Celtic Mythology and Religion

VI
INTRODUCTION.
great interest and value. " In the Introduction,"
he says, " I give all my early life up to the time I
commenced keeping a Journal, or the year 1870,
when the Journal proper commences ; and, moreover,
"
I also give an account of my ancestors ' in the said
Introduction." Here only a short sketch of these
early days can be given. He entered Insh School
on 25th November, 1863, and left it on 8th August,
1870. From December of 1870 till mid-April 1871,
he taught, quite alone, the school of Dunmullie,
Boat of Garten, which under him rose from twentythree
to fifty-seven pupils.
the fees.
His salary consisted of
After this experience and some months of
attendance at Baldow School, where he began Greek,
he got work on the Ordnance Survey, first in Scotland,
then in Wales. He had, however, no intention
of remaining permanently in the Survey; his aim
all along was, somehow or other, to work his way
to the University. His craving for knowledge of
every kind was intense ; his means of gratifying it
were slender; but he never lost an opportunity.
Before leaving Badenoch he had made good progress
in English, History, Latin and Mathematics, and had
contrived, by dint of purchase and borrowing, to
read a great deal of sound but exceedingly miscellaneous
literature. He had tried his hand at
poetry and had given it up. He had read astronomy
and done some architectural drawing, stirred thereto
by seeing the plans of some new buildings on the
Mackintosh estate. He had even tried painting. He