Chapter XLII (3)

As a rule the chiefs and gentlemen of the clan appear to have treated their inferiors with kindness and consideration, although, at the same time, it was their interest and the practice of most of them to encourage the notions the people entertained of their duty to their chiefs, and to keep them in ignorance of everything that would tend to diminish this profitable belief. No doubt many of the chiefs themselves believed as firmly in the doctrine of clanship as their people; but there is good reason to believe, that many of them encouraged the old system from purely interested and selfish motives. Burt tells us that when a chief wanted to get rid of any troublesome fellow, he compelled him, under threat of perpetual imprisonment or the gallows, to sign a contract for his own banishment, when he was shipped off from the nearest port by the first vessel bound for the West Indies. Referring no doubt to Lord Lovat,[49] he informs us that this versatile and long-headed chief acted on the maxim that to render his clan poor would double the tie of their obedience; and accordingly he made use of all oppressive means to that end. “To prevent any diminution of the number of those who do not offend him, he dissuades from their purpose all such as show an inclination to traffic, or to put their children out to trades, as knowing they would, by such an alienation shake off at least good part of their slavish attachment to him and his family. This he does, when downright authority fails, by telling them how their ancestors chose to live sparingly, and be accounted a martial people, rather than submit themselves to low and mercenary employments like the Lowlanders, whom their forefathers always despised for the want of that warlike temper which they (his vassals) still retained, &c.” This cunning chief was in the habit, according to Dr Chambers’s _Domestic Annals_, of sending from Inverness and paying for the insertion in the Edinburgh _Courant_ and _Mercury_ of glaring accounts of feasts and rejoicings given by himself or held in his honour.[50] And it is well known that this same lord during his lifetime erected a handsome tombstone for himself inscribed with a glowing account of his heroic exploits, intended solely for the use of his clansmen. By these and similar means would crafty selfish lairds keep their tenants and cottars in ignorance of their rights, and make them resigned to all the oppressive impositions laid upon them. No doubt Lovat’s was an extreme case, and there must have been many gradations of oppressions, and many chiefs who really cared for their people, and did their best to make them happy and comfortable, although, considering their circumstances and general surroundings, it is difficult to see how they could succeed. Yet notwithstanding their miserable and filthy huts, their scanty and poor food, their tattered and insufficient clothes, their lean cattle and meagre crops, their country wet above and below, their apparent want of all amusements and of anything to lighten their cheerless condition, and the oppressive exactions of their chiefs, the Highlanders as a body certainly do not seem to have been an unhappy or discontented people, or to have had any feeling of the discomfort attending their lot.[51] There seems to have been little or no grumbling, and it is a most remarkable fact that suicide was and probably is all but unknown among the Highlanders. Your genuine Highlander was never what could strictly be called a merry man; he never had any of the effervescence of the French Celt, nor of the inimitable never failing light-hearted humour of his Irish brother; but, on the other hand, under the old system, at heart he showed little or no discontent, but on the contrary seems to have been possessed of a self-satisfied, contented cheerfulness, a quiet resignation to fate, and a belief in the power and goodness of his chief, together with an ignorance and contempt for all outside his own narrow sphere, that made him feel as happy and contented as the most comfortable peasant farmer in France. They only became discontented and sorely cut up when their chiefs,--it being no longer the interest of the latter to multiply and support their retainers,--began to look after their own interests solely, and show little or no consideration for those who regarded them with reverence alone, and who thought their chief as much bound to support and care for them and share his land and his bread with them, as a father is to maintain his children. After the heritable jurisdictions were abolished, of course everything was changed; but before that there is every reason to believe that the Highland tenants and cottars were as contented and happy, though by no means so well off, as the majority of those in the same condition throughout the United Kingdom. Indeed the evils which prevailed formerly in the Highlands, like all other evils, look far worse in prospect (in this case retrospect) than they do in reality. Misery in general is least perceived by those who are in its midst, and no doubt many poor and apparently miserable people wonder what charitable associations for their relief make so much fuss about, for they themselves see nothing to relieve. Not that this misery is any the less real and fruitful of evil consequences, and demanding relief; it is simply that those who are in the midst of it can’t, very naturally, see it in its true light. As to the Highlands, the tradition remained for a long time, and we believe does so still in many parts, that under the old regime, chiefs were always kind as fathers, and the people faithful and loving as children; the men were tall and brave, and the women fair and pure; the cattle were fat and plentiful, and the land produced abundance for man and beast; the summers were always warm, and the winters mild; the sun was brighter than ever it has been since, and rain came only when wanted. In short everybody had plenty with a minimum of work and abundance of time for dancing and singing and other amusements; every one was as happy as the day was long. It was almost literally “a land flowing with milk and honey,” as will be seen from the following tradition:[52]--“It is now indeed idle, and appears fabulous, to relate the crops raised here 30 or 40 years ago. The seasons were formerly so warm, that the people behoved to unyoke their ploughs as soon as the sun rose, when sowing barley; and persons yet living, tell, that in traveling through the meadows in the loan of Fearn, in some places drops of honey were seen as the dew in the long grass and plantain, sticking to their shoes as they passed along in a May morning; and also in other parts, their shoes were oiled as with cream, going through such meadows. Honey and bee hives were then very plenty.... Cattle, butter, and cheese, were then very plenty and cheap.” This glowing tradition, we fear, must melt away before the authentic and too sober accounts of contemporaries and eye-witnesses.

