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SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
fU BUSHEL) BV
JAMES MACLFHOSK AND SONS, GLASGOW
fublUhrr* to the
MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.. LONDON.
A'tw York, Tht Macmili** C.
Ltmtlim, SimfktH. Hamilton and Co.
Cambritigt. Bowei and Bowti.
RHi*burgk, Douglas and Ftulit.
SCOTTISH-REMINIS-
CENCES * * BY SIR
ARCHIBALD GEIKIE K.C.B.
GLASGOW JAMES MACLEHOSE
AND SONS PUBLISHERS-
THE UNIVERSITY i
First Edition, April, 1904.
Reprinted April 1904, '95i 1908.
GLASGOW : PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
BY ROBERT MACLBHOSK AND CO. LTD.
FROM THE PREFACE.
ONE who has sojourned in every part of a
country and for sixty years has mingled with
all classes of its inhabitants ; who has watched
the decay and disappearance of old, and the
uprise of new usages ; who has been ever on
the outlook for illustrations of native humour,
and who has been in the habit all along of
freely recounting his experiences to his friends,
may perhaps be forgiven if he ventures to
put forth some record of what he has seen
and heard, as a slight contribution to the
history of social changes.
Literature is rich in Scottish reminiscences
of this kind, so rich indeed that a writer
who adds another volume to the long list
runs great risk of repeating what has already
been told. I have done my best to avoid
this danger by turning over the pages of as
many books of this class as I have been able
vi PREFACE
to lay hands upon. In the course of this
reading 1 have discovered that not a few of
the 'stories' which I picked up long ago
have found their way into print. These I
have generally excluded from the present
volume, save in cases where my version
seemed to me better than that which had
been published. But with all my care I
cannot hope to have wholly escaped from
pitfalls of this nature.
No one can have read much in this subject
without discovering the perennial vitality of
some anecdotes. With slight and generally
local modification, they are told by generation
after generation, and always as if they related
to events that had recently occurred and to
persons that were still familiarly known. Yet
the essential basis of their humour may
occasionally be traced back a long way. As
an example of this longevity I may cite the
incident of snoring in church, related at p. 86
of the following chapters, where an anecdote
which has been told to me as an event that
had recently happened among people now
living was in full vigour a hundred years ago,
and long before that time had formed the
foundation of a clever epigram in the reign of
Charles II. Another illustration of this per-
PREFACE vii
sistence and transformation may be found in
the anecdote of the wolf's den (p. 292). The
same recurring circumstances may sometimes
conceivably evoke, at long intervals, a similar
sally of humour ; but probably in most cases
the original story survives, undergoing a pro-
cess of gradual evolution and local adaptation
as it passes down from one generation to
another.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Social changes in Scotland consequent on the Union of the Crowns.
Impetus given to these changes after Culloden in the eighteenth
century, and after the introduction of steam as a motive power
in the nineteenth. Posting from Scotland to London. Stage
coach travelling to England. Canal travelling between Edinburgh
and Glasgow. Loch Katrine in 1843. Influence of Walter Scott.
Steamboats to London. Railroads in Scotland. Effects of steam-
boat development in the West Highlands, - pp. 1-37
CHAPTER II.
Traces of Paganism in Scotland. Relics of the Celtic Church ;
' Deserts.' Survival of Roman Catholicism in West Highlands and
Islands. Influence of the Protestant clergy. Highland ministers.
Lowland ministers. Diets of catechising. Street preachers.
pp. 38-76
CHAPTER III.
The sermon in Scottish Kirks. Intruding animals in country churches.
The 'collection.' Church psalmody. Precentors and organs.
Small congregations in the Highlands. Parish visitation. Survival
of the influence of clerical teaching. Religious mania, pp. 77-106
x CONTENTS
CHAPTER IV.
Superstition in Scotland. Holy wells. Belief in the Devil. Growth
of the rigid observance of the Sabbath. Efforts of kirk-sessions and
presbyteries to enforce Jewish strictness in regard to the Sabbath.
Illustrations of the effects of these efforts, - pp. 107-141
CHAPTER V.
Litigiousness of the Scots. Sir Daniel Macnee and jury-trial. Scot-
tish judges, Patrick Robertson, Cullen, Neaves, Rutherford Clark.
pp. 142 155
CHAPTER VI.
Medical Men. Sandy Wood. Knox. Nairn and Sir William Gall.
A broken leg in Gamut. Changes in the professoriate and students
in the Scottish Universities. A St. Andrews Professor. A Glasgow
Professor. Some Edinburgh Professors Lilians, Blackie, Christison,
Maclagan, I'layfair, Chalmers, Tail. Scottish Schoolmasters.
pp. 156-184
CHAPTER VII.
Old and new type of landed proprietors in Scotland. Highland
Chiefs Second Marquess of Breadalbane ; late Duke of Argyll.
Ayrshire Lairds T. F. Kennedy of Dunure ; ' Sliddery Braes ' ;
Smith of Auchengree. Fingask and Charles Martin. New lairds
of wealth, ... pp. 185-204
CHAPTER VIII.
Lowland farmers ; Darlings of Priestlaw. Sheep-farmers. Hall
Pringle of Hatton. Farm-servants. Ayrshire milk-maids. The
consequences of salting. Poachers. ' Cauld sowens out o' a pewter
plate.' Farm life in the Highlands. A Skye eviction. Clearances
in Raasay. Summer Shielings of former times. Fat Boy of Soay.
A West Highlander's first visit to Glasgow. Crofters in Skye.
Highland ideas of women's work. Highland repugnance to handi-
craft*, pp. 205-238
CONTENTS xi
CHAPTER IX.
Highland ferries and coaches. The charms of lona. How to see
StaflFa. The Outer Hebrides. Stones of Callernish. St. Kilda.
Sound of Harris. The Cave-massacre in Eigg. Skeleton from a
clan fight still unburied in Jura. The hermit of Jura. Peculiar
charms of the Western Isles. Influence of the clergy on the cheer-
fulness of the Highlanders. Disappearance of Highland customs.
Dispersing of clans from their original districts. Dying out of
Gaelic ; advantages of knowing some Gaelic ; difficulties of the
language, .... - pp. 239-273
CHAPTER X.
The Orkney Islands. The Shetland Islands. Faroe Islands con-
trasted with Western Isles. ' Burning the water.' A fisher of men.
Salmon according to London taste. Trout and fishing- poles. A
wolfs den, pp. 274-293
CHAPTER XI
Scottish shepherds and their dogs. A snow-storm among the Southern
Uplands. Scottish inns of an old type. Reminiscences of some
Highland inns. Revival of roadside inns by cyclists. Scottish
drink. Drinking customs now obsolete, - - - pp. 294-320
CHAPTER XII.
Scottish humour in relation to death and the grave. Resurrectionists.
Tombstone inscriptions. ' Naturals' in Scotland. Confused thoughts
of second childhood. Belief in witchcraft. Miners and their super-
stitions. Colliers and Sailers in Scotland were slaves until the
end of the eighteenth century. Metal-mining in Scotland.
pp. 321-346
CHAPTER XIII.
Town-life in old times. Dirtiness of the streets. Clubs. Hutton and
Black in Edinburgh. A feast of snails. Royal Society Club.
Bailies ' gang lowse. ' Rothesay fifty years ago. James Smith of
Jordanbill. Fisher-folk of the Forth. Decay of the Scots language.
Receipt for pronouncing English, - - - -pp. 347-369
xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER XIV.
The Scottish School of Geology. Neptunist and Vulcanist Contro-
versy. J. D. Forbes. Charles Maclaren. Hugh Miller. Robert
Chambers. W. llaidinger. H. von Dechen. Ami Boue. The
life of a field-geologist. Experiences of a geologist in the West
Highlands. A crofter home in Skye. The Spar Cave and Coruisk.
Night in Loch Scavaig, pp. 370-409
CHAPTER XV.
Influence of Topography on the people of Scotland. Distribution and
ancient antagonism of Celt and Saxon. Caithness and its grin.
Legends and place-names. Popular explanation of boulders. Cliff-
portraits. Fairy-stones and supposed human footprints. Imitative
forms of flint. Scottish climate and its influence on the people.
Indifference of the Highlander to rain. ' Dry rain.' Wind in
Scotland. Salutations on the weather. Shakespeare on the climate
of Morayland. Influence of environment on the Highlander.
pp. 410-439
INDEX, pp . 440-447
CHAPTER I.
SOCIAL changes in Scotland consequent on the Union of the
Crowns. Impetus given to these changes after Culloden
in the eighteenth century, and after the introduction of
steam as a motive power in the nineteenth. Posting from
Scotland to London. Stage coach travelling to England.
Canal travelling between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Loch
Katrine in 1843. Influence of Walter Scott. Steamboats
to London. Railroads in Scotland. Effects of steamboat
development in the West Highlands.
WHEN on the 5th of April, 1603, James VI.
left Edinburgh with a great cavalcade of
attendants, to ascend the throne of England,
a series of social changes was set in motion
in Scotland which has been uninterruptedly
advancing ever since. Its progress has not
been uniform, seeing that it has fluctuated
with the access or diminution of national
animosities on the two sides of the Tweed,
until, as these sources of irritation died away,
the two nations were welded into one by
the arts of peace. Looking back across the
2 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
three centuries, we can recognise two epochs
when the progress of change received a
marked impetus.
The first of these dates from the failure
of the Jacobite cause in 1746. At Culloden,
not only were the hopes of the Stuarts finally
extinguished, but a new period was ushered
in for the development of Scotland. The
abolition of the heritable jurisdictions, the
extension of the same organised legal system
over every part of the kingdom, the sup-
pression of cattle-raids and other offences
by the Highlanders against their lowland
neighbours, the building of good roads, and
the improvement of the old tracks, whereby
easy communication was provided across the
country, and especially through the Highlands
between the northern and southern districts
these and other connected reforms led to
the gradual breaking down of the barrier of
animosity that had long kept Highlander
and Lowlander apart, and by thus producing
a freer intercourse of the two races, greatly
strengthened the community as a whole,
whether for peace or for war. On the other
hand, the landing of Prince Charles Edward,
the uprise of the clans, the victory of Preston-
pans, and the invasion of England could not
NATIONAL ANIMOSITIES 3
fail to revive and intensify the ancient enmity
of the English against their northern neigh-
bours. This animosity blazed out anew under
the Bute administration, when fresh fuel was
added to it from the literary side by Wilkes
and Churchill. Nevertheless the leaven of
union was quietly at work all the time. Not
only did Scot commingle more freely with
Scot, but increasing facilities of communica-
tion allowed the southward tide of migration to
flow more freely across the Border. English
travellers also found their way in growing
numbers into that land north of the Tweed
which for centuries had been at once scorned
and feared, but which could now be every-
where safely visited. What had been satirised
as
The wretched lot
Of the poor, mean, despised, insulted Scot,
came to be the subject of banter, more or
less good humoured. The Englishman, while
retaining a due sense of his own superiority,
learnt to acknowledge that his northern neigh-
bour did really possess some good qualities
which made him not unworthy of a place in
the commonwealth, while the Scot, on his
side, discovered that his ' auld enemies ' of
England were far from being all mere ' pock-
4 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
puddings.' As the result of this greater inti-
macy of association, the smaller nation was
necessarily drawn more and more to assimilate
itself to the speech and ways of its larger,
wealthier, and more advanced partner.
But the decline in Scottish national peculi-
arities during the hundred years that followed
Culloden was slow compared with that of the
second epoch, which dates from the first half
of last century, when steam as a motive power
came into use, rapidly transforming our manu-
facturing industries, and revolutionising the
means of locomotion, alike on land and sea.
Scott in his youth saw the relics of the older
time while they were still fairly fresh and
numerous, and he has left an imperishable
memorial of them in his vivid descriptions.
Cockburn beheld the last of these relics
disappear, and as he lived well on into the
second of the two periods, he could mark
and has graphically chronicled the accelerated
rate of change.
Those of us who, like myself, can look
back across a vista of more than three score
years, and will compare what they see and
hear around them now with what they saw
and heard in their childhood, will not only
realise that the social revolution has been
SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS 5
marching along, but will be constrained to
admit that its advance has been growing
perceptibly more rapid. They must feel that
the old order has indeed changed, and though
they may wish that the modern could establish
itself with less effacement of the antique, and
may be disposed with Byron to cry,
Out upon Time ! who for ever will leave
But enough of the past for the future to grieve,
they have, at least, the consolation of re-
flecting that the changes have been, on the
whole, for the better. Happily much of the
transformation is, after all, external. The
fundamental groundwork of national character
and temperament continues to be but little
affected. The surface features and climate of
the country, with all their profound, if unper-
ceived, influences on the people, remain with
no appreciable change. Even the inevitable
wave of evolution does not everywhere roll
on with the same speed, but leaves outlying
corners and remote parishes unsubmerged,
where we may still light upon survivals of an
older day, in men and women whose ways
and language seem to carry us back a century
or more, and in customs that link us with an
even remoter past.
6 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
It would be far beyond my purpose to enter
into any discussion of the connection between
the causes that have given rise to these social
changes and the effects that have flowed from
them. The far-reaching results of the intro-
duction of steam-machinery in aggregating
communities around a few centres, in depopu-
lating the country districts, and in altering the
habits and physique of the artizans, open up
a wide subject on which I do not propose to
touch. My life has been largely passed in the
rural and mountainous parts of the country,
where increased facilities for locomotion have
certainly been the most obvious direct source
of change to the inhabitants, though other
causes have undoubtedly contributed less di-
rectly to bring about the general result. It has
been my good fortune to become acquainted
with every district of Scotland. There is
not a county, hardly a parish, which I have
not wandered over again and again. In many
of them I have spent months at a time, finding
quarters in county towns, in quiet villages,
in wayside inns, in country houses, in remote
manses, in shepherds' shielings, and in crofters'
huts. Thrown thus among all classes of
society, I have been brought in contact with
each varying phase of life of the people. Dur-
MODES OF TRAVEL 7
ing the last twenty years, though no longer
permanently resident in Scotland, I have been
led by my official duties to revisit the country
every year, even to its remotest bounds. I
have also been enabled, through the kindness
of a yachting friend, to cruise all through the
Inner and Outer Hebrides. These favourable
opportunities have allowed me to mark the
gradual decline of national peculiarities per-
haps more distinctly than would have been
possible to one continuously resident. As
a slight contribution to the history of the
social evolution in Scotland, I propose in the
following chapters to gather together such
reminiscences as may serve to indicate the
nature and extent of the changes of which I
have been a witness, and to record a few
illustrations of the manners and customs, the
habits and humour of the people with whom
I have mingled.
My memory goes back to a time before
railways had been established in Scotland,
when Edinburgh and Glasgow were connected
only by a coach-road and a canal, and when
stage-coaches still ran from the two cities
into England. I may therefore begin these
reminiscences with some reference to modes
of travel.
8 SCOTTISH KKMINISCENCES
Probably few readers are aware how recently
roads practicable for wheeled carriages have
become general over the whole country. In
the seventeenth century various attempts were
made to run stage-coaches between Edinburgh
and Leith, between Edinburgh and Had-
dington, and between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
But these efforts to open up communication,
even with the chief towns, appear to have
met with such scant support as to be soon
abandoned. The usual mode of conveyance,
for ladies as well as gentlemen, was on horse-
back. A traveller writing in 1688 states that
there were then no stage-coaches, for the
roads would hardly allow of them, and that
although some of the magnates of the land
made use of a coach and six horses, they
did so ' with so much caution that, besides
their other attendance, they have a lusty run-
ning footman on each side of the coach, to
manage and keep it up in rough places.' It
was probably not until after the suppression
of the Jacobite rising in 1715 that road-
making and road-repair were begun in earnest
For strategic purposes, military roads were
driven through the Highlands, and this im-
portant work, which continued until far on in
the century, not only opened up the High-
LOCOMOTION TO ENGLAND 9
lands to wheeled traffic, but reacted on the
general lines of communication throughout the
country. 1 By the time that railways came
into operation the main roads had been well
engineered and constructed, and were fitted
for all kinds of vehicles.
Before the beginning of the railroad period,
the inhabitants of Scotland had three means
of locomotion into England. Those who
were wealthy took their own carriages and
horses, or hired post-horses from stage to
stage. For the ordinary traveller, there were
stage-coaches on land and steamboats on the
sea.
With a comfortable carriage, and the per-
sonal effects of the occupants strapped on
behind it, posting to London was one of the
pleasant incidents of the year to those who
had leisure and money at command. Repeated
season after season, the journey brought the
travellers into close acquaintance with every
district through which the public road passed.
1 In 1773, when Mrs. Grant of Laggan, as a girl, had tc
make the journey from Inveraray to Oban there was 'no road
but the path of cattle,' 'an endless moor, without any road,
except a small footpath, through which our guide conducted
the horses with difficulty.' Letters from the Mountains, 5th
edit., vol. i., p. 4. Half a century later the conditions do not
seem to have altered much in that region, as shown in Dr.
Norman Macleod's Reminiscences of a Highland Parish.
io SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
They had a far greater familiarity with the
details of these districts than can now be
formed in railway journeys. They knew every
village, church, and country-house to be seen
along the route, and could mark the changes
made in them from year to year. At the
inns, where they halted for the night, they
were welcomed as old friends, and made to
feel themselves at home. This pleasant mode
of travelling, so graphically described in
Humphry Clinker, continued in use among
some county families long after the stage-
coaches had reached the culmination of their
speed and comfort. My old friend, T. F.
Kennedy of Dunure, used to describe to me
the delights of these yearly journeys in his
youth. Posting into England did not die
out until after the completion of the con-
tinuous railway routes, when the failure of
travellers on the road led to the giving up
of post-horses at the inns.
One of my early recollections is to have
seen the London coaches start from Princes
Street, Edinburgh. Though railways were
beginning to extend rapidly over England, no
line had yet entered Scotland, so that the
first part of the journey to London was made
by stage-coach. There was at that time no
STAGE-COACHES TO LONDON 11
line of railway, with steam locomotives, lead-
ing out of Edinburgh. Stage-coaches appear
to have been tried between London and
Edinburgh as far back as 1658, for an ad-
vertisement published in May of that year an-
nounces that they would 'go from the George
Inn without Aldersgate to Edinburgh in Scot-
land, once in three weeks for ^4 ios., with
good coaches and fresh horses on the roads.'
In May, 1734, a coach was advertised to
perform the journey between Edinburgh and
London 'in nine days, or three days sooner
than any other coach that travels the road.'
An improvement in the service, made twenty
years later, was thus described in an adver-
tisement which appeared in the Edinburgh
Evening Courant for July ist, 1754:
'The Edinburgh Stage-Coach, for the better accommo-
dation of Passengers, will be altered to a new genteel
two-end Glass Machine, hung on Steel Springs, exceeding
light and easy, to go in ten days in summer and twelve
in winter; to set out the first Tuesday in March, and
continue it from Hosea Eastgate's, the Coach and Horses
in Dean Street, Soho, London, and from John Somerville's
in the Canongate, Edinburgh, every other Tuesday, and
meet at Burrow-bridge on Saturday night, and set out from
thence on Monday morning, and get to London and
Edinburgh on Friday. In the winter to set out from
London and Edinburgh every other Monday morning and
to go to Burrow-bridge on Saturday night; and to set out
12 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
thence on Monday morning and get to London and
Edinburgh on Saturday night Passengers to pay as usual.
Performed, if God permits, by your dutiful servant,
1 HOSEA EASTGATR.
'Care is taken of small parcels according to their
value.'
