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Reminiscences Academic, Ecclesiastic and Scholastic
Reminiscences Academic Ecclesiastic and Scholastic Author:William Walker Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER VII HOW THE KING'S AND THE MARISCHAL COLLEGE STUDENTS DIFFERED In some respects there was a marked difference between the students of Marischal Col... more »lege and those of King's. A large proportion of Marischal men were sons of citizens of Aberdeen ; the King's men came mostly from the country districts, not a few from the Highlands. As a rule, the two sets had had a different training, and different surroundings, a different upbringing, and generally there was a year or two of difference in the ages at which they matriculated. The King's men were the older of the two. The commission of 1826-30 gave the average age of entrance at Marischal College as twelve years, those of King's at fourteen. Ten years later, thirteen and fifteen appeared to me to be a more correct estimate. No doubt, by that time the reforms suggested by the commission had produced their effect . Prizes had ceased to be awarded " suffragiis condiscipulorum;" and the examination for a degree was no longer a mere formality. Even the bursary competition had become a severer test; for, at King's College, to the version there were now added a translation from Latin and a second day's examination. The King's studentswere not only rather older than their Marischal contemporaries of the same standing, but they were also generally more diligent plodders, steadily burning the midnight oil and seldom indulging in recreation of any sort. Doubtless, mainly for these reasons, the Marischal men did not, so far as I can judge, attain to the same standard of scholarship as the King's men, especially in mathematics and physics. Not that able and earnest students did not obtain at both colleges an excellent grounding in most academic subjects, which opened up for them a path to proficiency if not to eminence. I should ha...« less