JOHN MURDOCH,

TUTOR OF ROBERT BURNS.

"I have not forgotten, nor ever will forget, the many obligations I lie under to your kindness and friendship," wrote Robert Burns, when nearly 24 years of age, to his old teacher, John Murdoch, then resident in London. The same devotion can hardly be credited to the poet's admirers, for the memory of the man who, next to William Burnes, did most to direct the youthful mind of Burns to its brilliant development has been rather scurvily treated. "Poosie-Nansie" is in the gallery of Burnsian immortals; John Murdoch is scarcely remembered.

The poet's biographers tell that when he was six years of age Burns was sent to a school at Alloway Mill, about a mile distant from his home; and on the teacher, Campbell, being appointed master of Ayr Workhouse, William Burnes, with four other heads of families, in 1765, engaged the services of a young native of Ayr named John Murdoch, son of the Schoolmaster and Session Clerk at Auchinleck, to teach their children. Murdoch was then only 18 years of age, having been born at Ayr in 1747. The arrangement was that the families should in turn "board" the teacher, and in William Burnes's home Murdoch learned to appreciate the man of whom in later years he wrote as a tender and affectionate father," and of whose " manly qualities and rational and Christian virtues " he would not " tend to give a description."

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Under Murdoch young Burns made great progress. His brother Gilbert-who also was among Murdoch's pupils writing to Mr. Dunlop, said of this period of their education that "With him we learnt to read English tolerably well and to write a little. He taught us, too,

the English grammar. I was too young to profit much. from his lessons in grammar, but Robert made some proficiency in it, a circumstance of considerable weight in the unfolding of his genius and character, as he soon became remarkable for the fluency and correctness of his expression, and read the few books that came in his way with much pleasure and improvement, for even then he was a reader when he could get a book. Murdoch, whose library at that time had no great variety in it, lent him The Life of Hannibal, which was the first book he read (the school books excepted) and almost the only one he had an opportunity of reading while he was at school."

John Murdoch's mentorship of the future poet was interrupted after the Burnes family left the "auld clay biggin " for Mount Oliphant, as the distance between teacher and pupils was ultimately found to be too great for the tuition to continue. This and other changes necessitated Murdoch's leaving the school, after having taught it for nearly two and a half years. But although he left for other parts, he kept up connection with William Burnes and his family, for he had an extraordinarily high opinion of the household at Alloway. "In this mean cottage," he wrote, "I really believe there dwelt a larger portion of content than in any palace in Europe." It was while Murdoch was on a visit to the Burnes family, prior to leaving the district in 1767, that an incident occurred which, said Gilbert in the letter to Mrs. Dunlop, served to illustrate the early character of his brother. "Murdoch came to spend a night with us," he wrote, and "brought us, as a present and memorial of him, a small compendium of English grammar and the tragedy of Titus Andronicus, and by way of passing the evening, he began to read the play aloud. We were all attention for some time, till presently the whole party was dissolved in tears. A female in the play had her hands

chopt off and her tongue cut out, and then was insultingly desired to call for water to wash her hands. At this, in an agony of distress, we with one voice desired he would read no more. My father observed that if we would not hear it out, it would be needless to leave the play with us. Robert replied that if it was left he would burn it. My father was going to chide him for this ungrateful return to his tutor's kindness; but Murdoch interfered, declaring that he liked to see so much sensibility, and he left The School for Love in its place."

When considering Murdoch's influence on the young Burns, it is of interest to note how frequently the tutor's name comes into the life of the family. "About this time [Robert was 13] Murdoch, our former teacher," wrote Gilbert, "after having been in different places in the country, and having taught a school some time in Dumfries, came to be the established teacher of the English language in Ayr, a circumstance of considerable consequence to us. The remembrance of my father's former friendship, and his attachment to my brother, made him do every thing in his power for our improvement. He sent us Pope's works and some other poetry, the first that we had an opportunity of reading, excepting what is contained in The English Collection and in the volume of The Edinburgh Magazine for 1772, excepting also those excellent new songs that are hawked about the country in baskets or exposed on stalls in the streets."

To the town of Ayr William Burnes sent his eldest son as a boarder, again to sit at the feet of John Murdoch2 to revise his English grammar, and generally to improve his education, so that he might be the better able to instruct his brothers and sisters at home." Burns was now with me," Murdoch wrote, day and night, in school, at all meals, and in all my walks."

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But harvest intervened, and young Burns had to return

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to Mount Oliphant to take a hand in the work. A further two weeks were spent with Murdoch, when the teacher introduced him to French, and so quick was Burns in the "uptak "that soon he was able "to read and understand any French author in prose. This was considered as a sort of prodigy. Thus you see," said the poet's brother, "Mr. Murdoch was a principal means of my brother's improvement." Murdoch continued for some years a respected and useful teacher" at Ayr; but he had human frailties, and one of those was a prevailing weakness of his time: he tarried long at the national wine; and one evening, when he had been, as Gilbert euphemistically termed it, "overtaken in liquor," he spoke disrespectfully of Dr. Dalrymple, the parish minister, "who had not paid him that attention to which he thought himself entitled. In Ayr he might as well have spoken blasphemy," for Dr. Dalrymple-who, by the way, had christened Burns -was an ex-Moderator of the Church of Scotland and was the amiable and gentle figure referred to in "The Kirk's Alarm ” as

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D'rymple mild, D'rymple mild, tho' your heart 's like a child,

And your life's like the new-driven snaw."

From Ayr in-or soon after-1776 John Murdoch went to London. His indiscretion in his native town was not given as the reason for his removal to England, for The European Magazine and London Review for February, 1783, in a criticism of Murdoch's Radical vocabulary of the French language, stated that "in this office [schoolmaster at Ayr] he continued for several years with great reputation; but desirous of having a more extensive knowledge of the world than such a situation would permit, he resigned it and came to London." Murdoch did not stay long in the capital, however, the reason being, according to the same

authority, that, although possessed of a critical grammatical knowledge of the French tongue while in Britain, he was still uncertain about some niceties in the pronunciation, and therefore made a tour of France, that he might gain by conversation what could not be learned from books. As the just pronunciation of any language is only to be acquired in the polite circles of the metropolis and by a careful attention to the best public speakers, our author made a considerable stay in Paris, where he had the happiness of being amply recommended to Mr. Fullarton, now Colonel, who was then the Secretary to the British Embassy at the Court of Versailles. Mr. Fullarton, finding him sober, steady, and intelligent, patronized him while in France, and continued his friendship after their return to England."

The acquaintanceship of Fullarton and Murdoch ripened into intimacy, and when Murdoch began in London to teach English and French, which he did most successfully at his own home and at the homes of his pupils, Colonel Fullarton was able to introduce to him foreigners of rank, several of whom received from him instruction in English. Among them was the French statesman Talleyrand, who in 1792-94 was in England on diplomatic business.

Murdoch's life in London has not hitherto been definitely traced, but as the result of considerable research, in which a young Scotsman, my friend Mr. H. G. Lyall, head of the London Research and Information Bureau, rendered great assistance, I am now able to throw some light on his movements.3

Murdoch's first address in London of which we have knowledge was that to which Burns wrote from Lochlea on 15th January, 1783. "Mr. John Murdoch, Schoolmaster, Staple Inn Buildings, London" was how Burns addressed his old friend; but Murdoch must have been a sub-tenant, for a search of the Staple Inn rent-rolls has disclosed no one of his name. Murdoch was not a par