As for wages to day-labourers and mechanics, in many cases no money whatever was given; every service being frequently paid for in kind; where money was given, a copper or two a day was deemed an ample remuneration, and was probably sufficient to provide those who earned it with a maintenance satisfactory to themselves, the price of all necessary provisions being excessively low. A pound of beef or mutton, or a fowl could be obtained for about a penny, a cow cost about 30 shillings, and a boll of barley or oatmeal less than 10 shillings; butter was about twopence a pound, a stone (21 lbs.) of cheese was to be got for about two shillings. The following extract, from the Old Statistical Account of Caputh, will give the reader an idea of the rate of wages, where servants were employed, of the price of provisions, and how really little need there was for actual cash, every man being able to do many things for himself which would now require perhaps a dozen workmen to perform. This parish being strictly in the lowlands, but on the border of the Highlands, may be regarded as having been, in many respects, further advanced than the majority of Highland parishes.[53] “The ploughs and carts were usually made by the farmer himself; with little iron about the plough, except the colter and share; none upon the cart or harrows; no shoes upon the horses; no hempen ropes. In short, every instrument of farming was procured at small expense, wood being at a very low price. Salt was a shilling the bushel: little soap was used: they had no candles, instead of which they split the roots of fir trees, which, though brought 50 or 60 miles from the Highlands, were purchased for a trifle. Their clothes were of their own manufacturing. The average price of weaving ten yards of such cloth was a shilling, which was paid partly in meal and partly in money. The tailor worked for a quantity of meal, suppose 3 pecks or a firlot a-year, according to the number of the farmer’s family. In the year 1735, the best ploughman was to be had for L.8 Scots (13s. 4d.) a year, and what was termed a bounty, which consisted of some articles of clothing, and might be estimated at 11s. 6d.; in all L.1, 4s. 10d. sterling. Four years after, his wages rose to L.24 Scots, (L.2) and the bounty. Female servants received L.2 Scots, (3s. 4d.) and a bounty of a similar kind; the whole not exceeding 6s. or 7s. Some years after their wages rose to 15s. Men received for harvest work L.6 Scots, (10s.); women, L.5 Scots, (8s. 4d.). Poultry was sold at 40 pennies Scots, (3⅓d.) Oat-meal, bear and oats, at L.4 or L.5 Scots the boll. A horse that then cost 100 merks Scots, (L.5 : 11 : 1¾) would now cost L.25. An ox that cost L.20 Scots, (L.1 : 13 : 4) would now be worth L.8 or L.9. Beef and mutton were sold, not by weight, but by the piece; about 3s. 4d. for a leg of beef of 3½ stones; and so in proportion. No tea nor sugar was used: little whisky was drunk, and less of other spirits: but they had plenty of good ale; there being usually one malt barn (perhaps two) on each farm.”[54]

