to the parish schools and schoolmasters.  This feeling ultimately became a kind of mania with him.  He was at feud with his own parish minister, and never entered his church except when, arrayed in a blue cloak with a red collar, he attended to read proclamations of marriages; and he could make himself very disagreeable when the local Presbytery sent their annual deputation to examine his school.  Yet he was essentially a religious man; he had a reverence for what was good, and he taught the Bible and Shorter Catechism to his scholars carefully and well.

As he disliked the ministers, so he showed little deference to the farmers, who were in some sort the “quality” of the district, and to such of their offspring as came under his care.  The farmers retaliated by setting up an opposition school in Cockburnspath, which survived for a few years; but it never flourished, for the common people believed in M’Gregor, whom they regarded as “a grand teacher,” as indeed he was.  He had a spare, active figure, wore spectacles, and took snuff.  There was at all times an element of grimness in him, and he could be merciless when the occasion seemed to demand it.  “Stark man he was, and great awe men had of him,” but this awe had its roots in a very genuine respect for his absolutely just dealing and his masterful independence of character.

John Cairns first went to Mr. M’Gregor’s school when the family removed to Cockburnspath from Aikieside, and he made such progress that two years later, when he was ten years old, the master proposed that he should join a Latin class which was then being formed.  This proposal caused great searchings of heart at home.  His father, with anxious conscientiousness, debated with himself as to whether it would be right for him thus to set one of his sons above the rest.  He could not afford to have them all taught Latin, so would it be fair to the others that John should be thus singled out from them?  The mother, on the other hand, had no such misgivings, and she was clear that John must have his Latin.  The ordinary school fees ranged from three to five shillings a quarter; but when Latin was taken they rose to seven and sixpence.  Mr. M’Gregor had proposed to teach John Latin without extra charge, but both his father and his mother were agreed that to accept this kind offer was not to be thought of for a moment; and his mother was sure that by a little contriving and saving on her part the extra sum could be secured.  The minister, Mr. Inglis, who was consulted in the matter, also pronounced strongly for the proposal, and so John was allowed to begin his classical studies.