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MADRAS COLLEGE, ST ANDREWS
MEMORIES
By Rev. Robert Forgan, D.D.
5 Hermitage Terrace, Edinburgh.
My recollections of the Madras College may be said to date from its
foundation a hundred years ago, for both my father and my mother, being
natives of St Andrews, were among the earliest pupils of the College and
the name of the first English Master, the Rev. David Crichton, L.L.D., was
a household word in our home. Mr Crichton had studied at Edinburgh and
Universities and had been licensed to the Presbytery of St Andrews; but,
as was common in those days, while waiting for a Church, he gave himself
for a number of years to the teaching profession. He was ordained to the
ministry at Arbroath in 1838 and at the Disruption in 1843 he cast in his
lot with the Free Church. A man of high character, he stamped the impress
of his personality so deeply on his pupils that long years afterwards my
father and mother still revered his memory and held him up to their
children not only as a model teacher but as a pattern of all that was
noble and upright.
From 1866 to 1876 I myself was a pupil of the College, and my
recollections of these years are for the most part bright and happy.
Doubtless among teachers and scholars alike there were blemishes and
faults. A school is a little world, like the greater world outside its
walls, it comprises a mingling of the good and the evil; but in "the
Madras", as we familiarly called it, the good was predominant, and in the
retrospect I find it easy to pass over the sad things, to disperse the
shadows, and to dwell with grateful affection on the finer influences
which, though one scarcely realised it at the time, were being steadily
brought to bear upon the shaping of one's life and character.
I
Beginning from the outside, I would set down, as among my most vivid
recollections, the gravel playground in front of the College where, during
the hourly ten minutes intervals between our various classes, we engaged
in the usual games of "marbles", "leap-frog", "cat and dog", "tig", and,
best of all, the thrilling game called "Cave" in which the two sides vied
with each other in making swift rushes from point to point. The paved
quadrangle and corridors within the centre of the school buildings served
also for various games though in these we were hampered a little by the
phalanx of teachers who during the aforesaid intervals promenaded to and
fro in the quadrangle and did not always welcome the collisions with their
dashing pupils which would now and then occur. The large grass-park, too,
at the back of the College was furnished with several sets of swings and
gave opportunity for foot-ball and cricket of sorts, but was opened for
our use only during part of the Session. Golf was played on Saturdays, but
athletics generally counted for less in my time than in these modern days.
II
Turning to the school itself, I recall, as perhaps the most curious
feature of my day, the caste system under which the college was divided
into what almost amounted to four different schools. Social distinctions
were then more readily acquiesced in, and to-day it sounds almost
incredibly odd to be told of the "West Room" for the children of the
poorest classes, the "East Room" for the children of the middle classes,
the "Privates" for those of the upper classes, and the "Private-Privates"
for girls only and these still more select with a suite of class-rooms for
their exclusive use.
Among the pupils of these different divisions there was almost no social
intercourse, not because the boys and girls themselves put on snobbish
airs but rather because the parents willed to have it so, and public
opinion offered no serious objection. It ought to be explained, however,
that it was quite permissible for pupils to pass up from the humbler to
the higher grades if the parents chose to pay the increased fees. So far
as my memory serves, this passing up was comparatively common as from the
"East Room" to the "Privates", for the sufficient reason that the "East
Room" classes were the only preparatory classes available for pupils too
young for the Privates and also that it was only by thus passing up that
any "lad o pairts" who aspired to the University could obtain the
necessary tuition in such subjects as Latin, Greek, French, German and
Mathematics. It is further a matter of interest to note that a very large
number of the boy-pupils in the so-called "Private" classes were not
natives of St Andrews but came from all parts of Scotland and England and
the colonies. Of these boys in my time there would be as many as 150 every
Session. They lived in special Boarding- Houses of it which there were
five in different parts of the ancient city. The presence of these
boy-boarders in such large numbers is clear evidence of the high
reputation of the College and of the almost unique position which it then
held as an educational Institution.
III.
I come now to the Teachers. In my time there was no one
entitled to be called the Headmaster or Principal of the whole College.
Instead, we had no fewer than seven Headmasters, each, however, being Head
in his own Department only. Here is the list:-
English
. Robert Armstrong, L.L.D.
Classics
David Fogo, L.L.D.
French and German
. Schaefer, Ph.D.
Mathematics
Ochterlonie, L.L.D.
Arithmetic
Reid, M.A.
Writing
. Andrew Bell Morrison, M.A.
Drawing and Painting
.. Paterson.