When a Highlander was in need of anything which he could not produce or make himself, it was by no means easy for him to obtain it, as by far the greater part of the Highlands was utterly destitute of towns and manufactures; there was little or no commerce of any kind. The only considerable Highland town was Inverness, and, if we can believe Captain Burt, but little business was done there; the only other places, which made any pretensions to be towns were Stornoway and Campbeltown, and these at the time we are writing of, were little better than fishing villages. There were no manufactures strictly speaking, for although the people spun their own wool and made their own cloth, exportation, except perhaps in the case of stockings, seems to have been unknown. In many cases a system of merchandise somewhat similar to the ruinous, oppressive, and obstructive system still common in Shetland, seems to have been in vogue in many parts of the Highlands. By this system, some of the more substantial tacksmen would lay in a stock of goods such as would be likely to be needed by their tenants, but which these could not procure for themselves, such as iron, corn, wine, brandy, sugar, tobacco, &c. These goods the tacksman would supply to his tenants as they needed them, charging nothing for them at the time; but, about the month of May, the tenant would hand over to his tacksman-merchant as many cattle as the latter considered an equivalent for the goods supplied. As the people would seldom have any idea of the real value of the goods, of course there was ample room for a dishonest tacksman to realise an enormous profit, which, we fear, was too often done. “By which traffic the poor wretched people were cheated out of their effects, for one half of their value; and so are kept in eternal poverty.”[55]

As to roads, with the exception of those made for military purposes by General Wade, there seems to have been none whatever, only tracts here and there in the most frequented routes, frequently impassable, and at all time unsafe without a guide. Captain Burt could not move a mile or two out of Inverness without a guide. Bridges seem to have been even rarer than slated houses or carriages.

We have thus endeavoured to give the reader a correct idea of the state of the country and people of the Highlands previous to the abolition of the heritable jurisdictions. Our only aim has been to find out the truth, and we have done so by appealing to the evidence of contemporaries, or of those whose witness is almost as good. We have endeavoured to exhibit both the good and bad side of the picture, and we are only sorry that space will not permit of giving further details. However, from what has been said above, the reader must see how much had to be accomplished by the Highlanders to bring them up to the level of the rest of the country, and will be able to understand the nature of the changes which from time to time took place, the difficulties which had to be overcome, the prejudices which had to be swept away, the hardships which had to be encountered, in assimilating the Highlands with the rest of the country.

Having thus, as far as space permits, shown the condition of the Highlands previous to 1745, we shall now, as briefly as possible, trace the history down to the present day, showing the march of change, and we hope, of progress after the abolition of the heritable jurisdictions. In doing so we must necessarily come across topics concerning which there has been much rancorous and unprofitable controversy; but, as we have done in the case of other disputed matters, we shall do our best to lay facts before the reader, and allow him to form his opinions for himself. The history of the Highlands since 1745 is no doubt in some respects a sad one; much misery and cruel disappointment come under the notice of the investigator. But in many respects, and, we have no doubt in its ultimate results, the history is a bright one, showing as it does the progress of a people from semi-barbarism and slavery and ignorance towards high civilisation, freedom of action with the world before them, and enlightenment and knowledge, and vigorous and successful enterprise. Formerly the Highlanders were a nuisance to their neighbours, and a drag upon the progress of the country; now they are not surpassed by any section of her Majesty’s subjects for character, enterprise, education, loyalty, and self-respect. Considering the condition of the country in 1745, what could we expect to take place on the passing and enforcing of an act such as that which abolished the heritable jurisdictions? Was it not natural, unavoidable that a fermentation should take place, that there should be a war of apparently conflicting interests, that, in short, as in the achievement of all great results by nations and men, there should be much experimenting, much groping to find out the best way, much shuffling about by the people to fit themselves to their new circumstances, before matters could again fall into something like a settled condition, before each man would find his place in the new adjustment of society? Moreover, the Highlanders had to learn an inevitable and a salutary lesson, that in this or in any country under one government, where prosperity and harmony are desired, no particular section of the people is to consider itself as having a right to one particular part of the country. The Highlands for the Highlanders is a barbarous, selfish, obstructive cry in a united and progressive nation. It seems to be the law of nature, as it is the law of progress, that those who can make the best use of any district ought to have it. This has been the case with the world at large, and it has turned out, and is still turning out to be the case with this country. The Highlands now contain a considerable lowland population, and the Highlanders are scattered over the length and breadth of the land, and indeed of the world, honourably fulfilling the noble part they have to play in the world’s history. Ere long there will be neither Highlander nor Lowlander; we shall all be one people, having the best qualities of the blood of the formerly two antagonistic races running in our veins. It is, we have no doubt, with men as with other animals, the best breeds are got by judicious crossings.

