Excerpt from The Works of William Robertson, Vol. 1 of 8: With an Account of His Life and Writings
William Robertson was born on the eighth of September, 1721, according to the old style, at Borthwick, in the county of Mid Lothian, a parish of which his father was then minister: he was one of a family of eight children, of whom none but the historian rose to such eminence as to deserve commemoration, even could any facts be withdrawn from the darkness which generally envelops the memory of ordinary men after the tomb has closed on their remains.
Robertson received the first rudiments of education at the parochial school of his native place; when he had attained the age generally deemed fit for entering on classic studies, his father, induced probably by the extended reputation of the head master, Leslie, placed him at the school of Dalkeith. Of his advancement under so skilful a tutor, I have been unable to collect any account; but it may be inferred from the observations of his friends, that he was remarkable rather by a patient and industrious culture of the mental powers which providence vouchsafed him, than by any extraordinary precocity of genius. Unlike those plants which one summer's sun brings to their full growth, whose splendid flowers burst quickly forth, and as quickly fade, his mind rather resembled the slow-growing oak, which, watered by the dews of many a spring, and fostered by the warmth of many a summer, rises at last the lord of the forest.
In 1733, his father having been translated to the ministry of Old Gray Friars in Edinburgh, young Robertson quitted the school of Dalkeith, and again resided under the paternal roof.
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