Before the end of the century the frequency,
comfort, and speed of the coaches had been
considerably increased. Palmer, of the Bath
Theatre, led the way in this reform, and in
the year 1788 organised a service from London
to Glasgow, which accomplished the distance
of rather more than 400 miles in sixty-five
hours. Ten - years later, Lord Chancellor
Campbell travelled by the same system of
coaches between Edinburgh and London, and
he states that in 1 798 he ' performed the
journey in three nights and two days, Mr.
Palmer's mail-coaches being then established ;
but this swift travelling was considered danger-
ous as well as wonderful, and I was gravely
advised to stop a day at York, "as several
passengers who had gone through without
stopping had died of apoplexy from the
rapidity of the motion." The whole distance
may now (1847) be accomplished with ease
and safety in fourteen hours.' l
1 Lives of the Lard Chancellors, vol. vi, p. 50. This was
written in the early years of railway enterprise. The journey
EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW COACHES 13
Passengers between Edinburgh and Glasgow
before the days of railways had a choice of
two routes, either by road or by canal. As
far back as the summer of 1678, an Edinburgh
merchant set up a stage-coach between the
two cities to carry six passengers, but it
appears to have had no success. In 1743,
another Edinburgh merchant offered to start
a stage-coach on the same route with six
horses, to hold six passengers, to go twice a
week in summer and once in winter. But
his proposal does not appear to have met
with adequate support. At last, in 1 749, a kind
of covered spring-cart, known as the ' Edin-
burgh and Glasgow Caravan,' was put upon
the road and performed the journey of forty-
four miles in two days. Nine years later,
in 1758, the 'Fly,' so called on account of
its remarkable speed, actually accomplished
the distance in twelve hours. The establish-
ment of Palmer's improved stage-coaches led
to a further advance in the communica-
tions between Edinburgh and Glasgow, but
it was not until 1799 that the time taken in
the journey was reduced to six hours. In my
is now performed every day in seven hours and three quar-
ters, and the time will probably be further shortened in the
not distant future.
14 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
boyhood, before the stage-coaches were driven
off by the railway, various improvements on
the roads, the carriages, and the arrangements
connected with the horses, had brought down
the time to no more than four hours and a
half. 1
Much more leisurely was the transit on the
Union Canal. The boats were comfortably
fitted up and were drawn by a cavalcade of
horses, urged forward by postboys. It was
a novel and delightful sensation, which I can
still recall, to see fields, trees, cottages, and
hamlets flit past, as if they formed a vast
moving panorama, while one seemed to be
sitting absolutely still. For mere luxury of
transportation, such canal-travel stands quite
unrivalled Among its drawbacks, however,
are the long detentions at the locks. But as
everything was new to me in my first ex-
pedition to the west, I remember enjoying
these locks with the keenest pleasure, some-
times remaining in the boat, and feeling it
slowly floated up or let down, sometimes
walking along the margin and watching the
rush of the water through the gradually
opening sluices.
Both the stage-coaches and the passenger
1 Chambers' Domestic Annals of Scotland, vols. ii. and iii.
LOCH KATRINE IN 1843 15
boats on the canal were disused after the
opening of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway
in the spring of 1842. A few weeks sub-
sequent to the running of the first trains,
the Glasgow Courier announced that 'the
whole of the stage-coaches from Glasgow and
Edinburgh are now off the road, with the
exception of the six o'clock morning coach,
which is kept running in consequence of its
carrying the mail bags.'
Steamboats had not yet been introduced
upon the large freshwater lakes of Scotland,
except upon Loch Lomond, when I visited
the Trossachs region for the first time in 1843.
I was rowed the whole length of Loch Katrine
in a boat by four stout Highlanders, who
sang Gaelic songs, to the cadence of which
they kept time with their oars. It was my
first entry into the Highlands, and could not
have been more impressive. The sun was
almost setting as the boat pushed off from
Stronachlachar and all the glories of the
western sky were cast upon the surrounding
girdle of mountains, the reflections of which
fell unbroken on the mirror-like surface of
the water. As we advanced and the sunset
tints died away, the full autumn moon rose
above the crest of Ben Venue, and touched
16 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
off the higher crags with light, while the
shadows gathered in deepening black along
the lower slopes and the margin of the water.
Before we reached the lower end of the lake
the silvery sheen filled all the pass of the
Trossachs above the sombre forest. The
forms of the hills, the changing lights in the
sky, and the weird tunes of the boatmen
combined to leave on my memory a picture
as vivid now as when it was impressed
sixty years ago.
No more remarkable contrast between the
present tourist traffic in this lake region and
that of the early part of last century could be
supplied than that which is revealed by an
incident recorded as having occurred about
the year 1814, four years after the publica-
tion of Scott's Lady of the Lake. An old
Highlander, who was met on the top of Ben
Lomond, said he had been a guide from the
north side of the mountain for upwards of
forty years ; ' but that d d Walter Scott,
that everybody makes such a work about ! '
exclaimed he with vehemence ' I wish I
had him to ferry over Loch Lomond : I
should be after sinking the boat, if I drowned
myself into the bargain ; for ever since he
wrote his Lady of the Lake, as they call it,
SCOTT AND THE HIGHLANDS 17
everybody goes to see that filthy hole Loch
Katrine, then comes round by Luss, and I
have had only two gentlemen to guide all
this blessed season, which is now at an end.
I shall never see the top of Ben Lomond
again ! The devil confound his ladies and
his lakes, say I ! ' l
If this indignant mountaineer could re-
visit his early haunts, his grandchildren would
have a very different story to tell him of the
poet's influence. For one visitor to his be-
loved mountain in his day there must now
be at least a hundred, almost all of whom
have had their first longing to see that re-
gion kindled by the poems and tales of Scott.
No man ever did so much to make his
country known and attractive as the Author
of Waver ley has done for Scotland. His
fictitious characters have become historical
personages in the eyes of the thousands of
pilgrims who every year visit the scenes he
has described. In threading the pass of the
Trossachs, they try to see where Fitz James
must have lost his 'gallant grey.' In passing
Ellen's Isle, they scrutinise it, if haply any
1 Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland
[Captain Burt], 5th edit., vol. i., p. 203, footnote by Editor
R. Jamieson.
B
i8 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
relics of her home have survived. At Coilan-
togle Ford they want to know the exact spot
where the duel was fought between the King
and Roderick Dhu. At Aberfoyle they look
out for the Clachan, or some building that
must stand on its site, and their hearts are
comforted by finding suspended to a tree on
the village green the veritable coulter with
which Bailie Nicol Jarvie burnt the big
Highlander's plaid. So delighted indeed
have the tourists been with this relic of the
past that they have surreptitiously carried it
off more than once, and have thus compelled
the village smith each time to manufacture
a new antique.
Before steam navigation was introduced,
packet ships sailed between Leith and London
carrying both passengers and goods. But as
the time taken on the journey depended on
winds and waves, these vessels supplied a
somewhat uncertain and even risky mode
of transit. Thus in November, 1743, an
Edinburgh newspaper announced that the
Edinburgh and Glasgow packet from London,
' after having great stress of weather for twenty
days, has lately arrived safe at Holy Island
and is soon expected in Leith harbour.'
The first steamboats that plied between
STEAMBOATS TO LONDON 19
Leith and London were much smaller in size
and more primitive in their appointments than
their successors of to-day. Mineral oil had
not come into use, and animal and vegetable
oils were dear. Hence the saloons and cabins
were lighted with candles, and, as wicks that
require no snuffing were not then in vogue,
it may be imagined that the illumination could
not be brilliant, and that candle grease was
apt to descend in frequent drops upon what-
ever happened to lie below. The Rev. Dr.
Lindsay Alexander used to tell that when he
once accompanied a brother clergyman in the
steamboat to London, they were unable to
obtain berths in any of the state-rooms, and
had to content themselves each with a sofa
in the saloon. In the middle of the night
he was awakened by a groaning which seemed
to come from the sofa of his elderly friend.
Starting up, he enquired if the doctor was in
pain. The answer came in a shaky voice :
'I'm afraid I've had a stroke of paralysis.'
In an instant the younger man was out of
bed, calling for a light, as the candles had
all burnt themselves into their sockets. When
the light came, the reverend gentleman was
seen to have been lying immediately below
the drip of a guttering candle, and the drops
20 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
of tallow, falling on his cheek, had congealed
there into a cake that had gradually spread
up to his eye. As he could not move the
muscles of his face, the poor man's imagination
had transferred the powerlessness to the rest
of his side. With the help of the steward,
however, the hardened grease was scraped off,
and the doctor, recovering the use of his facial
muscles, was able once more to drop off to
sleep.
Railroads have been unquestionably the most
powerful agents of social change in Scotland.
From the opening of the first line down to
the present time, I have watched the yearly
multiplication of lines, until the existing net-
work of them has been constructed. Had it
been possible, at the beginning, to anticipate
this rapid development, and to foresee the
actual requirements of the various districts
through which branch-lines have been formed,
probably the railway-map would have been
rather different from what it now is. Some
local lines would never have been built, or
would have followed different routes from those
actually chosen. The competition of the rival
companies has led to a wasteful expenditure
of their capital, and to the construction of
lines which either do not pay their expenses,
RAILWAY RIVALRY 21
or yield only a meagre return for the outlay
disbursed upon them. A notable instance
of the effects of this rivalry was seen in
the competition of two great companies for the
construction of a line between Carnwath on
the Caledonian system and Leadburn on the
North British. The country through which
the route was to be taken was sparsely peopled,
being partly pastoral, partly agricultural, but
without any considerable village. When the
contest was in progress, a farmer from the
district was asked to state what he knew of
traffic between Carnwath and Dolphinton, a
small hamlet in Lanarkshire. His answer
was, ' Od, there's an auld wife that comes
across the hills ance in a fortnicht wi' a
basket o' ribbons, but that's a' the traffic I
ken o'.' The minister of Dolphinton, being
eager to have a railway through his parish,
set himself to ascertain the number of cattle
that passed along the road daily in front of
his manse. He was said to have counted the
same cow many times in the same day. The
result of the competition was a compromise.
Each railway company obtained powers to
construct a new line which was to run to
Dolphinton and there terminate. And these
two lines to this hamlet of a few cottages,
22 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
and not as many as 300 people, were actually
constructed and have been in operation for
many years. Each of them has its terminal
station at Dolphinton, with station-master and
porters. But there were not, and so far as I
know, there are not now, any rails connecting
the two lines across the road. This diminu-
tive village thus enjoys the proud preemin-
ence of being perhaps the smallest place in the
three kingdoms which has two distinct terminal
stations on each side of its road, worked by
two independent and rival companies.
Not long .after the opening of the North
British line to Dolphinton, I spent a day at
the southern end of the Pentland Hills, and
in the evening, making my way to the village,
found the train with its engine attached. The
station was as solitary as a churchyard. After
I had taken my seat in one of the carriages,
the guard appeared from some doorway in
the station, and I heard the engine-driver shout
out to him, * Weel, Jock, hae ye got your
passenger in ? '
The opening of a railway through some of
these lonely upland regions was a momentous
event in their history. Up till then many
districts which possessed roads were not tra-
versed by any public coach nor by many
EARLY DAYS OF RAILWAYS 23
private carriages, while in other parishes,
where roads either did not exist or were
extremely bad and unfit for wheeled traffic,
the sight of a swiftly-moving train was one
that drew the people from far and near.
Some time, however, had to elapse before
the country-folk could accustom themselves
to the rapidity and (comparative) punctuality
of railroad travelling. When the old horse-
tramways ran, it was a common occurrence
for a train to be stopped in order to pick up
a passenger, or to let one down by the road-
side, and it is said that this easy-going prac-
tice used to be repeated now and then in the
early days of branch-railways. An old lady
from Culter parish, who came down to the
railway not long after it was opened, arrived
at the station just as the train had started.
When told that she was too late, for the train
had already gone beyond the station, she ex-
claimed, ' Dod, I maun rin then,' and pro-
ceeded at her highest speed along the plat-
form, while the station-master shouted after
her to stop. She was indignant that he
would not whistle for the train to halt or
come back for her.
Railway construction in the Highlands came
later than it did in the Lowlands, and entered
24 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
among another race of people with different
habits from those of their southern fellow-
countrymen. The natural disposition of an
ordinary Highlander would not often lead
him to choose the hard life of a navvy, and
volunteer to aid in the heavy work of railway
construction. The following anecdote illus-
trates a racial characteristic which probably
could not have been met with in the Lowlands.
During the formation of one of the lines of
railway through the Highlands a man came
to the contractor and asked for a job at the
works, when .the following conversation took
place :
' Well, Donald, you've come for work, have
you ? and what can you do ? '
''Deed, I can do onything.'
' Well, there's some spade and barrow work
going on ; you can begin on that.'
'Ach, but I wadna just like to be workin'
wi' a spade and a wheelbarrow.'
4 O, would you not ? Then yonder's some
rock that needs to be broken away. Can
you wield a pick ? '
4 1 wass never usin' a pick, whatefer.'
' Well, my man, I don't know anything I can
give you to do.'
So Donald went away crestfallen. But
LIGHT LABOUR 25
being of an observing turn of mind, he walked
along the rails, noting the work of each gang
of labourers, until he came to a signal-box,
wherein he saw a man seated, who came out
now and then, waved a flag, and then resumed
his seat. This appeared to Donald to be an
occupation entirely after his own heart. He
made enquiry of the man, ascertained his
hours and his rate of pay, and returned
to the contractor, who, when he saw him,
good-naturedly asked :
' What, back again, Donald ? Have you
found out what you can do ? '
''Deed, I have, sir. I would just like to
get auchteen shullins a week, and to do that '
holding out his arm and gently waving the
stick he had in his hand.
A desire to select the lightest part of the
work, however, is not peculiar to the Celtic
nature, but comes out, strongly enough, some-
times, in the Lowlands, as was illustrated by
the proposal of a quarryman to share the
labour with a comrade. ' If ye ram, Jamie,'
said he, ' I'll pech ' ; that is, if his friend
would work the heavy iron sledge-hammer,
he himself would give the puff or pant with
which the workmen accompany each stroke
they make.
26 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
The unpunctuality of the railways, the
dirtiness of the carriages on branch lines,
and the frequent incivility of the officials are
only too familiar to all who have to travel
much upon the system of at least one of
the Scottish companies. A worthy country-
man who had come from the north-east side
of the kingdom by train to Cowlairs, was told
that the next stoppage would be Glasgow.
He at once began to get all his little packages
ready, and remarked to a fellow-passenger,
1 I'm sailin' for China this week, but I'm
thinkin' I'm by the warst o' the journey noo.'
It must be confessed, however, that the
railway officials often have their forbearance
sorely tested, especially in the large mining
districts, where the roughness and violence of
the mob of passengers can sometimes hardly
be held in check, and where the temptation
to retaliate after the same fashion may be
difficult to resist. Having also to be on
the watch for dishonesty, they are apt to
develop a suspiciousness which sometimes,
though perhaps needlessly, exasperates the
honest traveller. Occasionally their sagacity
is scarcely a match for the knavery of a
dishonest Scot. Thus, a man, when the
ticket collector came round, was fumbling in
STEAMBOATS ON WEST COAST 27
all his pockets for his ticket, until the official,
losing patience, said he would come back for
it. When he returned, noticing that the
man had the ticket between his lips, he in-
dignantly snatched it away. Whereupon a
fellow -passenger remarked, ' You must be
singularly absent-minded not to remember
that you had put your ticket in your mouth.'
No sae absent-minded as ye wad think,'
was the answer ; ' I was jist rubbin' oot the
auld date wi' my tongue.'
Perhaps the most striking evidence of the
effect of increased facilities for locomotion and
traffic upon the habits of the population is pre-
sented by the western coast of the country,
or the region usually spoken of as the West
Highlands and Islands. Few parts of Britain
are now more familiar to the summer tourist
than the steamboat tracks through that region.
Every year thousands of holiday-makers are
carried rapidly and comfortably in swift and
capacious vessels through that archipelago of
mountainous land and blue sea. They have,
as it were, a vast panorama unrolled before
them, which changes in aspect and interest at
every mile of their progress. For the most
part, however, they obtain and carry away
with them merely a kind of general and
28 SCOTTISH REMINISCKN*
superficial impression of the scenery, though
the memory of it may remain indelibly fixed
among their most delightful experiences of
travel. They can have little or no concep-
tion of the interior of those islands or of
the glens and straths of the mainland, still
less of the inhabitants and their ways and
customs. Nor, as they are borne pleasantly
along past headland and cliff, can they
adequately realise what the conditions of
travel were before the days of commodious
passenger-steamers.
When Johnson and Boswell landed in Skye
in the year 1773, there was not a road in the
whole island practicable for a wheeled carri-
age. Locomotion, when not afoot, was either
on horseback or by boat. The inland bridle-
tracks lay among loose boulders, over rough,
bare rock, or across stretches of soft and some-
times treacherous bog. The boats were often
leaky, the oars and rowlocks unsound, the
boatmen unskilful ; while the weather, even in
summer, is often boisterous enough to make
the navigation of the sea-lochs and sounds
difficult or impossible for small craft. And
such continued to be the conditions in which
the social life of the West Highlands was
carried on long after Johnson's time. During
DAVID HUTCHESON'S SERVICES 29
the first thirty or more years of last century
the voyage from the Clyde to Skye was
made in sailing packets, and generally took
from ten to fifteen days. It was not until
steamboats began to ply along the coast that
the scattered islands were brought into closer
touch with each other and with the Lowlands.
To the memory of David Hutcheson, who
organised the steamboat service among the
Western Highlands and Islands, Scotland
owes a debt of gratitude. The development
of this service has been the gradual evolution
of some seventy years. Half a century ago
it was far from having reached its present
state of advancement. There were then no
steamers up the West Coast to Skye and the
Outer Hebrides, save those which carried
cargo and came round the Mull of Cantyre.
During the herring season, and about the
times of the cattle-markets, the irregularities
and discomfort of these vessels can hardly be
exaggerated. When the decks were already
loaded perhaps with odoriferous barrels of
herring, and when it seemed impossible that
they could hold anything more, the vessel
might have to make a long detour to the
head of some mountain-girdled sea-loch to
fetch away a flock of sheep, or a herd of
30 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
Highland cattle. At most of the places of
call there were no piers. Passengers had ac-
cordingly to disembark in small boats, some-
times at a considerable distance from high-
water mark, to which, perhaps in the middle
of the night, they scrambled across sea-weed
and slippery shingle.
As a steamboat called at each place in
summer only once, in later years twice, in a
week, and in winter only once in a fortnight,
the day of its arrival was eagerly looked for-
ward to by the population, in expectation of
the supplies of all kinds, as well as the letters
and newspapers, which it brought from the
south. You never could be sure at what hour
of the day or night it might make its appear-
ance, and if you expected friends -to arrive
by it, or if you proposed yourself to take a
passage in it, you needed to be on the
watch, perhaps for many weary hours. In
fine weather, this detention was endurable
enough ; but in the frequent storms of wind
and rain, much patience and some strength
of constitution were needed to withstand the
effects of the exposure. The desirability of
having waiting-rooms or places of shelter of
any kind is evgn yet not fully realised by
the Celtic mirfd.
