THE SCOT VERSUS THE ENGLISHMAN
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The letter of air. J. S. N. Roche appearing in the Spec- tator of 16th inst. suggests to me an incident, which occurred, I think, in the discussion in the House of Commons on the Scottish Education Bill some forty or fifty years ago. If my memory serves me aright, Sir George Cornwall Lewis, in illustrating the benefits of the Scottish system of education, related the following.
He said that when he and a friend were travelling in the Highlands they found themselves one day discussing on a coach a classical author. His friend started on a quotation from the author in question, but stuck in the middle of it, whereupon the driver,' whO had overheard the discussion, interposed and finished the quotation !
Could such a thing, I think Sir George asked, have happened in any other country in the world ? The explanation, he went on to say, was that the driver of the coach was the son of the Innkeeper, in• whose 'house they had been staying over- night—that -he was, they ascertained, a student at one of the Scottish UniverSities, and • that he was spending, as was his wont, the long summer vacation at home, and there assisting in the work of the inn.--4 am, Sir,'&c., - -A. S.
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