strongly, and Duncan got across well out for an unconverted try. The same player followed with a fine free kick, which made good ground. After some strong pressure by 'Varsity forwards, F.P.s had a splendid " three " run, which Cowan rounded off by touching down behind the posts for Watt to convert. Just before the whistle 'Varsity scored another goal. Result : F.P.s, 8 points ; 'Varsity, 18 points.

D. P. C.

List of New Members of the Club.

LIFE MEMBERS. Carle, Alexander Whincup (1914-20), Bengal and N.W. Railway Co., Ltd., Gorakhpur, U.P., India.

McIntosh, William Craib (1915-zo), M.A., M.B., Ch.B., 4! Norfolk Road, Aberdeen.

Massie, James (Hamish) MacPhail (1918-31), Carden House, Carden Place, Aberdeen.

Milne, Robert Lamb (1915-26), 4 Albert Terrace, Aberdeen.

Raebum, Peter L. D. (1876-78), Shanghai, China.

Watt, Edward William Murray (1918-31), Glenbumie Park, Ruhislaw Den North, Aberdeen.

Wood, F.dward James 0908-20, M.A., 32 Hamilton Place, Aberdeen.

ORDINARY MEMBERS. Beattie, Norman Robert (1921-31), " Selina," Cults.

Bisset, George Davidson (1918-31), 84 Desswood Place, Aberdeen.

Booth, Alexander (1928-31), Comichaugh, Culter.

Brockie, John Alexander (1921-31), 72 Forest Avenue, Aberdeen.

Bruce, ohn Lamb (1921-23), 106 Hami ton Place, Aberdeen.

Campbell, Robert Macuie (1920-30), 34 Angusfield Avenue, Aberdeen.

Chalmers, John Mitchell (1929-31), Kinloch, St. Fergus, Peterhead.

Couper, Sinclair (1868-71), 4 Princes Gardens, Glasgow, W.2.

Crawford, Kenneth Stewart (1928;0)O42 Hamilton Place, Aberdeen.

Doughty, Edward Henry Marcus (1924-31), 163 Forest Avenue, Aberdeen.

Doughty, John Arton Francis (19243o), 163 Forest Avenue, Aberdeen.

Duncan, Thomas (1924-31), 16 Calsayseat Road, Aberdeen.

Finnie, Williamson Jackson (192831), 73 Forest Road, Aberdeen.

France, Charles William 0922-30, 11o King's Gate, Aberdeen.

Franklin, Montague (1920-30), 45 Argyll Place, Aberdeen.

Godden, Wilfred John (5922-30, 34 Gilbert Road, Bucksbum.

Henderson, Ian Farquharson (592331), Sirhowy, Cults.

Henderson, William Lewis (1919-30, x26 Broomhill Road, Aberdeen

78

Aberdeen Grammar School Magazine.

Hendry, John Maddison (192o-31), 15 Richmondhill Place, Aberdeen.

Horn, James Neilson (1923-31), 41 University Road, Aberdeen.

Hutchison, Thomas Mundie (1,92031), 5 Gladstone Place, Aberdeen.

Jackson, Douglas (1920-30, 48 Osborne Place, Aberdeen.

Laing, Gordon Smith (1926-31), 192 King Street, Aberdeen.

Lawrence, George (1901-03), North of Scotland Bank, 65 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow.

Lawrence, John Roger (1918-31), 68 Carden Place, Aberdeen.

Liddell, Charles Mitchell (1920-31), t7 Louisville Avenue, Aberdeen.

McDonald, Duncan Skinner (192431), 98 Gray Street, Aberdeen.

McKenzie, Archibald, Jun. (192231), " Novar," Hammerfield Av., Aberdeen.

MacLeod, James William (1920-31), 345 Great Western Road, Aberdeen.

McLuskey, James Fraser (1920-31), 2 Priestfie d Road, Edinburgh.

Middleton, Alexander (1929-31), Willowbank, Montrose.

Middleton, Witham James (1919-31), 94 Queen's Road, Aberdeen.

Milne, Alexander Philip (1927-31), Westfield, Peterhead.

Pyper, John David (1929-31), 12 Grange Gardens, Peterhead.

Raffan, Alfred William (1919-31), Achath, Royfold Crescent, Aberdeen.