SOMETIMES SOONER, WHILES EARLIER' 31
The native islander, however, seemed never
to feel, or at least would never acknowledge
these various inconveniences. It was so great
a boon to have the steamers at all, and he had
now got so used to them that he could not
imagine a state of things different from that
to which he had grown accustomed. Nor
would he willingly allow any imperfections in
David Hutcheson's arrangements, on which
he depended for all his connection with the
outer world. I remember a crofter in the
island of Eigg, who, when asked when the
steamer would arrive, replied at once, ' Weel,
she'll be com in' sometimes sooner, and whiles
earlier, and sometimes before that again.'
The idea of lateness was a reproach which
he woukUnot, acknowledge.
William Black, the novelist, used to tell of
. an English clergyman who, having break-
fasted and paid his bill at Tobermory, was
anxious for the arrival of the steamboat that
was to take him north. He made his way
to the pier, and walked up and down there
for a time, but could see no sign of the vessel.
At last, accosting a Highlander, who, leaning
against a wall, was smoking a cutty-pipe, he
asked him when the Skye steamer would call.
Out came the pipe, followed by the laconic
32 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
answer, ' That's her smoke,' and the speaker
pointed in the direction of the Sound of Mull.
The traveller for a time could observe nothing
to indicate the expected vessel, but at last
noticed a streak of dark smoke rising against
the Morven Hills on the far side of the
island that guards the front of the little bay
of Tobermory. When at last the steamer itself
rounded the point and came fully into sight,
it seemed to the clergyman a much smaller
vessel than he had supposed it would be,
and he remarked to the Highlander, 'That
the Skye -steamer! that boat will surely
never get to Skye.' The pipe was whisked
out again to make way for the indignant
reply, ' She'll be in Skye this afternoon, if
nothin' happens to Skye.' The order of
nature might conceivably go wrong, but
Hutcheson's arrangements could be absolutely
depended upon.
The captains of these steamers were person-
ages of some consequence on the west coast
Usually skilful pilots and agreeable men, they
came to be on familiar terms with the lairds and
farmers all along their route, whom they were
always glad to oblige and from whom they
received in return many tangible proofs of
recognition and good-will. At the end of a
WEST-COAST STEAMBOATS 33
visit which I had been paying to friends on
the south coast of Mull, the captain, to whom
my kind host had previously written, brought
his vessel a little out of his way in order to
pick me up. The shore being full of rocks
and reefs, my boat had to pull some distance
out to the steamer, so that the tourist passengers
had time to gratify their curiosity by crowding
to one side to see the cause of this unusual
stoppage. When the boat came alongside its
cargo was transhipped in the following order :
first a letter for the captain, next a live sheep,
then a portmanteau, and lastly myself. There
were many inquisitive glances at the scantiness
of my flock, but the sheep had been sent as a
present from my host to the captain, in recog-
nition of some little services which he had
lately been rendering to the family.
I have known a number of these captains,
and have often been struck with their quiet
dignity and good nature in circumstances that
must have tried their temper and patience.
They had much responsibility, and must often
have had anxious moments in foggy or stormy
weather. Now and then a vessel met with
an accident, or was even shipwrecked, but the
rarity of such always possible mishaps afforded
good proof of the skilful seamanship with which
34 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the Hutcheson fleet was handled. There was
always a heavy traffic in goods. Scores of
cases, boxes, barrels, and parcels of all conceiv-
able shapes and sizes had to be taken on
board and distributed at the various places of
call. Live stock had to be adequately ac-
commodated, and the varying times and direc-
tion of the tides had to be allowed for. Then
there was the tourist- traffic, which, though
small in those days compared with what it has
now grown to, required constant care and
watchfulness. Not improbably the human part
of his cargo gave a captain more trouble than
the rest The average tourist is apt to be
selfish and unreasonable, ready to find fault
if everything does not go precisely as he wished
and expected. He is usually inquisitive, too,
and doubtless asks the same questions that
are put to the captain and seamen of the ship
season after season. He has formed certain
anticipations in his own mind of what he is
to see, and when these are not quite realised
he wants to know why. A common hallucina-
tion among travellers south of the Tweed
clothes every Highlander in a kilt, and surprise
is often expressed that the ' garb of old Gaul '
is so seldom seen. The answer of one of
David Hutcheson's officers should suffice for
TOURISTS ON WEST COAST 35
all who give vent to this surprise : ' Oh no,
nobody wears the kilt here but fools and
Englishmen.'
Various anecdotes are in circulation about
the passengers and crew of these western
steamboats. One of these narratives, of which
different versions have been told, relates how
on a dull, drizzling, and misty evening, when
every attention had to be given to the
rather intricate navigation, a lady began to
ask questions of the man at the wheel. He
answered her as briefly as possible for a time ;
but, as she still plied him with queries, he at
last lost his temper and abruptly desired her
to go to the nether regions. She retired in
high dudgeon and sought out the captain,
insisting that the man should be discharged,
and that she would report the matter to Mr.
Hutcheson. The captain tried to soothe her,
expressing his own regret at the language that
had been used to her, and assuring her that
he would make the man apologise to her for
his conduct. She thereupon went down to the
saloon and poured out her indignation to some
of her fellow-passengers. In the midst of her
talk, a man in dripping oilskins and cap in
hand appeared at the door, and, after some
hesitation and looking round the company,
36 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
advanced to the irate lady and said, ' Are you
the leddy I tellt to gang to hell ? Weel, the
captain says ye needna gang yet' Such was
the apology.
I well remember, when as a lad of eighteen
I first visited Skye, that the steamer carrying
the usual miscellaneous cargo in the hold and
on deck, after rounding the Mull had made
so many calls, and had so much luggage and
merchandise to discharge at each halt, that
it was past midnight of the second day before
we came into Broadford Bay. The disembarka-
tion was by small-boat, and as we made our
way shorewards, the faces of the oarsmen
were at every stroke lit up with the pale,
ghostly light of a phosphorescent sea. The
night was dark, but with the aid of a dim
lantern one could mount the rough beach,
where I was met by a son of the Rev. John
Mackinnon of Kilbride, with whom I had
come to spend a few weeks. We had a
drive of some five miles inland, enlivened
with Gaelic songs which my young friend
and his cousin screamed at the pitch of their
voices. At a certain part of the road they
became suddenly silent, or only spoke to each
other in whispers. We were then passing
the old graveyard at Kilchrist ; but when we
37
had got to what was judged a safe distance
beyond it and its ghosts, the hilarity began
anew, and lasted until we came to our destina-
tion between two and three o'clock in the
morning.
The introduction of the electric telegraph
naturally aroused much curiosity in the rural
population as to how the wires could carry
messages. A West Highlander who had been
to Glasgow and was consequently supposed
to have got to the bottom of the mystery,
was asked to explain it. 'Weel,' said he,
'it's no easy to explain what you will no be
understandin'. But I'll tell ye what it's like.
If you could stretch my collie dog frae Oban
to Tobermory, an' if you wass to clap its
head in Oban, an' it waggit its tail in Tober-
mory, or if I wass to tread on its tail in
Oban an' it squaked in Tobermory that's
what the telegraph is like.'
CHAPTER II.
TRACES of Paganism in Scotland. Relics of the Celtic Church ;
'Deserts.' Survival of Roman Catholicism in West High-
lands and Islands. Influence of the Protestant clergy.
Highland ministers. Lowland ministers. Diets of cate-
chising. Street preachers.
THE social history of Scotland has been inti-
mately linked with the successive ecclesiastical
polities which have held sway in the country.
Nowhere can the external and visible records
of these polities be more clearly seen than
among the Western Isles, for there the politi-
cal revolutions have been less violent, though
not less complete, than in other parts of the
country, and the effacement of the memorials
of the past has been brought about, more
perhaps by the quiet influence of time, than
by the ruthless hand of man. First of all we
meet with various lingering relics of Paganism ;
then with abundant and often well-preserved
records of the primitive Celtic Church ; next
RELICS OF PAGANISM 39
with evidence of the spread of the Roman
Catholic faith ; further with the establishment
of Protestantism, but without the complete
eradication of the older religion ; and lastly
with the doings of the various religious sects
into which the inhabitants are now unhappily
divided.
Various memorials of Paganism may be
recognised, to some of which further reference
will be made in a later chapter. Of these
memorials, the numerous standing stones are
the most conspicuous, whether as single mono-
liths, marking the grave of some forgotten
hero or dedicated to some unknown divinity,
or as groups erected doubtless for religious
purposes, like the great assemblage at Caller-
nish in the Lewis. Besides these stones,
many burial mounds, resting-places of the
pagan dead, have yielded relics of the Stone
and Bronze Ages. In some respects more
impressive even than these relics, are the
superstitious customs which still survive
amongst us, and have probably descended
uninterruptedly from pagan times ; such, for
instance, as the practice of walking around
wells and other places three times from east
to west, as the sun moves, and the practice
of leaving offerings at the springs which are
40 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
resorted to for curative purposes. Some of
these customs were continued by the early
Celtic Church, persisted afterwards through
the Roman Catholic period, and even now,
in spite of all the efforts of Protestant zeal,
they have not been wholly extirpated.
The vestiges of the early Celtic Church,
by which Paganism was superseded, are speci-
ally abundant in the Highlands. Even where
all visible memorials have long since vanished,
the name of many a devoted saint and
missionary still clings to the place where he
or she had^a chapel or hermitage, or where
some cell was dedicated to their memory. The
names of Columba, Bridget, Oran, Donan,
Fillan, Ronan, and others are as familiar on
the lips of modern Highlanders as they were
on those of their forefathers, although the
historical meaning and interest of these names
may be unknown to those who use them now.
When, besides the name attached to the place,
the actual building remains with which the
name was first associated in the sixth or some
later century, the interest deepens, especially
where the relic stands, as so many of them
do, on some small desolate islet, placed far amid
the melancholy main, and often for weeks
together difficult or impossible of approach,
DESERTS OF THE CELTIC SAINTS 41
even now, with the stouter boats of the present
day. Such places, like those off the west
coast of Ireland, were sought for retirement
from the work and worry of the world, where
the missionary devoted himself to meditation
and prayer. The numerous Deserts, Diserts,
Dysarts, and Dyserts in Ireland and Scotland
are all forms of the Gaelic word Disert, de-
rived from the Latin Desertum, a desert
or sequestered place, and mark retreats of
the early propagandists of Christianity. It
fills one with amazement and admiration to
contemplate the heroism and self-devotion
which could lead these men in their frail
coracles to such sea-washed rocks, where there
is often no soil to produce any vegetation, and
where, except by impounding rain, there can
be no supply of fresh water.
Perhaps the most striking of these ' deserts '
in Scotland is to be found on the uninhabited
rock known as Sula Sgeir, which rises out of
the Atlantic, about forty miles to the north
of the Butt of Lewis. Though much less
imposing in height and size than the Skellig
off the coast of Kerry, it is at least four times
further from the land, and must consequently
have been still more difficult to reach in primi-
tive times. I had a few years ago an oppor-
42 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
tunity of landing on this rock, during a yachting
cruise to the Faroe Islands. With some little
difficulty, on account of the heavy swell, I
succeeded in scrambling ashore, and found the
rock to consist of gneiss, like that of the Long
Island. My arrival disturbed a numerous
colony of sea-fowl. The puffins emerged from
their holes, and sat gazing at me with their
whimsical wistful look. Flocks of razorbills
and guillemots circled overhead, filling the
air with their screams, while the gannets, angry
that their mates should be disturbed from their
nests, wheeled to and fro still higher, with
mocking shouts of ha ! ha ! ha ! A dank
grey sea-fog hung over the summit of the
islet Everything was damp with mist and
clammy with birds' droppings, which in a dry
climate would gather as a deposit of guano.
Loathsome pools of rain-water and sea-spray,
putrid with excrement, filled the hollows of the
naked rock, while the air was heavy with the
odours of living and dead birds. The only
things of beauty in the place were the tufts of
sea-pink that grew luxuriantly in the crannies.
Some traces of recent human occupation could
be seen in the form of a few rude stone-huts
erected as shelters by the men who now and
then come to take off the gannets and their
THE SAINT OF SULA SGEIR 43
eggs, and who when there lately had left some
heaps of unused peat behind them.
Yet this desolate, bird-haunted rock, with
the heavy surf breaking all round it and re-
sounding from its chasms and caves, was the
place chosen by one of the Celtic saints as
his ' desert.' His little rude chapel yet remains,
built of rough stones and still retaining its
roof of large flags. It measures inside about
fourteen feet in length by from six to eight
in breadth, with an entrance doorway and
one small window-opening, beneath which the
altar-stone still lies in place. There could
hardly ever have been a community here ; one
is puzzled to understand how even the saint
himself succeeded in reaching this barren rock,
and how he supported himself on it during
his stay. He came, no doubt, in one of the
light skin-covered coracles, which could con-
tain but a slender stock of provisions. When
these were exhausted, if the weather forbade
his return to Lewis or to the mainland, he
had no fuel on the rock to fall back upon,
with which to cook any of the eggs or birds
of the islet, and there was no edible vegetation,
save the dulse or other sea-weeds growing
between tide-marks.
With the decay and dissolution of the Celtic
44 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
Church, probably many of the chapels erected
by that community were forsaken and allowed
to fall into ruin. But some continued to be
used, and were even enlarged or rebuilt, when
the Church of Rome established its rule over
the whole country. Architecture had mean-
while made an onward step. The buildings
erected by the emissaries of Rome presented a
strong contrast to those which they replaced,
for they were solidly built with lime, in a
much more ornate style, with a freer use of
sculpture and on a much larger scale. The
old church 'of Rodil, in Harris, for example,
belonging perhaps to the thirteenth century,
is full of sculptured figures ; while the Cathe-
dral of lona would hold some dozens of the
primitive cells.
In various parts of the country evidence
may be seen that the Celtic sculptured stones
had ceased to be respected, either as religious
monuments or as works of art, when the
Roman Catholic churches were erected. At
St Andrews, for example, the old chapel of
St. Regulus, probably built between the tenth
and twelfth centuries, was allowed to remain,
and it still stands, roofless indeed, but in
wonderful preservation as regards the masonry
of its walls. But of the crosses that rose
ROMAN CATHOLICISM IN HEBRIDES 45
above the sward around it, many of them
delicately carved with interlaced work in the
true Celtic style, some were broken up and
actually used as building material for the
great Cathedral which was begun in the year
1 1 60. Again, at St. Vigeans, in Forfarshire,
a large quantity of similar sculptured stones of
the Celtic period was built into the masonry
of the twelfth-century church erected there
under the Latin hierarchy.
The Roman Catholic faith, which once pre-
vailed universally over the country, still
maintains its place on some of the islands,
particularly Barra, Benbecula, and South Uist,
and in certain districts of the mainland. In
Eigg, about half of the population is still
Catholic, the other half being divided be-
tween the Established and Free Churches.
The three clergymen, Protestant and Roman
Catholic, when I first visited the island, were
excellent friends, and used to have pleasant
evenings together over their toddy and talk.
The Catholic memorial chapel to the memory
of Lord Howard of Glossop was determined
'to be erected in one of the Catholic islands,'
and Canna was chosen as its site. The
building has been placed there, and with its
high Norman tower now forms a conspicuous
46 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
landmark for leagues to east and west. But
the crofter population is gone, and with it
Catholicism has disappeared from Canna,
though some five crofter families still live on
the contiguous island of Sanday.
In my peregrinations through the Catholic
districts of the west of Scotland I have often
been struck with some interesting contrasts
between them and similar regions in Ireland,
where Catholic and Protestant live together.
The Scottish priests have always seemed to
me a better educated class and more men
of the world than their brethren in Ireland.
Students who have been trained abroad
have their ideas widened and their manners
polished, as is hardly possible in the case
of those who leave their villages to be
trained at Maynooth, whence they are sent
to recommence village life as parish priests.
Again, there has always appeared to me to
be in the West Highlands far less of the
antagonism which in Ireland separates Catho-
lics and Protestants. They live together as
good neighbours, and, unless you actually
make enquiry, you cannot easily discriminate
between them.
No feature in the social changes which
Scotland has undergone stands out more
SCOTTISH PROTESTANT CLERGY 47
conspicuously than the part played in these
changes by the clergy since the Reformation.
This clerical influence has been both benefi-
cial and baneful. On the one hand, the
clergy have unquestionably taken a large
share in the intellectual development of the
people, and in giving to the national char-
acter some of its most distinctive qualities.
For many generations, in face of a lukewarm
or even hostile nobility and government, they
bore the burden of the parish schools, ela-
borating and improving a system of instruc-
tion which made their country for a long
time the best educated community in Europe.
They have held up the example of a high
moral standard, and have laboured with the
most unremitting care to train their flocks in
the paths of righteousness.
On the other hand, the clergy, having from
the very beginning of Protestantism obtained
control over the minds and consciences of
the people, have naturally used this powerful
influence to make their theological tenets
prevail throughout the length and breadth
of the land. They early developed a spirit
of intolerance and fanaticism, and with this
same spirit they succeeded in imbuing their
people, repressing the natural and joyous
48 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
impulses of humanity, and establishing an
artificial and exacting code of conduct, the
enforcement of which led to an altogether
hurtful clerical domination. While waging
war against older forms of superstition, they
introduced new forms which added to the
terrors and the gloom of life. These trans-
formations were longest in reaching their
climax among the Highlands and Islands, but
have there attained their most complete de-
velopment, as will be further pointed out in
a later chapter. Happily, in the Lowlands
for the last two hundred years, their effects
have been slowly passing away. The growth
of tolerance and enlightenment is increas-
ingly marked both among the clergy and the
laity. But the old leaven is not even yet
wholly eradicated, though it now works within
a comparatively narrow and continually con-
tracting sphere.
Nevertheless, even those who have least
sympathy with the theological tenets and eccle-
siastical system of the Scottish clergy must
needs acknowledge that, as earnest and inde-
fatigable workers for the spiritual and tem-
poral good of their flocks, as leaders in every
movement for the benefit of the community,
and as fathers of families, these men deserve
SCOTTISH MINISTERS 49
the ample commendation which they have re-
ceived. Their limited stipends have allowed
them but a slender share of the material
comforts and luxuries of life, and compara-
tively few of them have enjoyed opportunities
to ' augment their small peculiar,' yet they
have, as a whole, set a noble example of
self-denial, thrift, and benevolence. Secure
at least of their manses, they have con-
trived ' to live on little with a cheerful heart,'
respected and esteemed of men. While sup-
plying the material wants of their people, as
far as their means would allow, they have
yet been able to provide a good education
for their families, and to
Put forth their sons to seek preferment out;
Some to the wars, to try their fortune there;
Some to discover islands far away ;
Some to the studious universities.
The 'sons of the manse ' are found filling
positions of eminence in every walk of life.
With all this excellence of character and
achievement, the clergy of Scotland have
maintained an individuality which has strongly
marked them as a class among the other
professions of the country. This peculiarity
is well exemplified in the innumerable anec-
dotes which, either directly or indirectly con-
50 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
nected with clergymen, form so large a
proportion of what are known as ' Scotch
Stories.' If we seek for the cause of the
prominence of the clerical element in the
accepted illustrations of Scottish humour, we
shall hardly find it in any exceptional exuber-
ance of that quality among the reverend
gentlemen themselves, taken as a body, though
many of their number have been among the
most humorous and witty of their countrymen.
As they were long drawn from almost every
grade in the social scale of the kingdom,
they have undoubtedly presented an admirable
average type of the national idiosyncrasies,
though they are now recruited in diminishing
measure from the landed and cultured ranks
of society. Their number, their general dis-
persion over the whole land, their prominence
in their parishes, the influence wielded by
many of them in the church-courts and on
public platforms, and the free intercourse be-
tween them and the people, have all helped to
draw attention to them and to their sayings
and doings. Moreover, since dissent from the
National Church began, the clergy have been
greatly multiplied. In each parish, where there
was once only one minister, there are now
two or even more.
