For many years this six-acre field was the play-ground of the District Grammar School. Through the middle of it, from north to south, passed a shallow "swale," where water collected after rains; and where in winter small frozen ponds afforded not bad sliding-places. In this moist region, numerous crayfish were to be found in summer. Their whereabouts was always indicated by small clay chimneys of a circular form, built by the curious little nipping creatures themselves, over holes for the admission of air.
In different places in this large area were remains of huge pine-stumps, underneath the long roots of which it was an amusement to dig and form cellars or imaginary treasure-vaults and powder-magazines. About these relics of the forest still grew remains of the ordinary vegetation of such situations in the woods; especially an abundance of the sorrel-plant, the taste of which will be remembered, as being quite relishable. In other places were wide depressions showing where large trees had once stood. Here were no bad places, when the whim so was, to lie flat on the back and note the clouds in the blue vault over head; watch the swallows and house-martins when they came in spring; and listen to their quiet prattle with each other as they darted to and fro; sights and sounds still every year, at the proper season, to be seen and heard in the same neighbourhood, yielding to those who have an eye or ear for such matters a pleasure ever new; sights and sounds to this day annually resulting from the cheery movements and voices of the direct descendants, doubtless, of the identical specimens that flitted hither and thither over the play-ground of yore.
White clover, with other herbage that commonly appears spontaneously in clearings, carpeted the whole of the six acres, with the exception of the places worn bare, where favourable spots had been found for the different games of ball in vogue—amongst which, however, cricket was not then in these parts included—except, perhaps, under a form most infantile and rudimentary. After falls of moist snow in winter, gigantic balls used here to be formed, gathering as they were rolled along, until by reason of their size and weight they could be urged forward no further: and snow castles on a large scale were laboriously built; destined to be defended or captured with immense displays of gallantry. Preparatory to such contest, piles of ammunition would be stored away within these structures. It was prohibited, indeed, in the articles to be observed in operations of attack and defence, to construct missiles of very wet snow; to dip a missile in melted snow-water prior to use; to subject a missile after a saturation of this kind, to the action of a night's frost; to secrete within the substance of a missile any foreign matter; yet, nevertheless, occasionally such acts were not refrained from; and wounds and bruises of an extra serious character, inflicted by hands that could not always be identified, caused loud and just complaints. Portions of the solid and extensive walls of the extemporized snow-fortresses were often conspicuous in the play-ground long after a thaw had removed the wintry look from the rest of the scene.
The Building into which the usual denizens of the six-acre play-ground were constrained, during certain portions of each day, to withdraw themselves, was situated at a point 114 feet from its western, and 104 from its southern boundary. It was a large frame structure, about fifty-five long, and forty wide; of two storeys; each of a respectable altitude. The gables faced east and west. On each side of the edifice were two rows of ordinary sash windows, five above, and five below. At the east end were four windows, two above, two below. At the west end were five windows and the entrance-door. The whole exterior of the building was painted of a bluish hue, with the exception of the window and door frames, which were white. Within, on the first floor, after the lobby, was a large square apartment. About three yards from each of its angles, a plain timber prop or post helped to sustain the ceiling. At about four feet from the floor, each of these quasi-pillars began to be chamfered off at its four angles. Filling up the south-east corner of the room was a small platform approached on three sides by a couple of steps. This sustained a solitary desk about eight feet long, its lower part cased over in front with thin deal boards, so as to shut off from view the nether extremities of whosoever might be sitting at it.
On the general level of the floor below, along the whole length of the southern and northern sides of the chamber, were narrow desks set close against the wall, with benches arranged at their outer side. At right angles to these, and consequently running out, on each side into the apartment, stood a series of shorter desks, with double slopes, and benches placed on either side. Through the whole length of the room from west to east, between the ends of the two sets of cross benches, a wide space remained vacant. Every object and surface within this interior, were of the tawny hue which unpainted pine gradually assumes. Many were the gashes that had furtively been made in the ledges of the desks and on the exterior angles of the benches; many the ducts cut in the slopes of the desks for spilt ink or other fluid; many the small cell with sliding lid, for the incarceration of fly or spider; many the initials and dates carved here, and on other convenient surfaces, on the wainscot and the four posts.