Of course it is seldom the case that any great changes take place in the social or political policy of a country without much individual suffering: this was the case at all events in the Highlands. Many of the poor people and tacksmen had to undergo great hardships during the process of this new adjustment of affairs; but that the lairds or chiefs were to blame for this, it would be rash to assert. Some of these were no doubt unnecessarily harsh and unfeeling, but even where they were kindest and most considerate with their tenants, there was much misery prevailing among the latter. In the general scramble for places under the new arrangements, every one, chief, tacksman, tenant, and cottar, had to look out for himself or go to the wall, and it was therefore the most natural thing in the world that the instinct of self-preservation and self-advancement, which is stronger by far than that of universal benevolence, should urge the chiefs to look to their own interests in preference to those of the people, who unfortunately, from the habit of centuries, looked to their superiors alone for that help which they should have been able to give themselves. It appears to us that the results which have followed from the abolition of the jurisdictions and the obliteration of the power of the chiefs, were inevitable; that they might have been brought about in a much gentler way, with much less suffering and bitterness and recrimination, there is no doubt; but while the process was going on, who had time to think of these things, or look at the matter in a calm and rational light? Certainly not those who were the chief actors in bringing about the results. With such stubbornness, bigotry, prejudice, and ignorance on one side, and such power and poverty and necessity for immediate and decided action on the other, and with selfishness on both sides, it was all but inevitable that results should have been as they turned out to be. We shall do what we can to state plainly, briefly, and fairly the real facts of the case.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Gartmore MS. in Appendix to Burt’s _Letters_.

[2] Pennant’s _Tour in Scotland_.

[3] As a specimen of the manner in which justice was administered in old times in the Highlands, we give the following: In the second volume of the Spalding Club Miscellany, p. 128, we read of a certain “John MacAlister, in Dell of Rothemurkus,” cited on 19th July 1594 “before the Court of Regality of Spynie.” He was “decerned by the judge--ryplie aduysit with the action of spuilzie persewit contrane him be the Baron of Kincardine, ... to have vrongouslie intromittit with and detenit the broune horse lybellit, and thairfor to content and pay to the said Complainer the soume of threttene schillings and four pennis money.” The reader will notice the delicate manner in which what looks very like a breach of the eighth commandment is spoken of in a legal document of that period. John the son of Alister “confessed” the intromission with the brown horse, but pled in defence that he “took him away ordowrlie and nocht spulyed, but be vertue of the Act of Athell, boynd for ane better horse spuilzeat be the said persewar from the said Defender.” Whether this was the truth, or whether, though it were true, John the son of Alister was justified in seizing upon the Baron’s broune horse in lieu of the one taken by the Baron from him, or whether it was that the Baron was the more powerful of the two, the judge, it will have been noticed, decerned against the said John M’Alister, not, however, ordaining him to return the horse, but to pay the Baron “thairfor” the sum of thirteen shillings.--_Memorials of Clan Shaw_, by Rev. W. G. Shaw, p. 24.

[4] _Observations on the Present State of Highlands_, by the Earl of Selkirk, p. 13.

[5] Burt’s _Letters_, vol. ii. p. 5.

[6] Burt’s _Letters_, vol. ii. p. 5.

[7] Burt’s _Letters_, vol. ii. pp. 341-3.

[8] _Beauties of Scotland_, vol. v. pp. 184, 5.

[9] Old Statistical Account of North Knapdale.

[10] Burt’s _Letters_, vol. ii. p. 57.

[11] Gartmore MS.

[12] Old Statistical Account, vol. ix. p. 494.

[13] “When I first saw this awkward method as I then thought it, I rode up to the person who guided the machine, to ask him some questions concerning it: he spoke pretty good English, which made me conclude he was a gentleman; and yet, in quality of a proprietor and conductor, might, without dishonour, employ himself in such a work. My first question was, whether that method was common to the Highlands, or peculiar to that part of the country? and, by way of answer, he asked me, if they ploughed otherwise anywhere else? Upon my further inquiry why the man went backwards? he stopped, and very civilly informed me that there were several small rocks, which I did not see, that had a little part of them just peeping on the surface, and therefore it was necessary his servant should see and avoid them, by guiding the horses accordingly, or otherwise his plough might be spoiled by the shock. The answer was satisfactory and convincing, and I must here take notice that many other of their methods are too well suited to their own circumstances, and those of the country, to be easily amended by such as undertake to deride them.”--Burt’s _Letters_, vol. ii. pp. 42, 43.

[14] Walker’s _Hebrides_, vol. i. p. 122.

[15] Walker’s _Hebrides_, vol. i. p. 127.

[16] Idem, 131.

[17] Walker’s _Hebrides_, vol. i. p. 133.