CLERICAL CHARACTERISTICS 51
A Scots proverb avers that ' A minister's
legs should never be seen,' meaning that he
should not be met with out of the pulpit.
So long as he remains there, he stands in-
vested with ' such divinity as doth hedge a
king ' : unassailable, uncontradictable, and
wielding the authority of a messenger from
God to man. The very isolation and emi-
nence of this position call attention to any
merely human qualities or frailties which he
may disclose in ordinary life. His parish-
ioners, though inwardly glad if he can shed
upon them ' the gracious dew of pulpit
eloquence,' at the same time delight to find
him, when divested of his gown and bands,
after all, one of themselves ; and while they
enjoy his humour, when he possesses that
saving grace, they are not unwilling some-
times to take his little peculiarities as subjects
for their own mirthful but not ill-natured
remarks. He may thus be like Falstaff, 'not
only witty himself, but the cause that wit is
in other men.' Hence the clerical stories
may be divided into two kinds : those in
which the humour is that of the ministers,
and those in which it is that of the people,
with the ministers as its object. In the first
series, there is perhaps no particular flavour
52 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
different from that characteristic of the ordinary
middle-class Scot, though of course the many
anecdotes of a professional nature take their
colour from the calling of those to whom
they relate. In the second division, however,
a greater individuality may be recognised.
Whether it be from a sort of good-humoured
revenge for his incontestible superiority in the
pulpit, there seems to be a proneness to make
the most of any oddities in the minister's
manners or character. The contrast between
the preacher on Sunday and the same man
during the week it may be absent-minded,
or irascible, or making mistakes, or getting
into ludicrous situations appeals powerfully to
the Scotsman's sense of humour. He seizes
the oddity of this contrast, expresses it in some
pithy words, and thus, often unconsciously,
launches another 'story' into the world. His
humour, as in Swift's definition,
Is odd, grotesque, and wild,
Only by affectation spoiled;
Tis never by invention got;
Men have it when they know it not
It is in the country, and more particularly
in the remoter and less frequented parishes,
that the older type of minister has to
some extent survived. We meet with him
A HIGHLAND MINISTER 53
rather in the Highlands than in the Lowlands.
He cultivates his glebe, and sometimes has
also a farm on his hands. He has thus
some practical knowledge of agriculture, is
often a good judge of cattle, and breeds his
own stock.
The best example of a Highland clergyman
I ever knew was the Rev. John Mackinnon,
minister of the parish of Strath, Skye, to
whose hospitable house of Kilbride I have
already referred as my first home in the
island. He succeeded to the parish after his
father, who had been its minister for fifty-
two years, and he was followed in turn by
his eldest son, the late Dr. Donald, so that
for three generations, or more than a
hundred years, the care of the parish re-
mained in the same family. Tall, erect, and
wiry, he might have been taken for a retired
military man. A gentleman by birth and
breeding, he mingled on easy terms with the
best society in the island, while at the same
time his active discharge of his ministerial
duties brought him into familiar relations
with the parishioners all over the district.
So entirely had he gained their respect and
affections that, when the great Disruption of
1843 rent the Establishment over so much of
54 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the Highlands, he kept his flock in the old
Church. He used to boast that Strath was
thus the Sebastopol of that Church in Skye.
The old manse at Kilchrist, having become
ruinous, was abandoned ; and, as none was
built to replace it, Mr. Mackinnon rented the
farm and house of Kilbride. There had once
been a chapel there, dedicated to St. Bridget,
and her name still clings to the spot. Be-
hind rises the group of the Red Hills; further
over, the black serrated crests of Blaven, the
most striking of all the Skye mountains,
tower up into the north-western sky, while
to the south the eye looks away down the
inlet of Loch Slapin to the open sea, out of
which rise the ridges of Rum and the Scuir
of Eigg. The farm lay around the house
and stretched into the low uplands on the
southern side of the valley. The farming
operations at Kilbride will be noticed in a
later chapter.
In the wide Highland parishes, where roads
are few and communications must largely be
kept up on foot, the minister's wife is sometimes
hardly less important a personage than her
husband, and it is to her that the social wants
of the people are generally made known.
Mrs. Mackinnon belonged to another family
55
of the same clan as the minister, and was in
every way worthy of him. Tall and massive in
build, with strength of character traced on
every feature of her face, and a dignity of
manner like that of a Highland chieftainess,
she was born to rule in any sphere to which
she might be called. Her habitual look was
perhaps somewhat stern, with a touch of
sadness, as if she had deeply realised the
trials and transitoriness of life, and had braced
herself to do her duty through it all to the
end. But no Highland heart beat more
warmly than hers. She was the mother of
the whole parish, and seemed to have her
eye on every cottage and cabin throughout
its wide extent. To her every poor crofter
looked for sympathy and help, and never
looked in vain. Her clear blue eyes would
at one moment fill with tears over the recital
of some tale of suffering in the district, at
another they would sparkle with glee as she
listened to some of the droll narratives of
her family or her visitors. She belonged to
the family of Corriehatachan, and among her
prized relics was the coverlet under which
Samuel Johnson slept when he stayed in her
grandfather's house. That house at the foot
of the huge Beinn na Cailleach has long
56 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
ago disappeared ; some fields of brighter
green and some low walls mark where it
and its garden stood.
The younger generation at Kilbride con-
sisted of a large family of stalwart sons and
daughters, whose careers have furnished a
good illustration of the way in which the
children of the manses of Scotland have
succeeded in the world. The eldest son, as
above stated, followed his father as minister
of Strath ; another became proprietor of the
Melbourne Argus ; a third joined the army,
served in the Crimea, and in the later years
of his life was widely known and respected
as Sir William Mackinnon, Director-General
of the Army Medical Department, who left
his fortune to the Royal Society for the
furtherance of scientific research. 1 Most of
the family now lie with their parents under
the green turf of the old burial-ground of
Kilchrist. Miss Flora, the youngest daughter,
1 Dr. Norman Macleod, writing in 1867, stated that since
the beginning of the last wars of the French Revolution the
island of Skye alone had sent forth 21 lieutenant-generals
and major-generals ; 48 lieutenant-colonels ; 600 commissioned
officers ; 10,000 soldiers ; 4 governors of colonies ; i governor-
general ; I adjutant-general ; I chief baron of England ; and
I judge of the Supreme Court of Scotland. The martial tide
is now but feeble, though some additions could still be made
to the list
HIGHLAND MANSES 57
was gathered to her rest not many months
ago. The later years of her life had been
spent by her at her beautiful home of Duisdale
in Sleat, looking across the Kyle to the heights
of Ben Screel and the recesses of Loch Hourn.
She was a skilled gardener and had trans-
formed a bare hillside into a paradise of flowers
r
and fruit. She lent a helping hand to every
good work in the parish, managed the property
with skill and success, and knew the pedigree
and history of every family in the West High-
lands. When I paid her my last visit, feeling
sure it would be the last, it was sad to see her
once tall muscular frame bowed down with
illness and pain, and to find her alone, the
last of her family left in Skye.
In former days, before inns had multiplied
in the Highlands, and especially before the
advent of the crowds of tourists, and the
inevitable modern 'hotels,' the manses were
often the only houses, other than those of
the lairds, where travellers could find decent
accommodation. Their hospitality was often
sought, and it became in the end proverbial.
Kilbride was an excellent example of this
type of manse. Not only did it receive
every summer a succession of guests who
made it their home for weeks at a time,
58 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
but every visitor of note was sure of a kindly
welcome, even if he were unexpected. Aston-
ishing is the capacity of these plain-looking
Highland houses. When the company as-
sembles at dinner it may seem impossible
that they can all find sleeping quarters under
the same roof. Yet they are all stowed away
not uncomfortably, sleep well, and come down
next morning with appetites prepared to do
full justice to a Highland breakfast.
In those Highland parishes where Gaelic
is still commonly spoken, two services are
held in the churches on Sunday, the first in
that language and the second, after a brief
interval, in English. This practice was followed
in Strath. In the days of the Celtic Church, a
chapel dedicated to Christ stood in the middle
of the parish and was known as Kilchrist.
On the same site, the Protestant Church was
afterwards erected, and continued to be used
until towards the middle of last century. But,
like the adjacent manse, it fell into disrepair
and was ultimately allowed to become the
roofless ruin which stands in the midst of
the old grave-yard of Kilchrist Instead of
rebuilding it, the heritors, about the year
1840, resolved to erect a new church at
Broadford, nearer to the chief centre of popula-
SUNDAY SERVICES IN SKYE 59
tion. For two Sundays in succession the
services are held at Broadford ; on the third
Sunday they take place at a little chapel in
Strathaird, on the western side of the parish,
for the benefit of a mixed crofter and fishing
community.
At the Gaelic service in the Broadford
church, a prominent feature used to be the
row of picturesque red-cloaked or tartan-
shawled old women, who, sitting in front
immediately below the pulpit, followed the
prayers and the sermon with the deepest
attention, frequently uttering a running com-
mentary of sighs and groans, while now and
then one could even see tears coursing down
the wrinkles into which age and peat-reek
had shrivelled their cheeks.
The Sundays at Strathaird were peculiarly
impressive. The house party from the manse
family, guests and servants walked to the
shore of the sea-inlet of Loch Slapin, em-
barked there in rowing boats, and pulled across
the fjord and along the base of the cliffs on
the opposite side. No finer landscape could
be found even amidst the famous scenery of
Skye, the pink and russet-coloured cones
and domes of the Red Hills, and the dark
pinnacles and crags of Blaven behind us, and
60 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the blue islands that closed in the far distance
in front
During the long incumbency of the minister's
father, no built place of worship existed in
Strathaird. The little chapel of the early
Celtic Church, of which the memory is pre-
served in the name Kilmaree, had long
disappeared, and the clergyman used to preach
from a recess in the basalt crags, with a grassy
slope in front on which his congregation sat
to hear him. My host, however, in the early
years of his tenancy of the parish, had
succeeded in getting a small church erected
wherein his people could be sheltered in bad
weather. I can recollect one of these Sundays
when the weather was absolutely perfect a
cloudless blue sky, the sea smooth as a mirror,
and the air suffused with the calm peacefulness
which seems so appropriate to a Sabbath.
We were a large but singularly quiet party,
as we steered for the little bay of Kilmaree,
each wrapped up in the thoughts which the
day or the scene suggested. As we approached
our landing place, we were startled by two
gun-shots in rapid succession on the hillside
above us. The sound would under any cir-
cumstances have intruded somewhat harshly
into the quiet of the landscape. But it was
THE MINISTER OF GLENELG 61
Sunday, and such a thing as shooting on the
Lord's day had never been heard of in Strath.
An Englishman had rented the ground for
the season, and he and his wife were now
out with their guns. The surprise and horror
with which this conduct was viewed by the
minister and his family soon found an echo
through the length and breadth of the parish.
The sacramental season brought together
to Kilbride some of the other clergymen
of Skye, whom it was always a pleasure to
meet. They were a race of earnest, hard-
working, and intelligent men, 1 though, having
remained in the Establishment, they would
have been stigmatised by the seceding party
as ' Moderates ' who had clung to their loaves
and fishes, in spite of the example of the
Free Kirk. I remember being especially struck
by Mr. Macrae of Glenelg and Mr. Martin
of Snizort. With Mr. Macrae I had after-
wards more intercourse. Over and above
his ministerial duties, to which he conscien-
tiously devoted himself, his great delight in
life was to be on the sea. He had a little
1 It will be remembered what a high opinion Johnson formed
of the learning and breeding of the West Highland clergy.
There is no reason to think they have deteriorated since
his time, though possibly their learning would not now be
singled out for special eulogium.
62 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
yacht or cutter, on which he lived as much
as he could, and which, as it passed up and
down the lochs and kyles, was as familiar as
Hutcheson's steamers. He was never happier
than when, with his two daughters, he could
entertain some friend on a cruise in these
waters, and tell what he knew about the ruins
and legends of the district the Pictish towers,
the mouldering Barracks, the traditions of
1715 and 1745, the Spanish invasion, the
battle of Glen Shiel, the naval pursuit and
the battering down of Eilean Donan Castle.
Once when I was staying at Inverinate, the
minister landed there from his little vessel,
and hearing that I wished to examine a piece
of the Skye shore south of Kyle Rhea, was
delighted to offer to convey me there and
back next day. My host jocularly remarked
that the visit would be sooner made by land
and crossing the Kyle at the ferry, than by
trusting to the minister. The little cruise,
however, was arranged, according to Mr.
Macrae's desire, and he duly dropped anchor
in front of Inverinate next morning. We
started early, and, with a gentle south-easterly
breeze and unclouded sky, made good progress
down Loch Duich. But the wind soon fell,
and we crept more and more slowly past the
A NAUTICAL MINISTER 63
ruined Eilean Donan into Loch Alsh. There
could not have been a more glorious day for
a lazy excursion, or a nobler landscape to gaze
upon, as hour slipped after hour. Behind us
rose the great range of the Seven Sisters of
Kintail, in front were the hills of Sleat with
the Cuillins peering up behind them, all
suffused with the varying tints of the atmo-
sphere. It was a source of keen interest to
watch how the hues of peak and crag which
one had actually climbed, were transformed
in this aerial alembic, and one felt the truth
of Dyer's beautiful lines :
Mark yon summits, soft and fair,
Clad in colours of the air,
Which to those who journey near,
Barren, brown, and rough appear.
The worthy minister, in his capacity of
experienced yachtsman, playfully indulged in
the usual whistling incantations that are
supposed by the nautical imagination to pro-
pitiate ^Eolus, but without success. The air
became so nearly motionless as to be able to
give only an occasional sleepy flap to the sail.
But we continued to move almost impercep-
tibly towards our destination, borne onward
by the last efforts of the ebbing tide. By
the time we had reached the open part of
64 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
Loch Alsh, however, and had come well in
sight of the coast I intended to traverse, the
tide turned and began to flow. Gradually
the yacht was turned round with her prow
directed up the loch, and to our disgust we
saw ourselves being gradually carried back
again. Helpless on a perfectly smooth sea,
and without a breath of wind, we had to
resign ourselves to fate, and got back oppo-
site to Inverinate just in time for dinner.
Another Highland minister of a very diffe-
rent type lived on the shores of Loch Striven
a long inlet of the sea which runs far up
among the mountains of Cowal, and opens
out into the Firth of Clyde opposite to Rothe-
say. He was a bachelor and somewhat of a
recluse, with many eccentricities which formed
the basis of sundry anecdotes among his col-
leagues. One of these reverend brethren told
me that the erection of a volunteer battery
on the shore of Bute, where it looks up Loch
Striven, greatly perturbed the old minister,
for the reverberation of the firing rolled loud
and long among the mountains. One morning
before he was awake, the chimney-sweeps,
by arrangement with his housekeeper, came to
clean the chimneys. Part of their apparatus
consisted of a perforated iron ball through
A BACHELOR MINISTER 65
which a rope was passed, and which by its
weight dragged the rope down to the fire-
place. By some mistake this ball was dropped
down the chimney of the minister's bedroom,
where, striking the grate with a loud noise,
it rebounded on the floor. The rattle awoke
the reverend gentleman, who, on opening his
eyes and seeing, as he thought, a cannon-ball
dancing across the room, exclaimed, ' Really,
this is beyond my patience ; it is bad enough
to be deaved with the firing, but to have the
shot actually sent into my house is more than
I can stand. I'll get up and write to the
commanding officer.'
As he had a comfortable manse and a fair
stipend, various efforts were made by the
matrons of the neighbourhood to induce the
minister to take a wife, and he used inno-
cently to recount these interviews to his co-
presbyters, who took care that they should
not lose anything by repetition to the world
outside. One of these interviews was thus
related to me. A lady in his parish called
on him, and after praising the manse and the
garden and the glebe, expressed a fear that
he must find it a great trouble to manage his
house as well as his parish. He explained
that he had an excellent housekeeper, who
66 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
took great care of him, and managed the
household to his entire satisfaction. ' Ah,
yes,' said the visitor, ' I'm sure Mrs. Camp-
bell is very careful, but she canna be the
same as a wife to you. You must often be
very lonely here, all by yourself. But if you
had a wife she would keep you from weary-
ing, and would take all the management of
the house off your hands, besides helping you
with the work of the parish. Now Mr.
there's my Isabella, if you would but take
her for your wife, she would be a perfect
Abishag to you.' This direct and powerful
appeal, however, met with no better success
than others that had gone before it. The
incorrigible old divine lived, and, I believe,
died in single blessedness.
In the Lowlands the younger ministers,
educated in Edinburgh or Glasgow, and
accustomed to the modernised service of
the churches, and the more distinctive ecclesi-
astical garb of the officiating clergy, have
lost the angularity of manner which marked
older generations. I can remember, however,
a number of parish ministers who belonged
to an earlier and perhaps now extinct type.
Though thoroughly earnest and devoted men,
they would be regarded at the present day as
AN AYRSHIRE MINISTER 67
at least irreverent, and their sayings and do-
ings would no doubt scandalise modern eyes
and ears. One of these clergymen had a
large Ayrshire parish. He was apt to forget
things, and on remembering them, to blurt
them out at the most inappropriate times.
On one occasion he had begun the benedic-
tion at the close of the service, when he sud-
denly stopped, exclaiming: 'We've forgot the
psalm,' which he thereupon proceeded to read
out. Another time, in the midst of one of
his extempore prayers, he was asking for a
blessing on the clergyman who was to ad-
dress the people in the afternoon, when he
interrupted himself to interject: 'It's in the
laigh Kirk, ye ken.'
One evening the same clergyman was dining
with a pleasant party at a laird's house about
a mile from the village, when it flashed across
his mind that he ought to have been at that
moment performing a baptism in the house of
one of the villagers. Hastily asking to be
excused for a little, as he had forgotten an
engagement, and with the assurance that he
would soon be back, he started off. It was
past nine o'clock before he reached the village
and knocked at the door of his parishioner.
There was no answer for a time, and after a
68 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
second and more vigorous knock, the window
overhead was opened, and a voice demanded
who was there. 'It's me, Mrs. Maclellan. I'm
very sorry, indeed, to have forgotten about
the baptism. But it's not too late yet.' ' O
minister, we're in bed, and a' the fowk are
awa". We canna hae the baptism noo.'
1 Never mind the folk, Mrs. Maclellan ; is the
bairn here ? ' ' Ow ay, the bairn's here, sure
eneuch.' 'Weel, that will do, and so you
maun let me in, and we'll hae the baptism
after all.' The husband had meanwhile pulled
some clothes on, and with his wife came down-
stairs to let in their minister. The ' tea-
things,' which the good woman had prepared
with great care for her little festival, had
been carried back to the kitchen, whither the
husband had gone for a lamp. The woman
appeared with the child, and begged that
they would come into her parlour. But the
minister, assuring her that the room made no
difference, proceeded with the ceremony in the
kitchen. When the moment came for sprink-
ling the baby, he dipped his hand into the
first basin he saw. 'O stop, stop Mr ,
that's the water I washed up the tea-cups
and saucers in.' 'It will do as well as any
other,' he said, and continued his prayer to
A RIVERSIDE BAPTISM 69
the end of the short service. As soon as it
was over, he started back to the laird's, and
rejoined the party after an absence of about
an hour.
