Robert was sent to school in 1773, and acquired the rudiments of a good English education, having, however, learned to read, to write, and to "cipher" already at home. He was not a brilliant scholar, but made fair progress, though he was vastly more interested, as are all bright boys of that age, in what was going on in the workshops of the mechanics with whom he was acquainted. On one occasion, his mother having suggested to his teacher that the boy was not giving as close attention to his books as was desirable, the honest pedagogue replied that he had done his best, but that Robert had asserted that "his head was so full of original ideas that there was no room for the storage of the contents of dusty books." The boy was then ten years old.