[18] _Old Statistical Account_, vol. xx. p. 74.

[19] “Nothing is more common than to hear the Highlanders boast how much their country might be improved, and that it would produce double what it does at present if better husbandry were introduced among them. For my own part, it was always the only amusement I had in the hills, to observe every minute thing in my way; and I do assure you, I do not remember to have seen the least spot that would bear corn uncultivated, not even upon the sides of the hills, where it could be no otherwise broke up than with a spade. And as for manure to supply the salts and enrich the ground they have hardly any. In summer their cattle are dispersed about the _sheelings_, and almost all the rest of the year in other parts of the hills; and, therefore, all the dung they can have must be from the trifling quantity made by the cattle while they are in the house. I never knew or heard of any limestone, chalk, or marl, they have in the country; and, if some of their rocks might serve for limestone, in that case their kilns, carriage, and fuel would render it so expensive, it would be the same thing to them as if there were none. Their great dependence is upon the nitre of the snow, and they lament the disappointment if it does not fall early in the season.”--_Burt’s Letters_, vol. ii. p. 48-9.

[20] “An English lady, who found herself something decaying in her health, and was advised to go among the hills, and drink goat’s milk or whey, told me lately, that seeing a Highlander basking at the foot of a hill in his full dress, while his wife and her mother were hard at work in reaping the oats, she asked the old woman how she could be contented to see her daughter labour in that manner, while her husband was only an idle spectator? And to this the woman answered, that her son-in-law was a _gentleman_, and it would be a disparagement to him to do any such work; and that both she and her daughter too were sufficiently honoured by the alliance. This instance, I own, has something particular in it, as such; but the thing is very common, _à la Palatine_, among the middling sort of people.”--_Burt’s Letters_, vol. ii. p. 45.

The Highlander at home is indolent. It is with impatience that he allows himself to be diverted from his favourite occupation of traversing the mountains and moors in looking after his flocks, a few days in spring and autumn, for the purposes of his narrow scheme of agriculture. It is remarked, however, that the Highlander, when removed beyond his native bounds, is found capable of abundant exertion and industry.--_Graham’s Perthshire_, 235.

[21] Walker’s _Hebrides_, &c., vol. i. p. 197.

[22] _Old Statistical Account_, vol. x. p. 17.

[23] See accounts of various Highland parishes in the _Old Statistical Account_.

[24] Walker’s _Hebrides_, &c., vol. ii. p. 159.

[25] Burt’s _Letters_, vol. ii. p. 38.

[26] Still they would seem to have been of comparatively little use for farming operations; for Dr Walker, writing about 1760, when the breed was at least no worse than it was previous to 1745, speaks thus:--“The number of horses is by far too great upon every Highland farm. They are so numerous, because they are inefficient; and they are inefficient, because they have neither stature nor food to render them sufficiently useful. Their number has never been restrained by the authority of the landlords, like that of the sheep. For in many places, they are bred and sold off the farm to advantage, being sent in droves to the south. In this case, their numbers upon a farm may be proper. But in general, there are six, eight, or ten horses upon the smaller farms, and sixteen, twenty, or more upon the larger; without any being bred for sale, and even few for supporting the stock. None of them perform the work of a horse; even where such numbers are kept, and purely for labour, each of them, in many places, do not plough two acres of land annually. They get no food the whole year round, but what they can pick up upon the hills, and their sustenance is therefore unluckily accounted as nothing.”

[27] _Hebrides_, &c., vol. ii. p. 50.

[28] A penny land apparently contained about the tenth part of a davoch, _i.e._, about forty acres.

[29] The rule in souming seems to have been that one cow was equal to eight, in some places ten, sheep, and two cows equal to one horse.

[30] Walker’s _Hebrides_, &c., vol. i. p. 56.

[31] Logan’s _Scottish Gael_, vol. ii. p. 65.