To this baptismal experience another may be
added, where the rite was celebrated in the face
of great natural obstacles. Dr. Hanna relates
that a Highland minister once went to baptise a
child in the house of one of his parishioners,
near which ran a small burn or river. When
he came to the stream it was so swollen with
recent rains that he could not ford it in order
to reach the house. In these circumstances he
told the father, who was awaiting him on the
opposite bank, to bring the child down to the
burn-side. Furnished with a wooden scoop,
the clergyman stood on the one side of the
water, and the father, holding the infant as far
out in his arms as he could, placed himself on
the other. With the foaming torrent between
the participants, the service went on, until the
time came for sprinkling the babe, when the
minister, dipping the scoop into the water,
flung its contents across at the baby's face.
His aim, however, was not good, for he failed
more than once, calling out to the father after
each new trial : ' Weel, has't gotten ony yet ? '
When he did succeed, the whole contents of
70 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the scoop fell on the child's face, whereupon
the disgusted parent ejaculated, ' Ach, Got
pless me, sir, but ye've trownt ta child.' Dr.
Chalmers, in telling this story, used to express
his wonder as to what the great sticklers for
form and ceremony in the sacraments would
think of such a baptism by a burn-side, per-
formed with a wooden scoop. 1
A certain parish church in Carrick, like
many ecclesiastical edifices of the time in
Scotland, was not kept with scrupulous care.
The windows seemed never to be cleaned, or
indeed opened, for cobwebs hung across them,
And half-starv'd spiders prey'd on half-starv'd flies.
There was an air of dusty neglect about the
interior, and likewise a musty smell. One
Sunday an elderly clergyman from another
part of the country was preaching. In the
midst of his sermon a spider, suspended from
the roof at the end of its long thread, swung
to and fro in front of his face. It came against
his lips and was blown vigorously away.
Again it swung back to his mouth, when, with
an indignant motion of his hands, he broke
the thread and exclaimed, ' My friends, this
1 Life of Chalmers i voL iv., p. 450. The catastrophe of the
last ladleful is not given by Dr. Hanna.
A DIET OF CATECHISING 71
is the dirtiest kirk I ever preached in. I'm
like to be pusioned wi' speeders.'
It is recorded of an old minister in the
west of Ross-shire that he prayed for Queen
Victoria, ' that God would bless her and that
as now she had grown to be an old woman,
He would be pleased to make her a new man.'
The same worthy divine is said to have
once prayed 'that we may be saved from
the horrors of war, as depicted in the pages
of the Illustrated London News and the
Graphic. '
One of the most serious functions which
the Presbyterian clergymen of Scotland had
formerly to discharge was that of publicly
examining their congregation in their know-
ledge of the Christian faith. Provided with
a list of the congregation, the officiating
minister in the pulpit proceeded to call up
the members to answer questions out of the
Shorter Catechism, or such other interro-
gatories as it might seem desirable to ask.
Nobody knew when his turn would come, or
what questions would be put to him, so that
it was a time of trial and trepidation for old
and young. The custom appears to be now
obsolete, but reminiscences of its operation
are still preserved.
72 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
An elderly minister was asked to take the
catechising of the congregation in a parish in
the pastoral uplands of the South of Scotland.
He was warned against the danger of putting
questions to a certain shepherd, who had made
himself master of more divinity than some of
his clerical contemporaries could boast, and
who enjoyed nothing better than, out of the
question put to him, to engage in an argument
with the minister on some of the deepest
problems of theology. The day of the ordeal
at last came, the old doctor ascended the pulpit,
and after the preliminary service put on his
spectacles and unfolded the roll of the congre-
gation. To the utter amazement of everybody,
he began with the theological shepherd, John
Scott. Up started the man, a tall, gaunt, sun-
burnt figure, with his maud over his shoulder,
his broad blue bonnet on the board in front
of him, and such a look of grim determination
on his face as showed how sure he felt of the
issue of the logical encounter to which he
believed he had been challenged from the
pulpit The minister, who had clearly made
up his mind as to the line of examination to
be followed with this pugnacious theologian,
looked at him calmly for a few moments, and
then in a gentle voice asked, ' Wha made you,
'WHAT IS A SACRAMENT?' 73
John ? ' The shepherd, prepared for questions
on some of the most difficult points of our
faith, was taken aback by being asked what
every child in the parish could answer. He
replied in a loud and astonished tone, 'Wha
made me?' ' It was the Lord God that made
you, John,' quietly interposed the minister.
* Wha redeemed you, John ? ' Anger now
mingled with indignation as the man shouted,
' Wha redeemed me ? ' The old divine, still
in the same mild way, reminded him ' It
was the Lord Jesus Christ that redeemed
you, John,' and then asked further, ' Wha
sanctified you, John?' Scott, now thoroughly
aroused, roared out, 'Wha sanctified ME?'
The clergyman paused, looked at him calmly,
and said, ' It was the Holy Ghost that
sanctified you, John Scott, if, indeed, ye be
sanctified. Sit ye doon, my man, and learn
your questions better the next time you come
to the catechising.' The shepherd was never
able to hold his head up in the parish there-
after.
An old woman who had got sadly rusty
in her Catechism was asked, ' What is a
sacrament ? ' to which she gave the following
rather mixed answer, ' A sacrament is an
act of saving grace, whereby a sinner out of
74 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
a true knowledge of his sins doth rest in
his grave till the resurrection.
Dr. Hanna used to tell of a shoemaker
who lamented to his minister that he was
spiritually in a bad way because he was not
very sure of his title to the kingdom of heaven,
and that he was physically bad because ' that
sweep, his landlord, had given him notice to
quit and he would have nowhere to lay his
head.' The minister could only advise him
to lay his case before the Lord. A week
later the minister returned and found the
shoemaker busy and merry. 'That was gran'
advice ye gied me, minister,' said the man,
' I laid my case before the Lord, as ye tell't
me an' noo the sweep's deid.'
In connection with the regular clergy, refer-
ence may be made to the free-lances who, as
street-preachers, have long taken their place
among the influences at work for rousing the
lower classes in our large towns to a sense
of their duties. These men have often dis-
played a single-hearted devotion and persist-
ence, in spite of the most callous indifference
or even active hostility on the part of their
auditors. The very homeliness of their lan-
guage, which repels most educated people,
gives them a hold on those who come to listen
BOBBIE FLOCKHART 75
to them, while now and then their vehement
enthusiasm rises into true eloquence. The
most remarkable of these men I have ever
listened to was a noted character in Edinburgh
during the later years of the first half of last
century, named Bobbie Flockhart. He was
diminutive in stature, but for this disadvantage
he endeavoured to compensate by taking care
that
The apparel on his back,
Though coarse, was reverend, and though bare, was black.
Eccentric in manner and speech, he long
continued to be an indefatigable worker for
the good of his fellow townsmen. He used
to spend the forenoon and afternoon of every
Sunday in flitting from church to church,
listening to the sermons, of each of which
he remained to hear only a small portion.
Then in the evening, not only of Sundays but
of week days, he would hold forth from a chair
or barrel outside the west gate of St. Giles,
and gather round him a crowd of loafers
from the High Street, who, it is to be feared,
were attracted to him rather by the expectation
of some new drollery of language, than from
any interest in the substance of his discourses.
They would interrupt him now and then with
ribald remarks, but they often met with such
76 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
a rebuke as turned the laugh against them,
and increased the popularity of the preacher.
He was discoursing one evening on the
wickedness of the town, especially of the
district in which his audience lived, when in
his enthusiasm he pointed up in the direction
of the Castle, where stands the huge historic
cannon, and exclaimed : ' O that I could load
Mons Meg wi' Bibles, and fire it doon every
close in the High Street!' On another occa-
sion he was depicting to the people the terrors
of the day of judgment. 'Ay,' said he, 'some
of you that mock me the day will be comin'
up to me then and say in', " Bobbie, ye '11 mind
us, we aye cam' to hear ye." But I'll no' help
ye. Maybe ye'll think to cling on to my
coat-tails, but I'll cheat ye there, for I'll put
on a jacket.' He was fond of similes that
could bring home to the rough characters
around him the truths he sought to impress
on them. He was once denouncing the care-
less ingratitude of man for all the benefits
conferred on him by Providence. ' My friends,'
he said, ' look at the hens when they drink.
There's not ane o' them but lifts its heid in
thankfulness, even for the water that is sae
common. O that we were a' hens.'
CHAPTER III.
THE sermon in Scottish Kirks. Intruding animals in country
churches. The ' collection.' Church psalmody. Precentors
and organs. Small congregations in the Highlands. Parish
visitation. Survival of the influence of clerical teaching.
Religious mania.
FROM the time of the Reformation onwards
the sermon has taken a foremost place in the
service of the Church of Scotland. There
was a time when a preacher would continue
his discourse for five or six hours, and when
sometimes a succession of preachers would give
sermon after sermon and keep the congrega-
tion continuously sitting for ten hours. These
days of perfervid oratory are past. But a
sermon of an hour's duration or even more
may still be heard, and, when the preacher
is eloquent, will be listened to with deep
interest. This part of the service maintains
its early prominence. It is from his capacity
to preach that a man's qualifications for the
78 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
ministry are mainly judged, not merely by the
church which licences him, but by the con-
gregation which chooses him as its pastor.
The half-yearly celebration of the sacrament,
which included a fast-day, services on two or
three week days, and a long 'diet' on Sunday,
was appropriately known as 'The Preachings.'
The Fast- Day, when the shops were closed
and there were at least two services in the
churches, forenoon and afternoon, became in
the end a kind of public holiday in the large
towns. Attracted to the country, rather than
to the sermons, the people used to escape
from town, and railways carried an ever-
increasing number of excursionists away from
the services of the Church. The ecclesiastical
authorities at last, some years ago, put a stop
to this scandal, and the Fast- Day no longer
ranks as one of the public holidays of the
year.
Scottish sermons have always had a pre-
valent doctrinal character and a markedly
logical treatment of their subject. It has
never been the habit north of the Tweed to
think that 'dulness is sacred in a sound divine.'
The clergy have appealed as much to the
head as to the heart. In bygone generations
the doctrines evolved from the text were
HEADS OF SERMONS 79
divided into numerous heads, and these into
subordinate sections and subsections, so that
the attention of those listeners who remained
awake was kept up as at a kind of intellectual
exercise. If anyone wishes to realise the
extent to which this practice of subdivision
could be carried by an eminent and successful
preacher, let him turn to the posthumous
sermons of Boston of Ettrick. 1 Thus, in a
sermon on ' Fear and Hope, objects of the
Divine Complacency,' from the text, Psalms
cxlvii. n, this famous divine, after an intro-
duction in four sections, deduced six doc-
trines, each subdivided into from three to
eight heads ; but the last doctrine required
another sermon, which contained ' a practical
improvement of the whole,' arranged under 86
heads. A sermon on Matthew xi. 28 was
subdivided into 76 heads. If it is not quite
easy to follow the printed sermon through
this maze of sub-division, it must have been
much more difficult to do so in the spoken
discourse. All the enthusiasm and fire of the
preacher must have been needed to rivet the
1 Primitia et Ultima, or the Early Labours and Last Remains
that will meet the public eye, etc., etc., of the late Rev. and
learned Mr. Thomas Boston, minister of the Gospel at Ettrick,
now first published from his MSS. In three volumes. Edin-
burgh, 1800.
8o SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
attention and affect the hearts of his congre-
gation. It is still usual to treat the subject of
a text under different heads, but happily their
number has been reduced to more reasonable
proportions.
It was not given to every occupant of a
pulpit to rival the fecundity and ingenuity of
Boston of Ettrick in the elucidation of his
text A subdivision of a simpler type was
made by the worthy old Highland divine who
preached from the verse, ' The devil, as a
roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he
may devour.' Following a Highland habit of
inserting an unnecessary pronoun after the
noun to which it refers, he began his dis-
course thus : ' Let us consider this passage,
my brethren, under four heads. Firstly, who
the Devil, he is ; secondly, what the Devil,
he is like ; thirdly, what the Devil, he doth ;
and fourthly, who the Devil, he devoureth.'
In many instances the sermons prepared
during the first few years of a ministry served
for all its subsequent continuance, with perhaps
some modifications or additions suggested by
the altered circumstances of the time. It used
to be said of some clergymen that they kept
their sermons in a barrel, which when emptied
was refilled again with the old MSS. Dr.
NEW TEXT TO OLD SERMON 81
Hanna, the biographer of Chalmers, used to
tell of one such minister who had preached
the same short round of sermons for so many
years that at last the beadle was deputed by
one or two members of the congregation to
ask whether, if he could not prepare a new
sermon, he would at least give them a fresh
text. Next Sunday, to the astonishment of
the audience, the minister gave out a text
from which he had never before preached :
' Genesis, first chapter, first verse, and first
clause of the verse.' Every Bible was opened
at the place, and the listeners, nearly all of
whom were ignorant of the suggested ar-
rangement, leant back in their pews in eager
anticipation of the new sermon. With great
deliberation the preacher began : ' " In the be-
ginning God created the heavens and the
earth." Who this Nicodemus was, my breth-
ren, commentators are not agreed.' And the
old story of Nicodemus was repeated, as it
had been so often before.
Sometimes the manuscript of a sermon was
by mistake left behind at the manse, and the
minister or the beadle had to set off to procure
it. On one of these occasions, the manse
being at some little distance from the church,
the minister, who had to go and find the
82 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
document himself, gave out the iigth Psalm,
that the congregation might engage in singing
during his absence. When he returned with
his MS. he asked his man, who was waiting
for him anxiously at the door, how the congre-
gation was getting on. ' O sir,' said he,
' they've got to the end of the 84th verse, and
they're jist cheepin' like mice.'
To interrupt the service by requesting the
congregation to sing a psalm or hymn is an
expedient which sometimes relieves a clergy-
man when, from faintness or other cause, he
finds a difficulty in performing his duty in
the pulpit. Some years ago a young minister
had recourse to this mode of extrication. On
the conclusion of the service, one or two of
his friends came to him in the vestry to ascer-
tain what had ailed him. He told them that
he could with difficulty refrain from laughing,
and his only resource was to leave the pulpit.
'Did you see,' he asked, 'a man with an
extraordinarily red head sitting in the front
of the gallery ? ' ' Yes, we noticed him, but he
appeared to be a quiet attentive listener.' ' So
he was, so he was ; but did you see a small
boy sitting behind him ? That young rascal
so fascinated me that, though I tried hard to
look elsewhere, I could not keep my eyes
A SERMON BELOW BEN NEVIS 83
from sometimes turning to watch him. He
was holding up the forefinger of his left hand
behind the red head, as if he were heating
an iron bolt in a furnace, and he would then
thump it on the desk in front of him, as if he
were hammering the iron into shape. This
went on until I had to leave the pulpit, and
send the beadle up to the gallery to have the
young sinner cautioned or removed.'
The English sermon in Highland churches
was often a curious performance. As already
mentioned, there were, and still generally
are, two sermons one in Gaelic as part of
the earlier service, and one in English in
the second part. Those of the congregation
who thought they understood both languages
might stay from the beginning to the end,
but the purely Gaelic-speaking population
generally thinned away after the Gaelic ser-
vice. In some cases, the preacher's command
of English being rather limited, his evident
earnestness could hardly prevent a smile at
his solecisms in grammar and the oddity
of his expressions. Many years ago an
acquaintance told me he had been yachting
in Loch Eil, and on a Sunday of dreary
rain and storm went ashore not far from the
roots of Ben Nevis to attend the English
84 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
service, when he heard the following passage
from the lips of the preacher :
' Ah, my friends, what causes have we for
gratitude ; O yes, for the deepest gratitude !
Look at the place of our habitation. How
grateful should we be that we do not leeve
in the far north ! O no ; amid the frost and the
snaw, and the cauld and the weet, O no ; where
there's a lang day tae half o' the year, O yes ;
and a lang, lang nicht the tither, ah yes ; that
we do not depend upon the auroary boreawlis,
O no ; that we do not gang shivering about
in skins, O no ; snoking amang the snaw like
mowdiwarts, O no, no !
'And how grateful should we be too that
we do not leeve in the far south, beneath the
equawtor and a sun aye burnin', burnin'; where
the sky's het, ah yes ; and the earth's het,
and the water's het, and ye're burnt black as
a smiddy, ah yes ! where there's teegers, O
yes ; and lions, O yes ; and crocodiles, O yes ;
and fearsome beasts growlin' and girnin' at
ye amang the woods ; where the very air is
a fever, like the burnin' breath o' a fiery
draigon. That we do not leeve in these places,
O no\ NO!! NO!!!
' But that we leeve in this blessed island o'
ours, called Great Britain, O yes ! yes ! and in
SLEEPING IN THE KIRK 85
that pairt o' it named Scotland, and in that
bit o' auld Scotland that looks up at Ben
Naivis, O yes I YES!! YES!!! where there's
neither frost nor cauld, nor wind nor weet,
nor hail, nor rain, nor teegers, nor lions, nor
burnin' suns, nor hurricanes, nor' At this
part of the discourse a fearful gust from Ben
Nevis aforesaid drove in the upper sash of the
window at the right hand of the pulpit, and
rudely interrupted the torrent of eloquence. 1
When we remember the length and techni-
cality of the sermons, the bad ventilation of
the kirks, and the effects of six days of toil
on a large number of each congregation, we
can hardly wonder that somnolence should be
prevalent in Scotland. Many anecdotes on this
subject have long been in circulation. The
same tale may be recognized under various
guises, the preacher or sleeper being altered
1 Many years ago I told this story to my friend Mr. Thomas
Constable (son of Scott's publisher), and a few days thereafter
received a note from him asking if I would write it down.
This I did, and he told me afterwards that for a time he carried
my MS. in his pocket and read from it to his friends, but that
the paper becoming tender with frequent use, he had the
manuscript thrown into type, struck off a number of copies,
and circulated them among his acquaintance. One of these
copies must have fallen into the hands of Mr. Mark Boyd,
who, in his Social Gleanings, London, 1875, P- 57> printed the
story as here given.
86 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
according to local circumstances. Perhaps no
series illustrates better how such stories con-
tinue to float down through generation after
generation, and are always reappearing as
new, when they receive a fresh personal ap-
plication. Sleeping in church is such a nat-
ural failing, and the reproof of it from the
pulpit is so obvious a consequence, that even
if no memory of the old incidents should sur-
vive, the recurrence of similar circumstances
could hardly fail to give birth to similar anec-
dotes. For example, a story is at present
in circulation to the effect that in a country
church one Sunday the preacher after service
walked through the kirkyard with one of the
neighbouring farmers, and took occasion to
remark to him, ' Wasn't it dreadful to hear
the Laird of Todholes snoring so loud through
the sermon?' 'Perfectly fearful,' was the
answer, 'he waukened us a'.' Two or three
generations ago a similar incident was said to
have occurred at Govan, under the ministra-
tion of the well-known Mr. Thorn, who in
the midst of his sermon stopped and called
out, 'Bailie Brown, ye mauna snore sae loud,
for ye'll wauken the Provost.' But more than
two centuries ago the following epigram ap-
peared :
SABBATH SOMNOLENCE 87
Old South, a witty Churchman reckoned,
Was preaching once to Charles the Second,
But much too serious for a court,
Who at all preaching made a sport :
He soon perceived his audience nod,
Deaf to the zealous man of God.
The Doctor stopp'd ; began to call,
' Pray wake the Earl of Lauderdale :
My Lord ! why, 'tis a monstrous thing,
You snore so loud you'll wake the King.'
