they realised that he would benefit from proper training. At the age of 14 Kemp was enrolled as an apprentice joiner with millwright and carpenter Andrew Noble at Moy Hall, Redscarhead, north of Peebles. He stayed there for four years, receiving a wide education. When at Moy Hall he repaired agricultural machinery and saw foundations laid and buildings erected. He taught himself or be a highly-skilled wood modeller. He also read ancient literature, wrote poetry and songs and played the violin. Kemp developed a life-long habit of walking long distances. On Saturday nights he would walk for four hours from Redscarhead to visit his parents at Moorfoot, walking back late on Sundays. In adulthood he sometimes walked enormous distances so as to find work or study medieval architecture. Early career Kemp's apprenticeship was completed on 20 June 1813 when he was 18. He started work as a millwright in Galashiels. His job entailed not just the upkeep of mills but also the repair of the various wooden agricultural and industrial machines being invented at this time. His expertise in this work and his willingness to labour as a journeyman was to provide his sometimes meagre income for the next 14 years. At the same time Kemp began an intense study of Gothic architecture. His job required much local travel and he sketched and studied the monastic churches of the area, such as Melrose, Dryburgh, Jedburgh and Kelso. The abbey at Melrose was of great and lasting significance to Kemp; he returned to it repeatedly, and it became his most important inspiration for the Scott Monument. Kemp's method of looking at the architecture of a building was first to make a general study of it, then to carry out a few detailed sketches of decorative features. He did not draw plans there and then, but did so later, being able quickly to commit to memory the layout of a building and its intricacies. In 1815 Kemp moved to John Cousin's building and joining workshop in Leith where he worked on the many new buildings in Edinburgh and learned the practicalities of converting architectural drawings into three-dimensional structures. In 1817 Kemp went to Manchester for three years, where he repaired machinery in the mills. He studied all the Gothic architecture he could find in the area, even walking for 24 hours to York in order to view the Minster. Kemp moved to