Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

1 INTRODUCTION.
While these pages are passing through the press, an additional document has reached
us, in a thick volume, ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, -which contains the
answers made by schoolmasters in Scotland to returns circulated in 1838, by order of
the Select Committee on Education. Of parochial schools, the number which returned
answers is 924 ; and the number which did not return answers is 129 ; being 1,053 in
all. Of the 924 which returned answers, there are 231 privately endowed, and 693
unendowed ; and the average number of scholars stood thus : — In 1836, 36,808 males,
20,524 females ; total, 57,332. In 1837, 39,604 males, 22,317 females ; total, 61,921.
The number of teachers — of whom a few are only occasional assistants — is 1,054 ; and
of these 206 have other occupation or employment. Of the 944 schools, there are 445
in which Greek is taught ; Latin is taught in 664 ; and Mathematics in 689. Of schools
not parochial, 2,329 returned answers, and 1,025 did not ; making altogether 3,354
schools not parochial. Of the number which returned answers, 753 are stated to have
endowments, and 1,318 are supported exclusively by school-fees. The number of
scholars was : — In 1836, 68,771 males, 50,579 females ; total, 119,350. In 1837,
78,867 males, 54,451 females ; total, 128,318. Greek is taught in 191 of these schools ;
Latin in 501 ; and Mathematics in 6S3. The number of teachers is 2,940, of whom 703
are females. There are only 12 of the parochial schools which returned answers in
which Gaelic is taught, but it is taught in 239 of the non-parochial.
The attendance on these schools, exclusive of that on private boarding-schools, and of
children under the care of domestic tutors, amounts, at the maximum rate, and on the
average for all Scotland, to one-ninth of the population. The greatest number of
scholars at the parochial schools, was between the 25th of March and the 29th of Sep-
tember, and, allowing a proportion for defective returns, was 71,426 ; and the least, at
any period of the year, was 50,029. The greatest number at non-parochial schools was
189,427 ; and the least was 139,327. The entire community of parochial and burgh
schoolmasters, was established, by act of parliament in 1S07, into a sort of corporate
body, and have a fund for the benefit of their widows and children, compulsorily sup-
ported by a small annual contribution from each of the members. — Sabbath-schools in
Scotland are educational only in the highest or the purely religious sense, and are, in
all instances, voluntary, or conducted without any reference to State influence or sup-
port. In 1825, they amounted throughout the country to 1,577 in number, and were
attended by 80,190 scholars; and, though their statistics since that period have been
imperfect and confused, they seem to have everywhere increased at least proportionately
with the population, and to have been introduced or greatly multiplied in Highland or
other sequestered districts.
LITERATURE.
The literature of Scotland, as to standard and periodical publication, great or national
literary institutions, and even minor appliances of production and diffusion, is, with
unimportant exceptions, concentrated in Edinburgh and Glasgow, particularly the
former ; and will be found sufficiently noticed in our accounts of these cities. The
Lowland Scotch are eminently a reading people, and, in proportion to their bulk, have
probably a very considerably larger number of public libraries than any other in the
world. Subscription libraries — sometimes two or more in number, and generally large,
select, and comparatively rich in literature — exist in most of the large towns ; parochial
and congregational libraries, for the most part pervaded by religiousness of character,
exist in villages, hamlets, and in rooms attached to the crowded chapel of the city, or
the solitary rural church or meeting-house ; private circulating libraries, or libraries on
private adventure, for letting out books to promiscuous readers, are usually of a light
character, and abound in city, town, watering-place, and every locale or resort of the
intellectually frivolous ; circumambulating libraries, or such as keep detachments of a
very large and excellent library in garrison throughout the country, and periodically
move them from post to post, are in full and benign possession of extensive territories ;
Sabbath-school, and other juvenile libraries, exist in great numbers, for the use of the
young ; and a public news-room, for blending literature with commerce, and with mental
recreation, is to be found even in many a village, and in almost everything which can
fairly be called a town. — The number of stamped newspapers in Scotland, in the year
ending September, 1836, was 54 ; the number of stamps issued to them, was 2,654,438 ;