Though this scene took place in the south of
England, it is interesting to note that the
snorer specially singled out for rebuke was a
Scottish nobleman.
Now and then a reproof from the pulpit
has drawn down on the minister a sarcastic
reply from the unfortunate sleeper, as in the
case of the somnolent farmer who was awak-
ened by the minister calling on him to rouse
himself by taking a pinch of snuff, and who
blurted out ' Put the snuff in the sermon,
sir,' an advice which found not a little sym-
pathy in the congregation.
In a parish church about the middle of
Ayrshire the central passage leading from the
entrance to the pulpit is paved with large
stone-flags. On the right side a worthy mat-
ron had her family pew, wherein, overcome
with drowsiness, she used to fall asleep, with
88 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
her head resting on her large brass-clasped
Bible. She was an admirable housekeeper and
farmer, looking after all the details of man-
agement herself. In her dreams in church her
thoughts would sometimes wander back to her
domestic concerns and show that she was not
'mistress of herself, though china falls.' One
Sunday, in the course of her slumbers, she
succeeded in pushing her massive Bible over
the edge of the pew. As it fell on the stone-
floor, its brass mountings made a loud noise,
at which she started up with the exclamation,
' Hoot, ye stupid jaud, there's anither bowl
broken.'
The genial Principal of Glasgow University,
in the course of a public speech a year or
two ago, told a story of an opposite kind.
An old couple in his country parish had taken
with them to church their stirring little grand-
son, who behaved all through the service
with preternatural gravity. So much was the
preacher struck with the good conduct of so
young a listener, that, meeting the grand-
father at the close of the service, he congratu-
lated him upon the remarkably quiet composure
of the boy. ' Ay/ said the old man with a
twinkle in his eye, ' Duncan's weel threetened
afore he gangs in.'
ANIMAL VISITORS TO THE KIRK 89
When an afternoon service is held, the at-
tendance is sometimes apt to be scanty. A
minister who was annoyed at a lukewarmness
of this kind on the part of his congregation,
remonstrated with them on the subject. ' I
canna tell,' he said, 'how it may look to the
Almichtie that sae few o' ye come to the
second diet o' worship, but I maun say that
it's showin' unco little respect to mysel'.'
In summer weather, when the doors and
windows of churches are sometimes kept open
for air, occasional unwelcome intruders distract
the people and disturb the preacher. Butter-
flies and small birds are the most frequent ;
dogs are not uncommon, and in some districts
these calls are varied by the occasional appear-
ance of a goat A dog is amenable to the
sight of the minister's man approaching with
a stick, and bolts off without needing any
audible word of command, but a goat is a
much more refractory visitor. One of these
creatures entered a country church one Sun-
day in the midst of the service and deliber-
ately marched down the central passage. Of
course every eye in the congregation was
turned upon it, and the luckless preacher found
much difficulty in proceeding with his dis-
course. The beadle at last sprang from his
90 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
seat and proceeded to meet the intruder. He
had no stick, however, and the goat showed
fight by charging him with its horns and mak-
ing him beat a retreat. A friendly umbrella
was thereupon passed out to him from one of
the pews, and he returned to the combat. By
spreading his arms and wielding the umbrella,
he prevented the animal from reaching the
pulpit stairs and succeeded in turning it But
once or twice it wheeled round again, as if
to renew the fight. He contrived, however,
to press it onwards as far as the church
porch, when, lifting up his foot and dealing
the goat a kick which considerably quickened
its retreat, he gave vent to his feelings of
anger and indignation in an imprecation, dis-
tinctly audible through half the church, ' Out
o' the house o' God, ye brute.'
A characteristic feature of many churches in
Scotland is the 'collection,' that is, the gather-
ing of the contributions of the congregation
for the poor of the parish or other purpose.
In the Highlands where there are services
both in Gaelic and English, the performance
is repeated at the end of each. One or more
of the elders, attired in Sunday garb, and
looking as sad and solemn as if they were
at a funeral, take the 'ladle' or wooden box
CHURCH COLLECTIONS 91
at the end of a pole, and push it into each
pew. The alms as they are dropped into the
receptacle make a noise so distinctly audible
over the building that a practised ear can
make a shrewd guess as to the value of the
coin deposited. Nearly the whole contribution
is in coppers, only the larger farmers and
the laird's families furnishing anything of
higher value. Hence such congregations have
been profanely valued at threepence a dozen.
An amusing incident in one of these collections
took place at a parish church in the west of
Cowal. A family whom I used to visit there
had come to their seat in the gallery while
the earlier service was still going on, and
when the Gaelic ladle came round they put
into it their contributions. After the ladle had
traversed the church at the end of the second
service and was being brought back to the
foot of the pulpit, the minister, who noticed
that it had not been taken up to the laird's
seat, beckoned vigorously to the man who
was approaching with the money and pointed
to the gallery. In response he received only
a knowing shake of the head from the col-
lector, who at last, impatient at the ministerial
gesticulations, exclaimed aloud, ' Na, na, sir,
its a' richt, I wass takin' the laird's money at
92 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the Gaelic.' In this same kirk on another
occasion, after the whole contributions of the
congregation had been collected, the box came
up to the gallery, but unluckily was carried
violently against the corner of a pew, the
bottom came out, and the accumulated coppers
rattled noisily to the floor.
Another part of the church service which
cannot but strike a stranger, especially in the
Highlands, is the singing. In the more remote
and primitive parishes the precentor, standing
in a lower desk directly under the minister,
reads out one, now more usually two lines of
the psalm, and then strikes up the tune. At
the end of the first two lines, he reads out
the second two, which he proceeds to sing
as before. The congregation usually joins
heartily in the music, which is the only
part of the service wherein it can actively
participate.
It is not always easy to secure a precentor.
He must, in the first place, be a man of tried
good character, and in the second place, he
must of course be able to distinguish the
metres of the psalms, and have voice and
ear enough to raise at least three or four
psalm-tunes. His repertoire is seldom much
more extensive. Occasionally he begins a
HIGHLAND PRECENTORS 93
tune that will not suit the metre of the psalm,
or he loses himself altogether. A precentor
in the north Highlands to whom this happened,
suddenly stopped and exclaimed, * Och, bless
me, I'm aff the tune again.' Another more
sedate worthy struck up the tune three times,
but always lost it at the second line. He
paused, looked round the congregation, and
after solemnly saying ' Hoots, toots, toots,'
went at it the fourth time successfully. When
the precentor at Peebles had failed twice in
his efforts, the old minister looked over the
pulpit and said aloud to him, * Archie, try it
again, and if ye canna manage it, tak' anither
tune.'
A precentor is naturally jealous of any
more practised and clearer voice than his
own, which, he rightly thinks, ought to pre-
dominate. In the little Free Church of
Raasay Island, the precentor had it all his
own way until the minister's sister came.
She sat at the far end of the church, and,
having some knowledge of music and a good
voice, she made herself well heard as she
sang in much quicker time than the slow
drawl to which the people had been accus-
tomed. Before the precentor had done a line
she was ready to begin the next, and the half
94 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
of the congregation nearest to her followed
her excellent lead. This was too much for the
precentor. He raised his voice till it almost
cracked with the strain, and for a few notes
drowned the rival performer at the other end.
But he could not keep it up, and as his notes
dropped, the clear sweet voice of the lady
came out as before. Sitting about the middle
of the church, I was able to appreciate the
strange see-saw in the psalmody.
The most remarkable change which has
taken place within living memory in the ser-
vices of the Scottish Church is unquestion-
ably the introduction of instrumental music.
In most of the large congregations of the
chief towns, the precentor has given way to
an organ, which leads the choir, as the choir
leads the congregation. Had any one in the
earlier half of last century been audacious
enough to predict that in a couple of gener-
ations the ' kist o' whistles,' which had been
long banished as a sign and symbol of black
popery, would be reintroduced and welcomed
before the end of the century, he would have
been laughed to scorn, or branded as himself
a limb of the prelatic Satan. Of course, there
has been much searching of heart over this
innovation, and many have been the head-
A CHURCH-STOVE AND POPERY 95
shakings and even open denunciations of such
manifest backsliding. But the cause of en-
lightenment has steadily gained ground in the
Lowlands, and a few generations hence it may
not improbably prevail even over the High-
lands. Meanwhile in most Highland parishes,
the first notes of an organ in the church would
probably drive the majority of the congrega-
tion out of doors, and lead to years of angry
controversy.
The horror of anything savouring of what
is thought to be popery shows itself sometimes
in determined opposition to even the most
innocent and useful changes. Sir Lauder
B run ton has told me that in a Roxburgh-
shire parish with which he is well acquainted,
the church being excessively cold in winter,
a proposal was mooted to introduce a stove
for the purpose of heating it. This innova-
tion, however, met with a strong resistance,
especially from one member of the congre-
gation, who said that a stove had a pipe
like an organ, and he would have nothing
savouring of popery in the Kirk of Scotland.
He actually delayed the reform for a time.
In the same county, where it had been the
custom from time immemorial to winnow the
corn with the help of the wind, a farmer, alive
96 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
to the value of modern improvements, pro-
cured and began to use a machine which
created an artificial and always available cur-
rent of air. He was at once rebuked for an
impious defiance of the ways of Providence.
A proposal to put a stove into a Fifeshire
parish met with the opposition of one of the
heritors, who, when the minister came to him
for a subscription towards the warming of
the kirk, indignantly refused, asking, ' D'ye
think John Knox asked for a stove, even for
the cauldest kirk he ever preached in ? Na,
na, sir, warm the folk wi' your preachin', and
they'll never think about the cauld.'
At the time of the Disruption of the
Church of Scotland in 1843 the congregations
were apt to side with their minister, if he
were an able and efficient pastor to whom
they were attached. Thus in Skye, as I have
above mentioned, so powerful was the in-
fluence of John Mackinnon among his people
that he kept them with him in the pale of
the Establishment But in most Highland
parishes the Free Church early took ground,
and in a large number it has been so pre-
dominant that the congregation of the Parish
Church sometimes consists of little more than
the clergyman and his family. In such cases
A MINISTER'S MAN 97
the position of the adherents of the ' Auld
Kirk' may sometimes be rather trying. More
especially is it felt by the ' minister's man,'
who is sometimes placed in sad straits in
his endeavour to put the best face on the
situation and conceal the feebleness of his
flock. Without knowing his official position,
or to which of the churches he belonged, I
once met one of these worthies in the west
of Ross-shire, and, with a friend who accom-
panied me, had some talk with him about
the parish.
* How does the Established Church get on
here ? ' we asked.
'O fine, fine, sirs.'
' Has the minister been here a long time ? '
' Ow ay, it'll be a long time noo, I'm
sure.'
' And has he a large congregation ? '
1 Ow ay, it's a fery goot congregation, what-
efer.'
'Is it as big as the Free Kirk ? '
' Weel, I'll no say that it will be just as big
as the Free Kirk.'
' How many do you think there may be in
church on Sunday ? '
' Weel, ye see, there'll be sometimes more
and sometimes fewer.'
G
98 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
1 But have you no idea how many they
may be ? '
' Weel, sir, I dinna think I wass ever count-
ing them.'
' You go to the parish church yourself, I
think?'
' O, to be sure, I do : where wad ye think
I wad be goin' else ? '
It was quite clear that our interlocutor
must be a staunch adherent of the Auld
Kirk, and probably had some scantiness of
the congregation to conceal ; but we had no
idea then of what we learnt soon afterwards,
that he was no less a personage than the
' minister's man,' and that, saving the family
from the manse and an occasional stranger,
he was himself the whole congregation.
It has been made a matter of reproach
to the clergy of the Scottish Church that,
though they spend more time over the pre-
paration of their sermons and place these on
a higher intellectual level than is common
in the English communion, they fall short
of their brethren south of the Tweed in the
assiduity of their visitation of their people.
Where a parish extends over an area of
many square miles, it must obviously be
difficult for the minister to move freely and
PARISH VISITING 99
constantly among his parishioners, so as to
be in close touch with all of them in their
mundane as well as their spiritual affairs. In
such cases, he finds it necessary to arrange
the times of his visits, which are thus apt to
become somewhat formal ceremonies, an-
nounced beforehand, and prepared for by
those to whom notice is given. An example
of this kind is related of a minister who had
recently been appointed to the parish of
Lesmahagow, and who made known from
the pulpit one Sunday that he would visit
next day a certain hilly district of the parish.
Accordingly, on Monday morning he set out,
and, after a walk of some seven or eight
miles, arrived at a farm-house, where he
meant to begin. After knocking for some
time and getting no reply, he hailed a boy
outside, when the following conversation
ensued :
'Is Mr. Smith at home?'
'Na.'
'Is Mrs. Smith here?'
'Na.'
' Are you their son ? '
'Ay/
'Well, I have walked a long way, and I
would like to sit and rest for a little. May
ioo SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
I go in f ' (answering the question by enter-
ing). 'And did your father and mother not
expect me ? '
' Na, they didna think ye wad begin up
here ; sae they're awa' doon to the roup o'
Ritchie's farm.'
' Well, now, my man, are these all the
books that your father has in the house ? '
'Ay.'
' Now tell me which of them does he use
oftenest?'
'That ane,' pointing to a large leather-
covered family Bible.
' O, the Bible ; that's right : I am pleased
to know that ; and when does he use it ? '
'On Sabbath mornin's.'
' Only once a week ! Well, how does he
do ? Does he read it aloud to you all ? '
' Na, he shairps his raazors on't.'
I once had quarters at South Queensferry
in a house through the centre of which ran
the boundary between that burgh and the
adjacent parish of Dalmeny. I asked my
landlady how she arranged about the claims
of the clergy. 'Well, ye see, I go to the
Burgh Kirk, and my minister comes to see
me frae time to time. And Mr Muir of
Dalmeny, he visits me too, but I try to be
MORAL INFLUENCE OF THE CLERGY 101
quite fair to them both. The parlour here
is in the burgh, so I take my ain minister
in there, and, as the other half of the house
is in Dalmeny, I put the other minister in
the kitchen, which belongs to his parish.'
In the striking delineation which Words-
worth has given of the early surroundings of
his 'Wanderer,' and the circumstances that
moulded his character, special stress is laid on
the clerical influence which from infancy had
guarded this son of the Braes of Athol.
The Scottish Church, both on himself and those
With whom from childhood he grew up, had held
The strong hand of her purity; and still
Had watched him with an unrelenting eye.
It is to be feared, however, that the result of
such continual guardianship is to be recognised
rather in the theological bent of the people
than in their moral behaviour. The high stan-
dard of conduct held up in the pulpit, and
generally followed by the clergy themselves,
has not prevented the statistics of drunkenness
and illegitimacy from attaining an unenviable
notoriety. Yet no one can turn over the pages
of the records of kirk-sessions and presby-
teries without obtaining a deep impression of
the untiring earnestness and devotion with
which the Church has struggled against these
102 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
two great national sins. If in the heyday of
her power she could not eradicate the evils,
her task must now be tenfold more onerous,
when the ' strong hand ' can no longer reach
large masses of the population, and when the
'unrelenting eye,' though as keenly watchful as
ever, can only note the decadence which the
hand is powerless to reclaim. Unhappily a
spirit of heathen ignorance, or of pagan indiffer-
ence, has largely replaced the unquestioning
faith of an older time, especially among the
artisans of the large towns and the miners
in the great coal-fields. It is mainly in the
country districts, where social changes advance
more slowly, that the religious instruction given
at school and in church still continues to colour
the outlook of the people on life here and here-
after.
If indeed we could judge from expressions
that have survived from older generations,
we might infer that many of the articles of
the Christian faith retain a firm hold on minds
which, if questioned on the subject, would
probably express doubt or denial of them, such
as the doctrine of a material heaven and hell,
of a system of future rewards and punishments,
of a personal devil intent on man's ruin, and of
the sinfulness of Sunday work.
FORECASTING OF THE FUTURE 103
The way in which the acceptance of a mate-
rial heaven and hell shows itself in ordinary
conversation, might be illustrated by many
anecdotes. One or two examples may here
suffice. About forty years ago a well-known
wealthy iron-master gave a dinner-party at his
country house. Among his guests was an old
friend of mine, from whom he had purchased a
portion of his estate. The conversation turned
on the great changes that had taken place in
the district within the memory of those present,
the dying out of old families and the incoming
of new, the making of railways, the laying out
of roads, the growth of villages, and so forth,
when my friend remarked, ' Ah, me ! I dare say
I would see just as much change again if I were
to come down sixty years hence.' Whereupon
the host instantly ejaculated from the other end
of the room, ' What's that ye say ? Come
down ! Tak' care ye haena to come up.'
Of similar character is another Ayrshire
story which has been told of a man who built
a large and ostentatious tomb for himself and
family, of which he was so proud that he
boasted to the gravedigger that it would last
till the day of judgment, when they might
have some trouble to get up out of it. As the
man's reputation was none of the highest, the
104 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
gravedigger replied, ' I'm thinkin' ye needna
be wonderin' how ye're to come up, for if they
knock the bottom out o't ye'll aiblins gang
doun.'
A country doctor, who was attending a
laird, had instructed the butler of the house in
the art of taking and recording his master's
temperature with a thermometer. On repair-
ing to the house one morning he was met by
the butler, to whom he said : ' Well, John,
I hope the laird's temperature is not any higher
to-day ? ' The man looked puzzled for a
moment, and then replied : ' Weel, I was just
wonderin' that mysell. Ye see he deed at
twal' o'clock.'
A clergyman's son had taken to drink, and
had given great trouble and pain to his worthy
father. On one occasion, after a debauch of
several days, he returned to the manse in the
evening, and found that there had been a
presbytery dinner in the house, and that the
reverend fathers who had dined were now
engaged over their toddy and talk in the study.
He made for the room, and was immediately
welcomed by his father, who tried to put the
best face he could on the situation. He asked
the young man where he had been. ' In hell, 1
was the answer. ' Ah, and what did you find
'IT MIGHT HAE BEEN WAUR' 105
there ? ' ' Much the same as I find here : I
couldna see the fire for ministers.'
In a country parish in the West of Scotland
the minister's man was a noted pessimist,
whose only consolation to his friends in any
calamity consisted in the remark, ' It micht
hae been waur.' One morning he was met by
the minister, who told him he had had such a
terrible dream that he had not yet been able
to shake off the effects of it. ' I dreamt I was
in hell, and experienced the torments of the
lost. I never suffered such agony in my life,
and even now I shudder when I think of it'
The beadle's usual consolatory remark came
out, ' It micht hae been waur.' ' O John,
John, I tell you it was the greatest mental dis-
tress I ever suffered in my life. How could it
have been worse ? ' 'It micht hae been true,'
was the reply.
Cases of religious mania have been common
enough in Scotland, where questions of theo-
logy have for centuries been keenly debated
among all classes of the community. It has
been said that ' the worst of madmen is a saint
run mad.' Whether this dictum be true or not
there would appear to have been always cases
where brooding upon some one doctrine of
the Christian faith has led to mental aberration
io6 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
more or less serious. An instance of this kind
occurred in the north of Ayrshire, where a man,
who had lost his wits over theological specula-
tion, would sometimes accost a stranger on a
quiet country road, and taking him by the
button-hole would abruptly ask him, ' What
do you think of effectual calling? Isn't it a
damned shame ? Good day to you.' And off
the poor fellow marched, ready to propound
the same or some similar problem to the next
passenger he would meet.
A less pronounced case of the same tendency
was that of a countryman who felt much
aggrieved by the story of the fall of man as
told in the Book of Genesis. ' And it comes
specially hard on me,' he would complain, ' for
I never could byde apples raw or cooked a' my
days.'
