He knew the Latin Grammar, and had, with help, translated one of the books of Caesar.

Of Greek he knew nothing, save the letters and the first declension of nouns; but in May he began to read in earnest at a farmhouse.

He worked every day from 6 A.M.to 12 P.M.with only an hour's intermission.

He studied the six Latin and two Greek books prescribed; he did some Latin composition unaided; brushed up his mathematics; and learnt something of the history of Greece and Rome.
In October, after five months of hard work, he underwent an examination for the scholarship, and obtained it; beating his opponent by twenty-eight marks in a thousand.

He then went up to the Scotch University and passed all the examinations for his ordinary M.A.