Rankine, Charles Adam (1918-30), 7 King's Gate, Aberdeen.

Robertson, Alexander Findlay (19 x 931), go Paterson, 8 Richmondhill Gardens, Aberdeen.

Robertson, Eric Desmond (1928-31), 184 Broomhill Road, Aberdeen.

Robertson, George Reginald (192122), University College, Oxford.

Robson, Thomas Falconer (x9 x 8-5 t), 39 Bonnymuir Place, Aberdeen.

Ross, Charles Hugh Eddie (I92o-31), 20 Grampian Circle, Aberdeen.

Ross, John Hugh Gunn (1924-31), Road, Great Western 435 Aberdeen.

Ross, Norman Alfred (1925-31), 16 Great Western Place, Aberdeen.

Scott, James Richard (1895-1902), cfo Eckford, Bieldside.

Semple, David McHardy (1901-06), 85 Maxwell Drive, Glasgow, SA. Simpson, Ian Catto (19zo-21 and 1923-30, " The Derry," Primrosehill, Cults.

Stewart, James Harvey (1926-30, 246 Rosemount Place, Aberdeen.

Taylor, Bruce Drummond (1919p), 73 Beaconsfield Place, Aberdeen.

Walker, Rev. Vane (1904-o5), M.A., St. Clement's Presbytery, Commerce Lane, Aberdeen.

Watt, George Theodore Robertson (1918-31), In Moray Place, Aberdeen.

Will, Gordon Bowman (1929-31), Bank House, Alford.

Wilson, Alexander Milne (x919-31), 4 Beechgrove Place, Aberdeen.

Wilson, John (1923-30), 25 Colchester Drive, Pinner, Middlesex.

Wishart, Alexander Ogilvie (1911,6), 86 Land Street, Keith.

Youngson, William Coutts (1920-31), 85 Fonthill Road, Aberdeen.

An Old Class Group.

Photographs of School classes in the 'Seventies and 'Eighties of last century continue to come into the hands of the Editor from time to time.

There is an appropriateness about the reproduction of the one that appears in this issue, for it was taken just fifty years ago. A number of the members of the class happily survive, and it has been found possible to identify almost everyone. Readers interested in the group will find information about the members of it in the " Roll of Pupils 1795-1919."

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HE GRAMMAR SCHOOL provides for Boys a complete course of Study, both Elementary and Secondary, Classical and Modern.

The School, which is organized in three Departments—Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools—contains excellent laboratories handsomely furnished and equipped, including a Chemical Laboratory, Science Theatre with Physical Laboratory attached, Natural Science Laboratory, Art Room, Gymnasium, Workshop, Botanical Garden, Library, Reading Room, and Museum.

Pupils in the Lower School are prepared for the Control Examination of the Education Committee, while the Senior Classes are examined for the Day School Certificate (Higher) and the Leaving Certificate of the Scottish Education Department, passes in the latter examination being recognised as exempting from further examination in the corresponding subjects of the Preliminary Examination for graduation in Arts, Science, Law, and Medicine at the Scottish Universities.

The situation of the School in the West end of the City is open and healthy. The Class-rooms are large, and the Grounds for Recreation include separate Playgrounds for Juniors and Seniors, Tennis Courts, and a field for Cricket and Football. There is also a Boarding House run in conjunction with the School.

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ABERDEEN HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS. (ALBYN PLACE.) Head Mistress

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HE HIGH SCHOOL provides a liberal education for Girls from 5 or 6 to r8 or ro years of age, and aims at fitting them for home life and for professions open to women.

The School buildings occupy an excellent and spacious site in the West end of the City. The furnishings and equipment of the School comprise, in addition to numerous Class-rooms fitted up with many modern conveniences for teaching purposes, an Assembly Hall, Gymnasium, Art Rooms, a Lantern Room, a School Library of 2,000 volumes, spacious Cookery and Laundry Rooms, and a suite of Laboratories of the most approved description for the teaching of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology.

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Information as to Fees, Scholarships, Courses of Study, etc., at the Grammar School and High School for Girls is given in the School Prospectus, which may be had free on application to the Director of Education, Education Offices, 22 Union Terrace, or to the Rector or Head Mistress respectively.

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