CHAPTER IV.
SUPERSTITION in Scotland. Holy wells. Belief in the Devil.
Growth of the rigid observance of the Sabbath. Efforts of
kirk-sessions and presbyteries to enforce Jewish strictness
in regard to the Sabbath. Illustrations of the effects of
these efforts.
ALTHOUGH ever since the Reformation the
clergy have done their best to eradicate the
pagan superstitions, which were alluded to in
a previous chapter, traces of these superstitions
have survived down to the present day in the
Highlands. Even so late as the beginning of
last century, people in the Lewis continued to
make offerings of mead, ale, or gruel, to the
God of the Sea. A man at midnight between
Wednesday and Thursday walked waist-deep
into the sea, poured out the offering and chanted
the following prayer :
O god of the sea
Put weed in the drawing-wave
To enrich the ground
To shower on us food.
io8 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
Those behind the offerer took up the chant and
wafted it along the midnight air. 1
An interesting account of the surviving
Highland superstitions will be found in two
recently published volumes by the late Rev.
John Gregorson Campbell, parish minister in
the island of Tiree, who devoted himself with
unwearied enthusiasm to collect the fading
customs and traditions of the Hebrides and
the Western Highlands. 8 In my early wan-
derings over Skye I came upon many relics
of the pagan period. At Kilbride, for ex-
ample, one is reminded of a pre- Protestant
or even a pre-Christian past by the tall rude
standing stone known as the Clach na h-An-
nait, or stone of Annat, a name which, by
some Gaelic scholars, is thought to be that of
a pagan goddess, though by others it is re-
garded as a term of the early Celtic Church,
applied to a chapel where the patron-saint
was educated, or where his relics were kept.
Near the obelisk is the Tobar na h-Annait,
or Annat's well.
The fairies once formed an active and
1 A. Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica (1900), vol. i. p. 163.
1 Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland,
collected entirely from oral sources^ 1900, and Witchcraft and
Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland^ \ 902.
FAIRIES IN SKYE 109
important community among the population
of Strath. One of their chief abodes was
underneath a large green mound in the
middle of the valley, called after them Sithein
(Sheean). Such fairy dwellings were looked
upon with veneration ; and it was a popular
belief that the ' people of peace ' who lived in
them liked to have them kept scrupulously
clean. Hence to remove the droppings of
any horses or cattle that had strayed upon
the rich green sward was believed to be a
grateful deed to these beings, who would
manifest their thankfulness by some significant
reward to the thoughtful cotter who took the
pains to do it. With the acknowledged ex-
ample of the fairies before them, I never could
quite understand how the West Highlanders
could themselves live in such conditions of dirt
and untidiness as have been so long prevalent
among them.
The top of the Sithein of Strath is crowned
with a few gnarled, stunted, storm-blasted
black-thorns, like a group of shrivelled carlines
stretching out their arms towards the east.
These trees, or rather bushes, have undergone
no appreciable change since I first saw them
half a century ago, and I was told by the
minister that they had not altered at all in
no SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
his time, so that they must have stood, much
as they are now, for more than a hundred
years. If one first comes upon these weird
forms in the mist of a stormy evening, when
they seem to remain motionless, though the
wind howls down the valley of Strath Suardil,
one can easily realise how they might be con-
nected in popular belief with the mysterious
beings of another world. The fairy cattle,
or red deer, live up in the corries of the Red
Hills. On the top of one of these eminences
a carline lies buried under a cairn and the
hill is named after her, Beinn na Cailleach.
Near the house of Kilbride, a spring or
well has been said, for more than two hundred
years, to contain a single live trout. It is
mentioned by Martin in his Description of
the Western Islands of Scotland, written at
the end of the seventeenth century, where he
states that the fish had been seen for many
years, and the natives, though they often caught
it in their wooden pails, were careful to preserve
it from being destroyed. The minister assured
me that there was still a trout in the well,
whether the same as that spoken of by Martin,
he could not affirm. I must confess that I
was never able to catch a sight of this
legendary fish.
HOLY WELLS IN THE HIGHLANDS in
As in Ireland, springs or wells in the
Highlands, not improbably famous even in
pagan times, have often been subsequently
dedicated to Celtic saints, and have long been
credited with medicinal or miraculous healing
powers. There used to be a number of such
wells in Skye, which were visited by the sick
and the maimed, who went round them three
times deiseal, that is, with the sun, or from
east to west, and drank of the water or bathed
the injured limb with it. On retiring they
always left by the side of the spring, or on its
overhanging tree, some little offering, were it
only a torn bit of rag. On the mainland some
of the holy wells, or saints' wells, are still
objects of pilgrimage from a distance. Thus
the well of St. Maree, or the Red Priest, on
a little islet in Loch Maree, still attracts its
patients, and the trees that overshadow it are
hung with tags of rag and ribbon which they
have placed there as votive offerings. This
tribute of recognition doubtless dates back to
pagan times. It was adopted by the Celtic
and then by the Roman Catholic Church, and
in spite of the denunciations of the reformers
and their successors, it is rendered still by
presbyterians, who give it from the mere force
of custom. Some years ago, while boating
112 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
along the coast south of the Sutors of
Cromarty, I was struck with the strange
appearance of a tree that overhung the upper
part of the beach. From a distance it seemed
to be decked with blossoms or leaves of black,
white, red, and other colours. On landing I
found that these were bits of rag hung up
by the pilgrims who had come to drink of
the saint's well that gushed forth under the
shadow of the tree. In the same region
the well of Craiguck, parish of Avoch, has
long been a place of annual resort on the
first Sunday of May, old style. The water
used to be taken in a cup and spilt three
times on the ground before being tasted, and
thereafter a rag or ribbon was hung on the
bramble- bush above the spring.
In connection with this subject, it may
be mentioned here that some years before
his death, the late Mr. Patrick Dudgeon, of
Cargen in Kirkcudbright, told me that he had
cleared out one of these holy or pilgrim wells
on his property, which had fallen into disuse,
though still occasionally visited for curative
purposes. Among the stuff which had gathered
on the bottom of the pool, a large number of
copper coins was found, extending in date from
the reign of Victoria back to the times of the
HIGHLAND SUPERSTITIONS 113
Stuarts. The surfaces of the coins had in
many cases been dissolved to such an extent
as to reduce the metal to little more than the
thinness of writing paper. Yet so persistent
was the internal structure superinduced by
the act of minting that, even in this attenuated
condition, the obverse and reverse could still
be deciphered.
Another superstitious belief of which I found
lingering traces in Skye was that of the water-
horse (Each Uisge) and the water-bull (Tarbh
Uisge). These fabulous creatures were be-
lieved to inhabit some of the lakes in the
lonely moorland of the south of Strath. I
could not find anybody who had actually seen
one, but the belief in their existence was by
no means confined to ' the superstitious, idle-
headed eld.' I was told that the water-horse
had a special fondness for young women, and
would seize them and carry them off into the
lake, whence they were never more seen.
No young woman in the parish would venture
near one of these sheets of water, except in
daylight, and not without fear and trembling
even then.
Relics of old superstitions could be noticed,
sometimes even among the details of domestic
management in the houses of intelligent people.
H
114 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
At Kilbride they would not make butter at
a certain state of the moon. In like manner
they took care that the peats should only be
cut when the moon was on the wane. Though
the reason alleged was that the moon must
influence the milk, just as much as it did the
tides, there could be little doubt that the habit
was a relic of the same pagan belief which
survives in bowing to the new moon and
turning a coin in her honour. The prejudice
against the sow as an unclean animal survived
in full vigour. Not only were no pigs kept
at Kilbride, but, so far as I was aware, no
ham, pork, or bacon ever formed part of the
commissariat of the house.
While the reformed clergy endeavoured to
uproot the ancient superstitions, they at the
same time were engaged in rivetting upon the
people other forms of superstition destined to
exercise much more pernicious effects than
those they replaced. One of these was their
doctrine of the Devil and his doings, and
another the enforcement of the views which
they gradually adopted as to Sabbath ob-
servance.
Much has been written on the subject of the
Devil and his influence in religion, mythology,
superstition, and literature, as well as on topo-
THE SCOTTISH DEIL 115
graphical features. The subject is discussed
from a historical point of view in the learned
volumes of Professor Roskoff of Vienna ; but
there is probably still room for a dissertation
on the part which the Devil has played in
colouring the national imagination of Scotland.
As is well known, all over the country in-
stances may be found where remarkable natural
features are assigned to his handiwork. Thus
we have ' Devil's punchbowls ' among the hills
and ' Devil's cauldrons ' in the river-channels.
Perched boulders are known as 'Deil's putting
stanes,' and natural heaps and hummocks of
sand or gravel have been regarded as ' Deil's
spadefuls.' Even among the smaller objects
of nature a connection with the enemy of man-
kind has suggested itself to the popular mind.
The common puff-ball is known as the ' Deil's
snuff-box' ; some of the broad-leaved water-
plants have been named ' Deil's spoons ' ;
the dragonfly is the ' Deil's darning-needle.'
Then the unlucky number thirteen has been
stigmatised as the ' Deil's dozen,' and a per-
verse unmanageable person as a ' Deil's
buckie.'
In association with witches and warlocks
Satan plays a leading part in the legends,
myths, and superstitions of the country. The
n6 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
general popular estimation of him in Scotland
has never been so admirably expressed in words
as by Burns, more particularly in his Address
to the Deil. But even in his day ocular proofs
of the evil spirit's presence and activity were
becoming scanty, and the poet had to rely
partly on the testimony of his ' rev'rend
grannie.' In the interval since that poem was
written, now nearly a century and a quarter ago,
the belief in a personal devil, ready to present
himself as a hairy monster with a tail, cloven
feet, and horns ' Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or
Clootie ' has still further faded. The late
Dr. Sloan of Ayr, however, told me that in
the year 1835, after he came out from making
the post-mortem examination of a poor miner
who was taken out alive from a coal-pit near the
village of Dailly, after having been shut up for
three weeks without food, but who died three
days after his rescue, he was accosted by some
of the older miners with the question, ' Did ye
fin' his feet ? ' The doctor had to confess that
he had not specially looked at the man's feet,
whereat the miners went off with a knowing
expression on their faces, as much as to say,
' We thought you had not, for if you had, you
would have found them to be cloven hoofs.
We believe that the body was not that of our
BELIEF IN THE DEIL 117
John Brown, but the Devil himself, who had
come for some bad purpose of his own.'
Although even the most superstitious cotter
in the loneliest uplands of the country would
hardly expect it to be possible now that the
Devil should waylay him at night, relics of this
belief may be found in the language of to-day,
especially in the imprecations prompted by
anger or revenge. Various versions have been
given of an illustrative incident which I have
been told really occurred at a slim wooden
foot-bridge over the river Irvine in Ayrshire.
An ill-tempered man was crossing the bridge,
when a dog, coming the opposite way, brushed
against his leg. ' Deil burst ye,' exclaimed he.
Immediately behind him came a woman, and
as they were nearly across the bridge a small
boy, trying to press past the man on the narrow
pathway, was greeted with the same angry im-
precation. The little fellow drew back, but
was encouraged by the voice of the woman
behind, who called out to him, ' Never fear, my
wee man, come on here outowre. The Deil
canna harm ye eenoo, for he's thrang on the
ither side o' the brig burstin' a dog.'
Occasionally the apparition of a dark hairy
body crowned with a pair of horns has received
a natural explanation, but not before revealing
n8 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the innate belief in the designs and power of
the Prince of Darkness. There used to be a
goat in Greenock which occasionally escaped
from its enclosure, and prowled about the
streets in the dark. On one of these occasions,
in the midst of its perambulations, it came to
an outside stair, which it thereupon ascended
At the top of the short flight of steps stood
the closed door of a room wherein an elderly
couple were asleep in bed. Nannie, being of
an inquisitive turn, and having some experience
of gate-fastenings, easily succeeded in opening
the door and entering the room. The fire still
gave a low ruddy light, and the goat at once
descried a tin pitcher, at the bottom of which
there remained some milk over from the frugal
supper of the little household. The animal
had forced its nose so well down in order to
lap the last drops, that when it raised its head
it brought up the pitcher firmly clasped round
it, and the handle fell with a thump against
the metal. The crash awoke the old woman,
who in the dim light could see a pair of horns
and a hairy body. Thinking it was the arch
enemy that had come for her, she called out
imploringly, ' O tak' John, tak' John ; I'm no
ready yet.'
The adjective ' devilish ' has in recent times
HISTORY OF SABBATH OBSERVANCE 119
come to be used by many in the humbler walks
of life as almost synonymous with wonderful,
extraordinary, supernatural ; as may be illus-
trated by the ejaculation of a Paisley workman,
who with a companion ascended to the top of
Goatfell in Arran. He had never conceived
anything so impressive as the panorama seen
from that summit, with its foreground of ser-
rated crests and deep glens. After the first
silence of amazement, he exclaimed to his friend,
' Man, Tarn, the works o' God's deevilish.'
It is an interesting study to trace among
the records of kirk-sessions and presbyteries
the gradual growth of strict Sabbath obser-
vance until it became a kind of fetish. The
first reformers enjoyed their relaxation on
Sunday, and for many years after the old
system had been displaced by the new, the
youth of the country continued to play their
pastimes after church hours. Markets were still
held on Sunday, and in many places plays
were performed, especially that of Robin Hood.
But after the establishment of the reformed
religion in 1560 these amusements and employ-
ments came to be frowned upon more and
more by the clergy, who by persistent efforts
succeeded in securing a succession of Acts
of Parliament which made Sabbath-breaking
120 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
an offence punishable by a civil magistrate.
Delinquents were everywhere brought up
before kirk-sessions and subjected to church
discipline, while, if they proved impenitent
sinners, they might be handed over to the civil
power for more condign treatment Never-
theless, in spite of the stringency of these
regulations, the ecclesiastical authorities had to
undertake a long struggle before they finally
uprooted the effects of the usage of many
centuries, and succeeded in impressing on the
mind of the general community the belief that
what they called ' violating the Sabbath-day '
was an act of moral turpitude that could only
be expiated by exemplary punishment and
public confession of penitence. Under the
head of this violation were included some of
the most natural and innocent habits. Men
were warned that not only must they refrain
from all ordinary week-day work, but that they
must not take a walk on Sunday, either in
town or country, save to and from church.
They must not sit at their doors, but remain
within. They were expected to maintain a
solemn demeanour ; laughing, whistling, or any
other sign of gaiety or frivolity being rigidly
proscribed. They might not bathe, or swim,
or shave. They were forbidden to visit
SABBATH-BREAKING AS A CRIME 121
each other, to water their gardens, to ride on
horseback, or to travel in any other fashion.
They must attend each church service ; if they
failed to appear, they were searched out by
church officers deputed for the purpose, and
were subject to ecclesiastical censure. In
short, the first day of the week was one
on which all mirth was expelled from the
face and all joy from the heart, and when
a funereal gloom settled down upon every-
body.
Sabbath-breaking, as defined by this in-
quisitorial code of observance, was exalted
into a crime more heinous even than theft.
Thus, an entry in the Register of the Presby-
tery of Dingwall, of date 3Oth July, 1650,
records that the case of Alexander M'Gorrie
and his wife, within the parish of Kilmorack,
had been referred to the Presbytery for cen-
sure, the charge being 'profanation of the
Sabbath by stealling imediatelie efter the
receaueing of the sacrament.'
The diligence with which the ecclesiastical
authorities pursued their quest after Sabbath-
breakers is well illustrated by the Register
of the Kirk-Session of St. Andrews. During
the latter half of the sixteenth century infinite
trouble appears to have been taken to
122 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
establish what the Session was pleased to
term 'the cumlye ordour of this citie.' The
fleshers (butchers) proved especially incorri-
gible. Though they had been often cited and
admonished, they had ' nocht obeyit the sam,
bot contemptuusly refusit to obey.' At last
these recalcitrant parishioners were made the
subject of a stringent decree whereby, if they
did not thereafter keep holy the Sabbath day,
they, their wives, children, and servants would
be debarred from all benefit of the Kirk, and
might further be excommunicated. Never-
theless, even the vision of these dire pains and
penalties did not prevent an occasional trans-
gression. Some years later one of the fleshers
was summoned for putting out skins upon
the causeway on Sunday a practice which
had formerly been general in his craft. He
admitted the accusation, but stated that the
fault had been committed, without his know-
ledge, by his servant. He was required to
dismiss that servant, and to undertake that
none of his servants in future should do the
same, otherwise he would have to pay the
penalty himself. There is an interesting entry
in the Register, showing how far back the
attractions of golf can be seen to have led
men to neglect their duties. On the igth
GROWTH OF SABBATARIANISM 123
December, 1599, it is recorded that the
brethren ' understanding perfytlie that divers
personis of thair number the tyme of sessioun
passis to the fieldis, to the goufe and uthir
exercise, and hes no regard for keiping of
the sessioun, for remeid quhairof it is ordinit
that quhatsumevir person or personis of the
session that heireftir beis fund playand, or
passis to play at the goufe or uthir pastymes
the tyme of sessioun, sail pay ten s. for the first
fault, for the secund fault xxs., for the third
fault public repentance, and the fourt fault
deprivation fra their offices.'
It is curious to note that rigid enforcement
of Sabbath observance was not effected on
the north side of the Highlands for somewhere
about a century and a half after it had been
secured in the Lowlands on the south side.
The proximity of the wilder Celtic population,
on the one hand, and the existence of a con-
siderable leaven of Episcopalian Protestantism
in the community, on the other, probably had
a large share in retarding the progress of the
movement. The northern clergy themselves
were not averse to sharing in the innocent
amusements of their people. Marriages and
funerals continued to be performed on Sunday,
and to be accompanied, even in the case of
124 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the lyke-wakes, with festivities that sometimes
reached a scandalous excess. Against these
customs, which had come down from Catholic
times, the kirk-sessions and presbyteries waged
incessant war, but probably not until the
extinction of the rebellion of 1745 and the
abolition of the heritable jurisdictions, with
the consequent freer commingling of the north
with the south of Scotland, did the Sabbatarian
spirit which had become rampant in the Low-
lands reach the intensity with which it has
maintained its sway in the north for the last
three or four generations.
It has been suggested that this increasing
strictness of observance arose from the desire
of the clergy to obtain a greater hold on the
minds and consciences of the people. Accord-
ing to this view they are believed to have
found that the restoration of the Jewish
Sabbath, with its prohibitions and injunctions,
would serve their purpose, and 'being pre-
cluded by various circumstances of their
situation from having recourse to the ex-
pedients of the Catholic priests to gain
possession of the minds of the votaries, they
have exerted all their power by its means to
attain this object.' It has been further asserted
that ' these are the reasons why we hear
GROWTH OF SABBATARIANISM 125
more of the heinous crime of Sabbath-breaking
than of all other vices together.' l
Obviously it was not in human nature to
keep always within the strict letter of such
an artificial code of conduct. Joyousness of
heart, so long as it was unquenched, could
not be restrained from smiles and laughter,
or from showing itself in song. The tempta-
tion to the young and happy to escape from
imprisonment within the four walls of a house
into the country, amongst birds and flowers
and trees, must have been often wholly irre-
sistible. Lapses from the strict rules of
conduct laid down for observance were inevi-
table ; and since, as Butler observed nearly
two centuries and a half ago,
In Gospel-walking times
The slightest sins are greatest crimes,
such lapses, when repeated, tended to harden
the mind in transgression. Sabbath-breaking
being held up as so heinous a sin, the transition
came to be imperceptibly made to the breaking
of the moral laws, which according to the
current dogmatic teaching did not seem to
be more imperatively binding. ' Hence it
is,' as has been pointed out, 'we continually
find culprits at the gallows charging the sin
1 Horae Sabbaticae, by Godfrey Higgins, 1833, p. 1.
126 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
of Sabbath-breaking, as they call it, with the
origin of their abandoned course of life ; and
there can be no doubt that they are correct
in so doing.' 1
This excessive zeal for a strict observance
of Sunday has been regarded as a special
characteristic of Calvinistic communities. But
it does not seem to have reached anywhere
else the height of intolerance which it main-
tained, and to a great extent still maintains,
in Scotland. Doubtless the prevalent Sabba-
tarianism was in Sidney Smith's mind when
he called Scotland ' that garret of the earth
that knuckle-end of England that land of
Calvin, oat-cakes, and sulphur.' And it may
have been Byron's recollections of sancti-
monious Sundays in Scotland, as well as in
England, that inspired his exclamation :
' Whet not your scythe, Suppressors of our vice !