By an alternating arrangement each of these Headmasters in turn acted
as Head of the School for one week at a time. He was called the Convener,
and before him during his week of office any culprits who misbehaved
outside the class-room were haled by the Janitor for punishment. It was
also to the Convener for the week we had to apply for those "skating
holidays" of which by long tradition we were entitled to three each
winter, if and when the frost favoured us. Of the numerous assistant
teachers in the various departments I have no special recollections to
record. There was one extra Teacher, however, of whom mention should be
made, if only to indicate the surprisingly small place given to the
teaching of music in the school in those days. From among the private
teachers of Music in the city one, Mr Salter by name, was selected and
given the position of Singing Master for the school. For an hour or two on
one or two days a week Mr Salter gathered together the scholars of the
"East" and "West" Rooms only in the large West Room at one end of which
there was an organ. Seated at this instrument, by alternately playing and
shouting he endeavoured to teach singing to some two hundred pupils with
an enthusiasm which very few of these pupils seemed to share. It was an
impossible task, though the teacher did his best.
These memories would, I fear, become unduly prolonged if I attempted here
to outline the characteristics of all the seven Headmasters whose names I
have recorded. I shall content myself, therefore, with some notes about
three of them.
1. Dr ARMSTRONG By the community in general Dr Armstrong was usually
regarded as the real Principal of the College. And rightly so, for he had
by far the heaviest task and the largest responsibility. It fell to him to
supervise all the education given in the "West Room" and "East Room". For
this he required a large staff of assistants. And in addition, he himself
taught English to most of the classes in the "Privates" and
"Private-Privates". And he was a most efficient teacher, full of energy
and enthusiasm. In his prime he was one of the outstanding educationalists
of Scotland, the author of Grammars and other Text-books, a leader in his
profession.
He was old-fashioned enough to believe in and practice corporal punishment
more freely than would now meet with the approval of a softer generation;
but his hatred of idleness and sloth was a healthy thing and his own
example of untiring diligence did not fail to impress even the most
sluggish of the boys whose hands he often blistered with his "tawse" or
his cane.
2. DR FOGO Our Classical Headmaster was in many respects a complete
contrast to Dr Armstrong. Quiet, gentle, forbearing, he was a teacher to
whom it was an obvious pain to have to find fault or punish. To his pupils
he strove to impart a share in that high sense of honour which so
distinguished him, and in return he was by them both loved and revered.
Quite vain was every attempt to invent a nick-name for Dr Fogo. The
nearest we got to one was to call him "Pius Aeneas"; and that was more
than half a complement. His remarkable success as a teacher of Latin and
Greek wan shown in the long succession of his pupils who figured in the
Bursary list and the Classical Honours list of the University. One
convincing proof of this may here be mentioned. On one occasion he set
four of his pupils to tackle the Latin and Greek papers which had recently
been prescribed for the M.A. degree; and the result showed that all four
were already sufficiently advanced to make a creditable pass for that
degree even before they had entered the university.
3. DR OCHTERLONIE Amongst all the Headmasters Dr Lonie, as for short we
always called him, occupied a place by himself. He was something of a
genius, and as such he was erratic in his temper and his teaching. When
his wrath was roused, it blazed; yet withal he was a man of a large and
loving heart. One day he would
have us singing or chanting the prepositions in Euclid; another day,
instead of our proper lesson, we would get a lecture on some subject that
interested him at the moment. For some reason he was entrusted for a time
at least with the teaching of Geography as well as of Mathematics, and he
was wont, one hour a week, to relieve the dullness and dryness of this
subject by a method of his own. He conducted us on imaginary excursions
which would start at St Andrews from the Pends or the West Port. Thence we
were led along one or other of the roads of Fife and were called upon to
name the different towns through which we passed. Another day we would
cross from Fife to the Lothians or proceed northward to the counties of
Angus or Aberdeen. Gradually in imagination we travelled in this way over
a large part of Scotland and even made occasional expeditions into
England, Dr Lonie supplying us en route with much interesting information
concerning the history or the industrial activities of the principal towns
we were supposed to visit.
In another direction Dr Lonie showed himself ahead of his time. It was
under his inspiration that the dramatic talent latent among the boys was
discovered. For many years the Christmas season in St Andrews was
enlivened by what was known as "Dr Lonie's Merrie Meeting" the popular
name given to the dramatic entertainment provided night after night in the
large West Room of the College by boys carefully selected and trained.
But it is time to bring these random memories to a close. Today it would
be hard to set down in order of merit the Boys Academies and all the
other secondary schools in Scotland. Their name is legion. But in my youth
they were few, and beyond all question the Madras College stood in the
front rank. As I have already mentioned, it attracted pupils not only from
all parts of Scotland, but from England, from India and from the Colonies.
Conditions have now changed and the school can no longer expect to
maintain the exceptional position it once occupied. None the less it has
still a place all its own to fill among the educational institutions of
the country in a city possessed of educational advantages and facilities
of incomparable excellence. After a hundred years of high and honourable
service, the Madras College is well entitled to celebrate its Centenary.
"FLOREAT ACADEMIA"!
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