Untitled - Electric Scotland

26 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. 11.
head, was Dr. Macfarlane, and the leading Professor was
Mr. Daniel Sandford, 1 who occupied
the Greek Chair.
Archbishop Tait used to maintain, in after years, that
Sandford was, from a professional point of view, the best
teacher he had ever known :
" He
possessed in a wonderful degree the power of quicken
ing into life the latent intellect of his pupils. That he inspired
and kept alive the spirit of absolute enthusiasm which stimu
lated a class of three hundred not very clever lads to press
forward in their studies, as in a race, is no slight evidence of
the ability and character of the man. To him and to Archdeacon
Williams I owe more than to any other teachers. I ought to add
that the Chair of Logic was held by another remarkable man,
Professor Buchanan, who, without any shining abilities, had a
peculiar power of developing the mind and intelligence
of his
pupils by perpetually requiring them to arrange their ideas in
essays, which were read aloud and commented on in the pre
sence of the whole class. Some of the other Professors were
less capable, and the large classes of quite young lads were apt
to become boisterous. Some of the scenes I remember in the
Mathematical class would baffle description. Here,
these ! Henry
let off
Page called to me one day, handing me a bundle
of crackers. When I refused, he let them off himself, where
upon a student instantly fell down and pretended to be dead,
to the unspeakable terror of the simple Professor." 2
During the Glasgow sessions Tait had lodgings near
the College. There he was waited upon and tended with
motherly care by the faithful Betty Morton, who, having
He is commonly remembered as Sir Daniel Sandford, but he was not
knighted till 1830.
Tradition avers that the same Professor used to suffer terribly from the
pea-shooting propensities of his boisterous class, shouts of unmerciful laughter
greeting his plaintive remonstrances, "Gentlemen, gentlemen, this is verra
undignified; besides, it s sair." Even in the more decorous University of
Edinburgh the practice of pea-shooting has been not unknown on the
occasion of the installation of a Lord Rector, or, strange to say, even on the
occasion of the Principal s address at the opening of the session. The late
Principal Sir Alexander Grant used to describe his experience as that of
"
peas with honour."