Ardimersay

Port Ellen 3^rd November

1863

My Dear Lord Duke

Referring to our conversation regarding the schools in Tyree, I take leave now to offer some suggestions for increasing their efficiency.

The first thing is as soon as possible to secure the appointment of better teachers for the schools which are comparatively useless at present.

The young man who is teacher of the Parish School at Helipol has with your sanction been for some years attending College during winter with the intention of entering the Ministry so that it is probable your easiest mode of getting quit of him may be to allow him to continue his studies until he gets licensed as a preacher, when he will probably resign his office as teacher and enable you to select one who may be likely to devote himself with greater energy and success to the proper duties of a schoolmaster.

The General Assembly teacher at Ballyvoulin has been long in the place and is of little use but I think it probable that the Parish Minister who must be aware of the state of this school and must also know the urgent wants of the district could easily get him removed by explaining to the Education Committee the present state of matters and your anxiety to have it improved – or failing this should you be in Edinburgh and find it convenient to see the Secretary Simon S. Laurie Esq who can always be found at the offices 22 Queen Street. I feel assured that your wishes would receive his prompt attention.

The school at Grianal supported by the Society for propagating Christian Knowledge is very like the last and the best way of getting a change would be to see Mr Tawse the secretary who would doubtless attend to your representation.

From the change of teachers which takes place annually in the Free Church Ladies Society schools I don’t know that any thing can be done under such a system to improve them, and fortunately two of them were the best schools in the Island at the time of my visit and even with them as they are if the three schools I have first referred to were ably taught I think the wants of the Island would be very well provided for as these three schools are taught by men who reside in the Island during the whole year. It is of importance that they should be energetic and well qualified for their duty and to encourage this it might be well that besides the croft which they possess you should offer an addition of £5 per annum to the Assembly’s Committee and the Society for propagating Christian Knowledge, this payment of £5 to be increased to £10 in the event of the teacher securing the regular attendance of one sixth of the population of his district and that they pass the annual examination favourably.

It might be expedient to instruct Mr McQuarrie to visit the schools at any time when he has occasion to be in the district in which they are placed taking a note of the date and the number of boys and girls present and that he should visit each school at least once a quarter and that he should report to you that state of and numbers in attendance at each of his quarterly visits.

These visits should be made without any previous intimation so that he may see the schools in their ordinary every day working condition. It would be well too that he should take an opportunity to visit the people from house to house throughout the Island so as to urge them to send their children to school and to keep them in regular attendance.

These suggestions are not such as to involve much trouble and they are so simple that I would not have ventured to trouble you with them had I not found that they have not hitherto been tried in Tiree. They will be sufficient to make the people feel that you regard education as a matter of the first importance and I can not doubt but that the attendance and efficiency of the schools may be increased by acting on them.

The parents must be left full freedom in the selection of the school to which they may send their children. I do not approve of the use of constraint in any form and I do not believe that it will ever be found necessary in Tyree though I would have little hesitation in ejecting any one who would obstinately refuse to educate his children.

I trust you are now stronger than when I had the pleasure of seeing you and that the Duchess and your family are all well.

We have had a fair crop of potatoes here this season – if this is general throughout the Islands there will be no destitution this year. I availed myself of your suggestion by somewhat altering the expressions regarding emigration in the paper I read in the Social Science Meeting in Edinburgh but I need hardly have done so had I been aware that Sir John McNeill was to enter so fully upon the same subject. These discussions may modify opinion on the mainland but do little for us in the Islands.

I had Mr Morrison here for a week lately, he I am glad to say takes now an active interest in education and has instructed his local agent to act very much in accordance with the suggestions I have offered regarding Tyree as I believe he now concurs in my estimate of the pecuniary value of education to the proprietor of a Highland estate. Unfortunately none of the other proprietors in this Island have hitherto taken much interest in its prosperity.

Excuse the great length of this note and with much respect I have the honour to be

My Lord Duke

Yours faithfully

John Ramsey