But Telford, even more than any of these, was a purely country-bred

boy, and was born and brought up in a valley so secluded that it
could not even boast of a cluster of houses of the dimensions of a

village.
Telford's father was a herd on the sheep-farm of Glendinning.

The farm consists of green hills, lying along the valley of the Meggat,
a little burn, which descends from the moorlands on the east, and

falls into the Esk near the hamlet of Westerkirk. John Telford's
cottage was little better than a shieling, consisting of four mud

walls, spanned by a thatched roof. It stood upon a knoll near the
lower end of a gully worn in the hillside by the torrents of many

winters.
The ground stretches away from it in a long sweeping slope up to

the sky, and is green to the top, except where the bare grey rocks
in some places crop out to the day. From the knoll may be seen

miles on miles of hills up and down the valley, winding in and out,
sometimes branching off into smaller glens, each with its gurgling

rivulet of peaty-brown water flowing down from the mosses above.
Only a narrow strip of arable land is here and there visible along

the bottom of the dale, all above being sheep-pasture, moors, and
rocks. At Glendinning you seem to have got almost to the world's end.

There the road ceases, and above it stretch trackless moors,
the solitude of which is broken only by the whimpling sound of the

burns on their way to the valley below, the hum of bees gathering
honey among the heather, the whirr of a blackcock on the wing, the

plaintive cry of the ewes at lambing-time, or the sharp bark of the
shepherd's dog gathering the flock together for the fauld.

[Image] Telford's Birthplace
In this cottage on the knoll Thomas Telford was born on the 9th of

August, 1757, and before the year was out he was already an orphan.
The shepherd, his father, died in the month of November, and was

buried in Westerkirk churchyard, leaving behind him his widow and
her only child altogether unprovided for. We may here mention that

one of the first things which that child did, when he had grown up
to manhood and could "cut a headstone," was to erect one with the

following inscription, hewn and lettered by himself, over his
father's grave: "IN MEMORY OF

JOHN TELFORD,
WHO AFTER LIVING 33 YEARS

AN UNBLAMEABLE SHEPHERD,
DIED AT GLENDINNING,

NOVEMBER, 1757,"
a simple but poeticalepitaph, which Wordsworth himself might have

written.
The widow had a long and hard struggle with the world before her;

but she encountered it bravely. She had her boy to work for, and,
destitute though she was, she had him to educate. She was helped,

as the poor so often are, by those of her own condition, and there
is no sense of degradation in receiving such help. One of the

risks of benevolence is its tendency to lower the recipient to the
condition of an alms-taker. Doles from poor's-boxes have this

enfeebling effect; but a poor neighbour giving a destitute widow a
help in her time of need is felt to be a friendly act, and is alike

elevating to the character of both. Though misery such as is
witnessed in large towns was quite unknown in the valley, there was

poverty; but it was honest as well as hopeful, and none felt
ashamed of it. The farmers of the dale were very primitive*[4]

in their manners and habits, and being a warm-hearted, though by no
means a demonstrative race, they were kind to the widow and her

fatherless boy. They took him by turns to live with them at their
houses, and gave his mother occasionalemployment. In summer she

milked the ewes and made hay, and in harvest she went a-shearing;
contriving not only to live, but to be cheerful.

The house to which the widow and her son removed at the Whitsuntide
following the death of her husband was at a place called The Crooks,

about midway between Glendinning and Westerkirk. It was a thatched
cot-house, with two ends; in one of which lived Janet Telford

(more commonly known by her own name of Janet Jackson) and her son
Tom, and in the other her neighbour Elliot; one door being common to

both.
[Image] Cottage at the Crooks.

Young Telford grew up a healthy boy, and he was so full of fun and
humour that he became known in the valley by the name of "Laughing

Tam." When he was old enough to herd sheep he went to live with a
relative, a shepherd like his father, and he spent most of his time

with him in summer on the hill-side amidst the silence of nature.
In winter he lived with one or other of the neighbouring farmers.

He herded their cows or ran errands, receiving for recompense his
meat, a pair of stockings, and five shillings a year for clogs.

These were his first wages, and as he grew older they were
gradually increased.

But Tom must now be put to school, and, happily, small though the
parish of Westerkirk was, it possessed the advantage of that

admirable institution, the parish school. The legal provision made
at an early period for the education of the people in Scotland,

proved one of their greatest boons. By imparting the rudiments of
knowledge to all, the parish schools of the country placed the

children of the peasantry on a more equal footing with the children
of the rich; and to that extent redressed the inequalities of

fortune. To start a poor boy on the road of life without
instruction, is like starting one on a race with his eyes bandaged

or his leg tied up. Compared with the educated son of the rich man,
the former has but little chance of sighting the winning post.

To our orphan boy the merely elementary teaching provided at the
parish school of Westerkirk was an immense boon. To master this was

the first step of the ladder he was afterwards to mount: his own
industry, energy, and ability must do the rest. To school

accordingly he went, still working a-field or herding cattle during
the summer months. Perhaps his own "penny fee" helped to pay the

teacher's hire; but it is supposed that his cousin Jackson defrayed
the principal part of the expense of his instruction. It was not

much that he learnt; but in acquiring the arts of reading, writing,
and figures, he learnt the beginnings of a great deal. Apart from

the question of learning, there was another manifestadvantage to
the poor boy in mixing freely at the parish school with the sons of

the neighbouring farmers and proprietors. Such intercourse has an
influence upon a youth's temper, manners, and tastes, which is

quite as important in the education of character as the lessons of
the master himself; and Telford often, in after life, referred with

pleasure to the benefits which he had derived from his early school
friendships. Among those to whom he was accustomed to look back

with most pride, were the two elder brothers of the Malcolm family,
both of whom rose to high rank in the service of their country;

William Telford, a youth of great promise, a naval surgeon,
who died young; and the brothers William and Andrew Little, the former

of whom settled down as a farmer in Eskdale, and the latter,
a surgeon, lost his eyesight when on service off the coast of Africa.

Andrew Little afterwards established himself as a teacher at
Langholm, where he educated, amongst others, General Sir Charles

Pasley, Dr. Irving, the Custodier of the Advocate's Library at
Edinburgh; and others known to fame beyond the bounds of their

native valley. Well might Telford say, when an old man, full of
years and honours, on sitting down to write his autobiography,

"I still recollect with pride and pleasure my native parish of
Westerkirk, on the banks of the Esk, where I was born."

[Image] Westerkirk Church and School.
Footnotes for Chapter I.

*[1] Sir Waiter Scott, in his notes to the 'Minstrelsy of the
Scottish Border,' says that the common people of the high parts of

Liddlesdale and the country adjacent to this day hold the memory of