[32] The following remarks, taken from the Gartmore MS. at the end of Burt’s _Letters_, gives one by no means a favourable idea of these drovers, but it must be borne in mind that the writer lived on the border of the most notorious and ill-behaved part of the Highlands, Rob Roy’s country, and that he himself was properly a Lowlander. The extract will serve to show how business transactions were conducted in the Highlands. “It is alledged, that much of the Highlands lye at a great distance from publick fairs, mercates, and places of commerce, and that the access to these places is both difficult and dangerous; by reason of all which, trading people decline to go into the country in order to traffick and deal with the people. It is on this account that the farmers, having no way to turn the produce of their farms, which is mostly cattle, into money, are obliged to pay their rents in cattle, which the landlord takes at his own price, in regaird that he must either grase them himself, send them to distant markets, or credite some person with them, to be againe at a certain profite disposed of by him. This introduced the busieness of that sort of people commonly known by the name of Drovers. These men have little or no substance, they must know the language, the different places, and consequently be of that country. The farmers, then, do either sell their cattle to these drovers upon credite, at the drovers price (for ready money they seldom have), or to the landlord at his price, for payment of his rent. If this last is the case, the landlord does again dispose of them to the drover upon credite, and these drovers make what profites they can by selling them to grasiers, or at markets. These drovers make payments, and keep credite for a few years, and then they either in reality become bankrupts, or pretend to be so. The last is most frequently the case, and then the subject of which they have cheated is privately transferred to a confident person in whose name, upon that reall stock, a trade is sometimes carried on, for their behoof, till this trustee gett into credite, and prepaire _his_ affairs for a bankruptcy. Thus the farmers are still keept poor; they first sell at an under rate, and then they often lose alltogether. The landlords, too, must either turn traders, and take their cattle to markets, or give these people credite, and by the same means suffer.”--Burt’s _Letters_, vol. ii. pp. 364, 365.

[33] “The latter part of the season is often very wet; and the corn, particularly oats, suffer very much. June and August are the months which have least rain. September and October are frequently very wet: during these months, not only a greater quantity of rain falls, but it is more constant, accompanied by a cold and cloudy atmosphere, which is very unfavourable either to the ripening of grain, or drying it after it is cut. In July and August a good deal of rain falls; but it is in heavy showers, and the intervals are fine, the sun shining clear and bright often for several days together.”--_Garnett’s Tour_, vol. i. p. 24.

[34] Buchanan’s _Travels in the Hebrides_, p. 154.

[35] “In larger farms belonging to gentlemen of the clan, where there are any number of women employed in harvest-work, they all keep time together by several barbarous tones of the voice, and stoop and rise together as regularly as a rank of soldiers when they ground their arms. Sometimes they are incited to their work by the sound of a bagpipe, and by either of these they proceed with great alacrity, it being disgraceful for any one to be out of time with the sickle.” This custom of using music to enable a number of common workers to keep time, seems to have been in vogue in many operations in the Highlands. We quote the following graphic account of the process of fulling given by Burt in the same letter that contains the above quotation, (vol. ii. p. 48.) “They use the same tone, or a piper, when they thicken the newly-woven plaiding, instead of a fulling-mill. This is done by six or eight women sitting upon the ground, near some river or rivulet, in two opposite ranks, with the wet cloth between them; their coats are tucked up, and with their naked feet they strike one against another’s, keeping exact time as above mentioned. And among numbers of men, employed in any work that requires strength and joint labour (as the launching a large boat, or the like), they must have the piper to regulate their time, as well as usky to keep up their spirits in the performance; for pay they often have little, or none at all.”--Burt’s _Letters_.

[36] Burton’s _Scotland_ (1689-1748), vol. ii. p. 395.--“The poverty of the field labourers hereabouts is deplorable. I was one day riding out for air and exercise, and in my way I saw a woman cutting green barley in a little plot before her hut: this induced me to turn aside and ask her what use she intended it for, and she told me it was to make bread for her family. The grain was so green and soft that I easily pressed some of it between my fingers; so that when she had prepared it, certainly it must have been more like a poultice than what she called it, bread.”--Burt’s _Letters_, vol. i. p. 224.

[37] Buchanan’s _Hebrides_, p. 156.

[38] Logan’s _Gael_, vol. ii. p. 97.

[39] _Letters_, vol. ii. p. 7.

[40] Burt’s _Letters_, vol. ii. p. 96.

[41] _Letters_, vol. ii. p. 97.

[42] The following quotations from Mr Dunbar’s _Social Life in Former Days_, giving details of household furniture and expenses, may be taken as “a correct index of the comforts and conveniences” of the best off of the old Highland lairds; for as they refer to Morayshire, just on the borders of the Highlands, they cannot be held as referring to the Highlands generally, the interior and western districts of which were considerably behind the border lands in many respects:--

“SIR ROBERT GORDON’S ALLOWANCE FOR HIS LADY AND FAMILY, FROM DECEMBER 14TH 1740 TO DECEMBER 14TH 1741.

