Former Teacher Biographies

Andrew Bell Morrison( - 1882), Writing Master
 

The dispute was a subject of considerable interest to the pupils. For some days a while the question of who had the right to occupy the writing room was pending — the door was locked, an extra hour's play was eagerly looked forward to, but alas for the youthful hopes, the educational value of physical exercise was not then rated so highly as in later days. The English master, Mr Young, ever on the watch against anything that in his view savoured of idleness, or tended to detract the attention of his pupils from their studies, was careful to gather them into his class-room in the writing hour for the preparation of extra work. Not a popular proceeding, but in those days pupils had no rights, only duties, and protest was vain. Mr Morrison filled the post of writing master till the year 1880. when he retired on a small pension.

He, was always fond of a country life. A relative of the writer occupied a farm about three miles from the city, and it was a very common circumstance to find Mr Morrison there on Saturday afternoons engaged with his friend in contests of strength and endurance. Later on he held himself in succession several farms in the vicinity.

Until failing health sapped his energy and made it almost impossible for him adequately to perform his duties, Mr Morrison was a painstaking and successful teacher He discarded the engraved copy lines in use during the reign of his predecessor.

Every morning there appeared on the large blackboard in view of all the class two carefully executed lines, one in large text, the other in small hand, to be copied by the pupils. A very common exercise was to analyse a line — taking it letter by letter, and each letter bit by bit — showing that this part was "straight, strong, and sloped," while that was "light and curved" — that the different sections of each letter should bear a relative proportion in size — and so on, seeking to impart to the mechanical art of penmanship something of an intellectual aspect.

A bold and legible signature was an acquirement, the value of which he was careful to impress on his pupils. Very frequently a competition on this point, was held, in these the writer well remembers one boy, who hailed from Crieff and was named Ramsay, who by a peculiar manipulation of the S in his surname, managed to give his signature so artistic an air, that he invariably outdistanced all competitors, An art which the Penny Post and the use of envelopes have rendered obsolete was the subject of another interesting exercise, that of correctly spacing a letter on a sheet of what was called Post Paper, and of afterwards folding it in proper form.

How many of the present pupils could do this, and how many know anything of another lost art also also taught by Mr Morrison — the making and mending of a quill pen? A feature of the display of penmanship at the annual examination was a number of very elaborate ornamental specimens; but Mr Morrison's strength did not lie in this department. His success was in the more useful direction of cultivating a legible, and at the same time free and elegant handwriting. That in this he was eminently successful, many of his old pupils are ready to set their hand. He died in 1882 and rests in the Cathedral grounds.

T.B.