On the benches and at the desks enumerated and described, on either side, were ordinarily to be seen the figures and groups which usually fill up a school interior, all busily engaged in one or other of the many matters customary in the training and informing the minds of boys. Here, at one time, was to be heard, on every side, the mingled but subdued sound of voices conning or repeating tasks, answering and putting questions; at another time, the commotion arising out of a transposition of classes, or the breaking up of the whole assembly into a fresh set of classes; at another time, a hushed stillness preparatory to some expected allocution, or consequent on some rebuke or admonition. It was manifest, at a glance, that the whole scene was under the spell of a skilled disciplinarian.
Here, again, the presiding genius of the place was Dr. Strachan. From a boy he had been in the successful discharge of the duties of a schoolmaster. At the early age of sixteen we find that he was in charge of a school at Carmyllie, with the grown-up sons of the neighbouring farmers, and of some of the neighbouring clergy, well under control. At that period he was still keeping his terms and attending lectures, during the winter months, at King's College, Aberdeen. Two years afterwards he obtained a slightly better appointment of the same kind at Denino, still pursuing his academical studies, gathering, as is evident from his own memoranda, a considerable knowledge of men and things, and forming friendships that proved life-long. Of his stay at Denino he says, in 1800: "The two years which I spent at Denino were, perhaps, as happy as any in my life; much more than any time since." "At Denino," the same early document states, "I learned to think for myself. Dr. Brown [the parish-minister of the place, afterwards professor at Glasgow,] corrected many of my false notions. Thomas Duncan [afterwards a professor at St. Andrew's] taught me to use my reason and to employ the small share of penetration I possess in distinguishing truth from error. I began to extend my thoughts to abstract and general ideas; and to summon the author to the bar of my reason. I learned to discriminate between hypotheses and facts, and to separate the ebullitions of fancy from the deductions of reason. It is not to be supposed that I could or can do these things perfectly; but I began to apply my powers: my skill is still increasing."
Then for two years more, and up to the moment of his bold determination to make trial of his fortunes in the new world beyond the seas, he is in charge of the parish-school of Kettle. We have before us a list of his school there, March the 22nd, 1798. The names amount to eighty-two. After each, certain initials are placed denoting disposition and capability, and the direction of any particular talent. Among these names are to be read that of D. Wilkie, afterwards the artist, and that of J. Barclay, afterwards the naval commander here on Lake Erie. We believe that Thomas Campbell, author of the Pleasures of Hope, was also for a time under his care.
In the history of Dr. Strachan's educational labours in Canada, the school at York presents fewer points of interest than that at Cornwall, which is rendered illustrious by having had enrolled on its books so many names familiar in the annals of Upper Canada. Among the forty-two subscribers to an address accompanying a piece of Plate in 1833, there are Robinsons, and Macaulays, and McDonells, and McLeans, and Joneses, and Stantons, and Bethunes; a Jarvis, a Chewett, a Boulton, a Vankoughnet, a Smith of Kingston, an Anderson; with some others now less known.—So illustrative is that address of the skill and earnest care of the instructor on the one hand, and of the value set upon his efforts by his scholars, on the other, after the lapse of many years, that we are induced to give here a short extract from it.
"Our young minds," the signers of the address in 1833 say, referring to their school-days in Cornwall—"our young minds received there an impression which has scarcely become fainter from time, of the deep and sincere interest which you took, not only in our advancement in learning and science, but in all that concerned our happiness or could affect our future prospects in life." To which Dr. Strachan replies by saying, among many other excellent things—"It has ever been my conviction that our scholars should be considered for the time our children; and that as parents we should study their peculiar dispositions, if we really wish to improve them; for if we feel not something of the tender relation of parents towards them, we cannot expect to be successful in their education. It was on this principle I attempted to proceed: strict justice tempered with parental kindness; and the present joyful meeting evinces its triumph: it treats the sentiments and feelings of scholars with proper consideration; and while it gives the heart and affections full freedom to shew themselves in filial gratitude on the one side, and fatherly affection, on the other, it proves that unsparing labour accompanied with continual anxiety for the learner's progress never fails to ensure success and to produce a friendship between master and scholar which time can never dissolve."