Sterling.
£ S. D.
Imprimis, to 36 bolls malt, at 8 shillings and 4 pence
per boll, 15 0 0
Item, to 36 bolls meal, at same price, 15 0 0
Item, to 10 bolls wheat, at 13 shillings and 4 pence
per boll, 6 13 4
Item, to 12 beeves at £1 per piece, 12 0 0
Item, to meal to servants without doors, 9 7 6
Item, to servants’ wages within and without doors, 41 5 0
Item, to cash instantly delivered, 50 6 2
Item, to be paid monthly, £4, 4s., 50 8 0
------------
£200 0 0
------------

“_Servants’ Wages 1741._

Imprimis to gentlewomen 10 0 0
Item, to five maids, 5 6 8
Item, to two cooks, 5 0 0
Item, to two porters, 3 0 0
Item, to Robin’s servant, 1 0 0
Item, to the groom, 5 5 0
Item, to the neighbour, 3 6 8
Item, to three out-servants, 7 0 0
Item, to two herds, 1 6 8
------------
£41 5 0
------------

“INVENTAR OF PLENISHING IN THUNDERTON’S LODGING IN DUFFUS, MAY 25, 1708.

“_Strypt Room._

“Camlet hangings and curtains, feather bed and bolster, two pillows, five pair blankets, and an Inglish blanket, a green and white cover, a blew and white chamber-pot, a blew and white bason, a black jopand table and two looking-glasses, a jopand tee-table with a tee-pat and plate, and nine cups and nine dyshes, and a tee silver spoon, two glass sconces, two little bowles, with a leam stoap and a pewter head, eight black ken chairs, with eight silk cushens conform, an easie chair with a big cushen, a jopand cabinet with a walnut tree stand, a grate, shuffle, tonges, and brush; in the closet, three piece of paper hangings, a chamber box, with a pewter pan therein, and a brush for cloaths.

“_Closet next the Strypt Room._

“Four dishes, two assiets, six broth plates, and twelve flesh plates, a quart flagon, and a pynt flagon, a pewter porenger, and a pewter flacket, a white iron jaculate pot, and a skellet pann, twenty-one timber plates, a winter for warming plates at the fire, two Highland plaids, and a sewed blanket, a bolster, and four pillows, a chamber-box, a sack with wool, and a white iron dripping pann.

“_In the farest Closet._

“Seventeen drinking glasses, with a glass tumbler and two decanters, a oil cruet, and a vinegar cruet, a urinal glass, a large blew and white posset pot, a white leam posset pat, a blew and white bowl, a dozen of blew and white leam plates, three milk dishes, a blew and white leam porenger, and a white leam porenger, four jelly pots, and a little butter dish, a crying chair, and a silk craddle.

“_In the Moyhair Room._

“A sute of stamped cloath hangings, and a moyhair bed with feather bed, bolster, and two pillows, six pair blankets, and an Inglish blanket and a twilt, a leam chamber-pat, five moyhair chairs, two looking-glasses, a cabinet, a table, two stands, a table cloak, and window hangings, a chamber-box with a pewter pann, a leam bason, with a grate and tongs and a brush; in the closet, two carpets, a piece of Arres, three pieces lyn’d strypt hangings, three wawed strypt curtains, two piece gilded leather, three trunks and a craddle, a chamber-box, and a pewter pann, thirty-three pound of heckled lint, a ston of vax, and a firkin of sop, and a brush for cloaths, two pair blankets, and a single blanket.

“_In the Dyning-Room._

“A sute of gilded hangings, two folding tables, eighteen low-backed ken chairs, a grate, a fender, a brass tongs, shuffle, brush, and timber brush, and a poring iron, and a glass kes.

“_In my Lady’s Room._

“Gilded hangings, standing bed, and box bed, stamped drogged hangings, feather bed, bolster, and two pillows, a pallise, five pair of blankets, and a single one, and a twilt, and two pewter chamber-pots, six chairs, table, and looking-glass a little folding table, and a chist of drawers, tonges, shuffle, porrin-iron, and a brush, two window curtains of linen; in the Laird’s closet, two trunks, two chists, and a citrena cabinet, a table, and a looking-glass, the dow holes, two carpet chairs, and a chamber-box with a pewter pan, and a little bell, and a brush for cloath.

