Lads o' pairts..

A Scottish tradition that the greatest and the good would regularly rise from the humblest of circumstances.

This small street - Biggiesknowe - in Peebles is a good example. In the white door in the farground is the house where William Chambers was born. Chambers founded the publishing firm (with his brother) of W & R Chambers - responsible for the Chamber's Dictionary, the Chambers Cyclopedia, etc. He was Lord Provost of Edinburgh, responsible for the restoration of St Giles Cathedral, and had a major street named after him.

In the near ground stands the house where John Vetich was born. Veitch, who was Professor of Logic and Rhetoric at the University of Glasgow, was a very prominent 19th century academic.