A lad o' pairts

A back street in Peebles.   In this house in 1829 was born John Veitch who was Professor of Logic and Rhetoric at the University of Glasgow from 1864 to 1894.


I'm always taken aback to come across frequently stories of how the son of a very limited, even poor, house could end up in exalted places.   Academics, soldiers, politicians, doctors.   I think much has to do with the special nature of Scottish Education - the commitment to "a church in every parish, and a school too"!


Robert Burns came from a poor cottage in Alloway, but think of how he could write great English poetry, as well as Scots, and was well schooled in the Classics.