“_My Lady’s Closet._

“A cabinet, three presses, three kists, and a spicerie box, a dozen leam white plates, a blew and white leam plate, a little blew butter plate, a white leam porenger, and three gelly pots, two leam dishes, and two big timber capes, four tin congs, a new pewter basson, a pynt chopen, and mutchken stoups, two copper tankers, two pewter salts, a pewter mustard box, a white iron peper and suggar box, two white iron graters, a pot for starch, and a pewter spoon, thirteen candlesticks, five pair snuffers and snuf dishes conform, a brass mortar and pistol, a lantern, a timber box, a dozen knives and a dozen forks, and a carpet chair, two milk congs, a milk cirn, and kirn staff, a sisymilk, and creamen dish and a cheswel, a neprie basket, and two new pewter chamber pots.

“_A Note of Plate._

“Three silver salvers, four salts, a large tanker, a big spoon, and thirteen littler spoons, two jugs, a sugar box, a mustard box, a peper box, and two little spoons.

“_An Account of Bottles in the Salt Cellar._

“_June the first 1708._

Of Sack, five dozen and one, 5 1
Of Brandie, three dozen and three, 3 3
Of Vinegar and Aquavitie, seven, 0 7
Of Strong Ale, four dozen and four, 4 4
Of other Ale, nine dozen, 9 0
In the ale cellar, fifteen dozen and ten, 15 10
In the hamper, five dozen empty, 5 0
In the wine cellar, nine with Inglish Ale, 0 9
White Wine, ten, 0 10
Of Brandy, three, 0 3
With Brandy and Surop, two, 0 2
With Claret, fifteen, 1 3
With Mum, fifteen, 1 3
Throw the house, nineteen, 1 7
--------
There is in all, forty-nine dozen and two, 49 2
And of mutchkin bottles twenty-five, 2 1
--------

“Received ten dozen and one of chapen bottles full of claret. More received--eleven dozen and one of pynt bottles, whereof there was six broke in the home-coming. 1709, June the 4th, received from Elgin forty-three chopen bottles of claret.”

[43] _Essays_, vol. i. p. 30.

[44] There appears to have been a dreadful one just three years before ’45. See Stat. Account of various Highland parishes.

[45] Garnett’s _Tour_, vol. i. p. 121.

[46] _Letters_, vol. ii. 28.

[47] Vol. i. p. 124.

[48] Burt, ii. p. 34.

[49] _Letters_, vol. i. p. 51.

[50] Fraser-Mackintosh’s _Antiquarian Notes_, p. 1.

[51] “The manners and habits of this parish [as of all other Highland parishes] have undergone a material change within these 50 years; before that period they lived in a plain simple manner, experienced few wants, and possessed not the means, nor had any desire, of procuring any commodities. If they had salt [upon which there was a grievous duty] and tobacco, paid their pittance of rents, and performed their ordinary services to their superiors, and that their conduct in general met their approbation, it seemed to be the height of their ambition.”--_Old Statistical Account of Boleskin and Abertarf, Inverness-shire_ (1798).

[52] Old Statistical Account of Fearn, Ross-shire.

[53] “The spades, ploughs, harrows, and sledges, of the most feeble and imperfect kinds, with all their harnessing, are made by the farmer and his servants; as also the boats, with all their tackle.--The boat has a Highland plaid for a sail; the running rigging is made of leather thongs and willow twigs; and a large stone and a heather rope serve for an anchor and cable; and all this, among a people of much natural ingenuity and perseverance. There is no fulling mill nor bleachfield; no tanner, maltster, or dyer; all the yarn is dyed, and all the cloth fulled or bleached by the women on the farm. The grain for malt is steeped in sacks in the river; and the hides are tanned, and the shoes made at home. There are, indeed, itinerant shoemakers, tailors, wrights, and masons, but none of these has full employment in his business, as all the inhabitants, in some measure, serve themselves in these trades: hence, in the royal boroughs of Inveraray, Campbelton, and Inverness, and in the considerable villages of Crieff, Callander, Oban, Maryburgh, Fort Augustus, and Stornoway, there are fewer tradesmen, and less demand for the workmanship of mechanics, than in any other places of the same size; yet these are either situated in, or are next adjacent to, a more extensive and populous country, than any other similar towns or villages in Scotland.”--Walker’s _Hebrides_, vol. ii. pp. 374, 5.

[54] _Old Stat. Account_, vol. ix. pp. 494, 5.

[55] Gartmore Paper, in Burt’s _Letters_, vol. ii. p. 364.