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Two years after Cook's birth, the father was appointed bailiff, which slightly improved family finances; but James was thirteen years of age before it was possible to send him to school. There, the progress of his learning was a gallop. He had a wizard-genius for figures. In three short years he had mastered all the Ayton school could teach him. At sixteen, his schooling was over.
The Edinburgh play-bills of the day intimate the "Second appearance of Miss Fanny Ayton, Prima Donna of the King's Theatre." By Congreve Act II. Sc. 7. The dissolution of the Goderich Cabinet confirmed very soon these shrewd guesses; and Sir Walter anticipated nothing but good from the Premiership of the Duke of Wellington. Life, vol. ix. p. 188. The Rev.
He was a little man with rosy cheeks, and was a sound scholar and an admirable teacher, whose special "fad" was Classical Geography. Dunbar had begun life as a working gardener at Ayton Castle. He had compiled a Greek Lexicon which had some repute in its day, but he was not an inspiring teacher, and his gruff manners made him far from popular.
It had been his original intention to go back to the University in November 1836; but as that date approached it became evident that the financial difficulty was not yet removed, so he accepted an engagement to continue his work in Ayton for another year. His stay in Ayton was a very happy one. He liked his work, and had several warm friends in the village and district. Among these were Mr.
Shortly afterwards his father, an intelligent and industrious man, obtained a situation as farm bailiff to Mr Thomas Skottowe, of Airy-holme, near Ayton, in Yorkshire, by whom young James, when old enough, was sent to a commercial school, where he learned writing and the rules of arithmetic.
Walker: "tended the stock, took the horses to water, and ran errands for the family, and in return for such services the good lady, finding him an intelligent, active youth, was pleased to teach him his alphabet and reading." In 1736 Cook's father was appointed to the position of hind or bailiff by Mr. Skottowe, and removed with his family to Airy Holme Farm, near Ayton.
Down in the valley, directly opposite, were the woods and mansion of Ayton Castle. A little to the left, the village of Ayton lay extended along the farther bank of the stream, while behind both castle and village the ground rose in gentle undulations to the uplands of Coldingham Moor.
When he had seen the alterations fairly on the way, Cook applied for three weeks' leave of absence, on the plea that he had "some business to transact in Yorkshire, as well as to see an aged father," and his application was at once granted. He therefore went to Ayton, where for the first time for seventeen years he was again amongst his own people.
The family were of that "strict, not strictest species of Presbyterian Dissenter," and John attended also the Bible-class and Fellowship Meeting. The family of John Murray, a ploughman or "hind" from the Duns district, and now settled at Bastleridge, the next farm to Ayton Hill, also attended Mr. Ure's church. An intimacy sprang up between the two families.
Here he duly put on the dunce's cap which he had seen them wear, and which bore the inscription, "For my bad conduct I stand here." A tenant having been at length found for Oldcambus Mains, the family, which had been increased by the birth of three more children, removed back to the Ayton district, to the farm of Whiterigg, two miles from the village.
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