History of the Johnstones, 1191-1909, with ... - Electric Scotland

262 YOUNG JAMES
the lungs. By this, not attended to in the beginning, your brother has fallen.
The pulmonary system and the lesser circulation has been shown to be the
most assailable part of our frame. Temperance in action, in thought, and
in regimen, are indispensably necessary to conduct you all to the age of
threescore years and ten, to which with a frame originally feeble has arrived
your affectionate J. Johnstone.
" Remember us all most kindly to your wife and children. I daresay she
will have a good time. Let her be assured of this, for it is as probable as that
ripe fruit shall drop from the tree. You may be sure of my care of the
documents I speak of which are actually in my hands."
Edward adopted his little niece Catherine, who was six months younger
than his eldest child, and his wife's God-daughter. It was arranged that his
nephew, James, should live in Temple Row under the care of his aunt, Mary,
and receive his education at King Edward's Classical School. The widow
and the other children found a temporary home with the old Doctor in Foregate
Street, where she lost the child born soon after her husband's death.
King Edward's School, in Birmingham, was endowed with part of the
lands seized by Henry VIII. from the Hospital of St. Thomas and the Guild of
the Holy Cross. The Hospital was included in a Priory on the site of the
Old Square, and when the Square was pulled down to erect the present buildings
parts of the walls and many bushels of human bones were excavated. As the
country was left without means of education when the monasteries were
suppressed, Henry's successors established grammar schools, and as the masters
were educated by monks they followed the same kind of teaching,—almost
exclusively Latin, Greek, and mediaeval literature. In Birmingham the School
occupied the old building of the Guild ; the masters were always to be clerical
graduates of Oxford or Cambridge, and the Board of Governors, who elected
themselves, were members of the Church of England till the last quarter of the
nineteenth century, when the old Charter was remodelled. As time went on and
the funds increased an English school was added for boys intended for a
commercial life, and elementary schools all over the town to give a useful
education to both boys and girls. Many eminent scholars have been educated
in the Classical School, including some distinguished military and naval men,
Carey, the translator of Dante, several bishops, and an Archbishop of Canter-
bury. In 1852 this department contained 150 boys, but far less in 1 800.
Young James was transferred to this school in January 1800, and showed
the same capacity for study that his father and uncles had done before him ;
but the Register of the Cathedral notes: "May 10, 1804. Buried James
Johnstone. Aged sixteen." His little sister Catherine, the only one who lived
to be sixty, as well as his cousin Catherine had a fond recollection of his youthful
good looks and his gentle disposition. A cadetship in the H.E.I.C.S. had been
procured for him, and his outfit was already obtained by his sanguine uncle,
John, though his more experienced uncle, Edward, was convinced that he was
consumptive, and would never reach manhood.