Reforming Saints ! too delicately nice !
By whose decrees, our sinful souls to save,
No Sunday tankards foam, no barbers shave ;
And beer undrawn, and beards unmown, display
Your holy reverence for the Sabbath-day.' 8
An octogenarian friend has told me that he
believes he was the first man in Edinburgh to
1 Higgins, Horat Sabbaticae, p. 53.
* English Bards and Scotch Reviewers^ 1. 632.
SABBATARIAN CODE 127
make a practice of taking a Sunday walk. He
remembers that on some of these occasions he
was accompanied by a well-known professor
in the University, who besought him not to
get back to the town until the church-goers
had safely returned to their houses from
afternoon service, as he was afraid of the
public odium he might draw down not only
on himself, but on the University. I myself
recollect when it was a common practice to
pull down the window blinds on Sunday, in
order that the eyes of the inmates might be
hindered from beholding vanity, and that
their minds might be kept from wandering
away from the solemn thoughts that should
engage them. There was one lady who
carried her sanctimonious scruples so far
that she always rose a little earlier than
usual on Sunday morning, and took care, as
her first duty, to carry a merry-hearted and
loud-throated canary down to the cellar that
its carol might not disturb the quiet and
solemnity of the day. It was considered sin-
ful to use any implement of ordinary week-
day work. Hence though a servant might
perhaps scrape away with her fingers the earth
from the roots of potatoes in the garden, if
these were unexpectedly wanted for the
128 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
Sunday dinner, on no account could a spade
or graip be used to dig them up expeditiously.
In the same spirit, a lad might be employed for
half an hour on a Sunday morning in laboriously
carrying armfuls of turnips or other vegetables
for feeding the cattle, but he could not be
allowed to use a wheelbarrow with which he
could have done the whole work in a few
minutes. As it was a heinous offence to write
letters on Sunday, people used to sit up till
midnight ; what would have been a sin before
the clock struck twelve, became quite legiti-
mate thereafter. 1
Happily this rigidity is gradually being
relaxed, except perhaps in parts of the High-
lands. How it looks to an observer from
outside may be illustrated from some of my
own personal experiences.
In the summer of the year 1860, I
found that the strict maintenance of the
Highland view of Sabbath observance might
have had serious consequences for myself. In
company with my old chief, Sir Roderick
Murchison, I had walked on a Saturday from
the head of Loch Torridon, through the
1 Thus Mrs. Grant of Laggan tells us that she sat up on
Sunday night, I7th October, 1794, that she might write a letter
to a friend 'without infringing on a better day.' Letters from
the Mountains, 5th edit., vol. iii., p. 14.
A ROSS-SHIRE SABBATH 129
wild defile of Glen Torridon, to Loch Maree.
Along the mountain slopes that sweep upwards
from the southern side of that valley, I
noticed so many features of interest, some of
which, if further and more closely examined,
might help to clear up problems of Highland
geology for the solution of which we were
seeking, that I felt I must ascend these
mountains and look at their crests and corries.
But we were pressed for time, and although
next day was Sunday I determined to devote
it to the quest. The morning broke auspi-
ciously, and ushered in one of the most superb
days which I have ever been fortunate enough
to meet with in the West Highlands. As it
was desirable to save time and fatigue by
driving some six miles to the point of the
road nearest to the ground to be traversed,
a request was made for a dog-cart But the
answer came, that it was the Sabbath, and
nobody would drive a ' machine ' on the Lord's
Day. There was no objection, however, to
allow the use of a dog-cart, nor to charge for the
same in the bill (for Highland innkeepers, like
Dryden's Shimei, ' never break the Sabbath
but for gain ') ; we must, however, do the driv-
ing ourselves. It was accordingly arranged
that Sir Roderick's valet should drive me to
130 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the place and return with the vehicle, leaving
me to make my tramp and find my way back
to the inn on foot. The fresh buoyant air of
the mountains ; the depth of the glens with
their piles of old moraines; the ruggedness and
dislocation of the cliffs and slopes ; the utter
solitude of the scene, broken only now and
then by the bound of a group of red deer,
startled from a favourite corrie, or by the whirr
of the snowy ptarmigan ; the ever-widening
panorama of mountain-summit, gorge, glen, and
lake, as each peak was gained in succession ;
and then from the highest crest of all, the
vista of the blue Atlantic, with the faint far
hills of the Outer Hebrides and the nearer
and darker spires of Skye all this, added to
the absorbing interest of the geology, filled
up a day to the brim with that deep pleasure
of which the memory becomes a life-long
possession. The sun had sunk beneath the
western hills before I began to retrace my
steps, and night came down when there still
lay some miles of trackless mountain, glen,
river, and bog between me and the inn where
my old chief was expecting me at dinner.
Fortunately, in the end the moon rose, and I
arrived at the end of the journey somewhere
near midnight.
A SUTHERLAND SABBATH 131
The delay in my return gave Murchison
not a little uneasiness. As hour after hour
passed, he grew so impatient that he began
to insist on some of the people of the inn
turning out with lanterns as a search party.
His remonstrances, however, were met with a
sullen indifference, very unlike the usual atten-
tiveness of the household. 'It was the Sabbath
day/ they said, 'the gentleman shouldn't have
gone out to walk on the Lord's Day.' In
short, the gentleman, had he been lost, would
have deserved his fate, and would have fur-
nished to the pulpits of the district a new and
pregnant illustration of the danger of Sabbath-
breaking !
Some fifteen years later, being in the east
of Sutherland, I greatly desired to visit the
two remarkable cones of Ben Griam, which,
rising far over out of the desolate moorland,
form such a prominent feature in the landscape
of that region. Had they stood within easy
reach of the little inn where I was staying, I
would have walked over to them in order to
spend a quiet Sunday in examining them and
in meditation over the marvellous story of
past time which they reveal. But the dis-
tance being much more than a Sabbath day's
journey, I applied to my host for a dog-cart
132 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
to take me by road to the nearest point from
which. I could strike across the moor on foot
He confessed that none of his servants would
drive me, and that he did not wish to shock
the prejudices of his neighbours in the parish,
but that if I would wait until the people were
in the kirk, he would drive me himself. As
we passed along the lonely road he gave me
his history, which had no ordinary interest.
Born in the district, he had gone south early
in life, and eventually became an engine-driver
on one of the main railways. He was next
attracted, by the offer of better pay and
prospects, to enter the service of the Chemin
de Fer du Nord and drove the first train
between Paris and Calais. He continued in
the service of that railway for many years,
made his home in France, and finally retired
with a pension from the French Government.
As he had no longer any daily occupation, a
longing for the old country came on him and
grew so strong that he in the end broke up
his home in France and took the inn where
I found him. But he soon discovered that
his long stay in a freer theological atmosphere
than that of Calvinistic Sutherland had taught
him to look on life from a very different point
of view from that still maintained by his fellow-
HIGHLAND BIGOTRY 133
countrymen. He found them, he said, narrow-
minded, prejudiced, and bigoted, disposed to
look askance on him and what they thought
his laxity of belief, and to show in many
little spiteful ways the antagonism between
them. The old home was no longer the place
that had dwelt all these long years treasured
in his memory, and he seemed disposed to
regret that he had ever come back to it.
That Sunday was a day of sunshine, of white
floating clouds, and of blue distances stretching
away from the purple moors to the sea on
the one side and to the inland mountains on
the other a day to be alone with Nature
and one's own thoughts. My reverie on Ben
Griam, which led me far into the backward of
time, was touched now and then with thoughts
of the strange fetichism of to-day that has
turned the Sunday from a day of joyfulness
to one of gloom.
That this relentless intolerance of any inno-
cent and instructive employments, other than
that of church-going, still persists in certain
quarters with undiminished rigour was brought
painfully to my notice only six years ago in
Skye. A reading party of bright young men
from one of the English Universities had settled
down for steady work and recreation at a
134 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
well-known hotel, and the landlady, anxious
to obtain for them more space and quiet than
they could find under her own roof, arranged
for the use of a large room in a house which
had been temporarily taken by a Free Church
clergyman who had been displaced during
the progress of the controversy respecting
the union of his church with the United
Presbyterians. On the first Sunday, the young
men spent the morning partly in reading and
partly in examining under the microscope
some of the natural history specimens they
had been collecting during the week. The
sight of these instruments, opened on the
Lord's Day, was too much for the minister's
wife. Next morning my hostess received a
letter from her requesting that the young men
might be removed, bag and baggage, as she
could not submit to such profanation under
her roof. She concluded by beseeching that
the innkeeper's children might be sent to her
as a consolation, 'that she might hear their
innocent prattle.' The landlady showed me
this letter, but was anxious that, at least
while they were her guests, the students should
know nothing about it, as she would not like
them to think that this intolerance was a fair
sample of Highland opinion.
SABBATARIAN INCONSISTENCY 135
I have sometimes been astonished to see
how this superstitious veneration for the
Sabbath has blinded intelligent men and
women, otherwise liberal and enlightened in
their views, to the real meaning and use of
the day. Having been taught from their
youth to deem certain things unlawful and
reprehensible if done on that day, they studi-
ously refrain from these, but at the same time
they unconsciously allow themselves to say and
do other things which on due reflection they
would admit to be no better than those which
they condemn, if not indeed much worse. I
once spent a Sunday in a Highland Free
Kirk manse, and in the afternoon was enter-
tained by the minister's wife, who was as
kindly in disposition as she was narrow in
her views. We discussed the whole parish.
Some Roman Catholics had come to the
district, which filled her mind with dismay.
She was grieved, too, that a well-known
dignitary of the Church of England had called
the day before on her husband, a broad-minded
and accomplished scholar, and had carried him
off to examine some ecclesiastical ruins in the
neighbourhood. She gave me an account
of various marriages which were in contem-
plation, and of the changes that were imminent
136 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
in the tenancy of the farms. At last I asked
her to excuse me as I had some letters to
write which I was anxious should go by the
early post in the morning. ' What ? ' she
exclaimed in surprise, ' Do you mean to say
that you write letters on the Sabbath ? ' I could
not resist the temptation to assure her that
I thought writing to my friends and relatives
on that day was at least as allowable as to
spend the afternoon over parish gossip.
A story is told of a young clergyman on
the mainland who had not been long placed
in his charge when rumours began to circulate
about his orthodoxy. Some of his friends
hearing these reports set themselves to enquire
into the grounds for them. But they could
only elicit vague hints and suggestions. At
last they came upon an old woman who de-
clared roundly that the minister was ' no sounV
' Not sound ! what makes you think that ? '
1 Weel then,' she answered, 'I maun tell ye.
I wass seein' him wi' my ain een, standin' at
his window on the Lord's Day, dandlin' his
bairn.'
An incident which illustrates the strictness
of Sabbath observance in the North Highlands
has been told me by a friend. During one of
her tours in the Highlands Queen Victoria
QUEEN VICTORIA AND SABBATARIANISM 137
visited Ross-shire. When spending a Sunday
at Loch Maree, the Royal party, tempted by
the beauty of the day, made an expedition by
boat to one of the islands of the loch. This
' worldly acting ' upon the Lord's day caused
a great scandal in the neighbourhood, and
eventually the Free Church Presbytery took
up the matter and addressed a letter to the
Queen 'dealing with' her for her conduct.
Our good Queen was naturally much disquieted
that she had unwittingly offended any section
of her faithful subjects, and consulted one of
her chaplains, a distinguished minister of the
Church of Scotland, who was then at Balmoral,
as to what she ought to do. He counselled her
not to take any notice of the letter, and allayed
her anxiety by recounting to her the following
incident illustrative of the attitude of mind of
the Highlanders towards all departures, how-
ever trivial, from their notions of strict Sab-
bath observance. The story greatly amused
the Queen, and at her request it had to be re-
peated to other members of the royal household.
A Highland minister, after the services of
the Sunday were over, was noticed saunter-
ing by himself in meditative mood along the
hillside above the manse. Next day he was
waited on by one of the ruling elders, who
138 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
came to point out the sin of which he had
been guilty, and the evil effect which his
lapse from right ways could not fail to have
in the parish. The clergyman took the rebuke
in good part, but tried to show the remon-
strant that the action of which he complained
was innocent and lawful, and he was about
to cite the famous example of a Sabbath walk,
with the plucking of the ears of corn, as set
forth in the Gospels, when he was interrupted
with the remark : ' Ou ay, sir, I ken weel
what you mean to say ; but, for my pairt, I
hae nefer thocht the better o 1 them for breakin'
the Sawbbath.'
A member of the Geological Survey was,
not many years ago, storm-stayed in a muir-
land tract of South Ayrshire upr.i a Saturday,
and gladly accepted the hospitality of a farmer
for the night. Next morning he asked the
servant if she thought her master could oblige
him with the loan of a razor. In due time
the razor arrived, but was found to be so
wofully blunt that the maid had to be sum-
moned again to see if a strop was available.
She soon came back with this message,
' Please, the maister says this is the Sawb-
bath, and ye're jist to put pith to the razor.
Ye canna get the strop.'
FAST-DAY SUPERSTITION 139
The late Lord Playfair, when he was Pro-
fessor of Chemistry in the University of Edin-
burgh, told me that, passing his nursery-door
one Sunday, he overheard the nurse stilling a
child in this fashion: 'Whisht, whisht, my bonnie
lamb ; it's the Sawbbath, or I wud whustle
ye a sang, but I'll sing ye a paraphrase.'
The sacredness of the Sabbath, by a
natural transition, came to be also attributed
to the Fast Day, which heralded the half-
yearly Communion-Sunday. A Fife shepherd,
who was in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh on
a week-day, found that his dog had strayed
to some distance, and was making off in a
wrong direction. He begged an acquaintance
whom he had met to whistle for the animal.
' Whustle on your ain dowg,' was the indig-
nant reply. ' Na, na, man,' said the per-
turbed drover. ' I canna dae that, for you
see it's our Fast Day in Kirkcaldy.'
Nobody has satirised the Scottish perver-
sion of the day of rest with more effective
sarcasm than Lord N eaves in his Lyric for
Saturday Night :
We zealots made up of stiff clay,
The sour-looking children of sorrow,
While not over-jolly to-day,
Resolve to be wretched to-morrow.
140 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
We can't for a certainty tell
What mirth may molest us on Monday ;
But at least to begin the week well,
Let us all be unhappy on Sunday.
What though a good precept we strain
Till hateful and hurtful we make it !
What though, in thus pulling the rein,
We may draw it so tight as to break it !
Abroad we forbid folks to roam,
For fear they get social or frisky;
But of course they can sit still at home,
And get dismally drunk upon whisky.
A habit which has been followed for
generations to the sound of the ' drum
ecclesiastic ' is not easily thrown off. The
Sabbath look of funereal sadness may still be
seen on many a sturdy Presbyterian face.
But happily the gloomy intolerance is pass-
ing away. In no respect is the freer air
of the modern spirit more marked than in
the relaxation of the old discipline in regard
to the keeping of the Sabbath in lowland
Scotland. A country walk on that day is no
longer always proclaimed to be a violation
of one of the ten commandments, innocent
laughter is not everywhere denounced as
a sin, nor does it appear that the growth of
Sunday cheerfulness leads to any depravation
of character, or to a less keen feeling for
SINFULNESS OF DANCING 141
whatsoever is of good report. There is now,
however, a tendency for the pendulum to
swing perhaps too far on the other side.
Welcome though the disappearance of the
old gloom may be, there would be a question-
able gain if what should be a day of quiet
rest and refreshment were turned into one of
frivolous gaiety and dissipation.
In other directions a relaxation of the old
rigour in regard to the innocent enjoyments
of life is to be welcomed. But these various
signs of greater charity and enlightenment
have made much less rapid progress in the
Highlands and Islands. In these regions the
influence of the protestant clergy, as it was
longer in bringing the people into subjection,
still maintains much of the vehemence which
has elsewhere died down. The intolerance
appears to be decidedly more marked in the
Free Church communion than in that of the
Establishment. One of the latest examples
of it which has come under my own observa-
tion was that of a lady who went to a dance.
For this enormity she was reprimanded by the
Free Church minister to whose congregation
she belonged. Things at last became so un-
pleasant that she left his ministrations and
went to the parish kirk.
CHAPTER V.
LITIGIOUSNESS of the Scots. Sir Daniel Macnee and jury-triaL
Scottish judges, Patrick Robertson, Cullen, Neaves, Ruther-
ford Clark.
THE natural unreclaimed Scot is apt to be
litigious. He likes to have a ' ganging plea,'
although the matter in dispute may not be
worth contention. He does not care to be
beaten by a neighbour, even in a trifle, and
will willingly spend and be spent to secure
what in the end is but a barren victory.
This liking for law can be traced far back in
history. We see it in full force during the
lifetime of Sir David Lyndsay, who satirised it
and the ecclesiastical courts that encouraged it
He recounts how when the pauper's mare
was drowned by his neighbour, the poor man
at once ran off to the consistory to lodge
his complaint, and there he ' happinit amang
a greidie menzie ' :
Thay gave me first ane thing thay call citandum ;
Within aucht days, I gat hot lybcllandum ;
THE LITIGIOUS SCOT 143
Within ane moneth, I gat ad opponendum ;
In half ane yeir, I gat interloquendum.
But, or thay cam half gate to concludendwn,
The fiend ane plack was left for to defend him.
For sentence silver, thay cryit at the last.
Of pronunciandum, thay made me wonder faine;
But, I gat never my gude gray mear againe. 1
The same national tendency has survived
down to our own times. It is excellently
pourtrayed by Scott in several of the Waver-
ley Novels. Dandie Dinmont, for instance,
having won the 'grand plea about the
grazing of the Langtae-head,' was keen to
have another legal tussle with his neighbour,
Jock o' Dawston Cleuch, about a wretched
bit of land that might 'feed a hog or aiblins
twa in a good year ' ; not that he valued
the land, but he wanted 'justice,' and could
ill bear to be overridden, even in regard to
what was in itself quite worthless. The
phraseology of the law courts came glibly to
the tongues of men who, like Bartoline
Saddletree, picked it up from attendance in
the Parliament House, but had only an im-
perfect notion of what it meant. In some
cases, such as that of Poor Peter Peebles,
loss of wits and fortune, together with a
l [Satyre of the Three Estaitis, Part ii.
144 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
parrot-like facility in repeating law terms, was
all the outcome of years of litigation.
Burns, too, has admirably indicated the
litigious quarrels of his countrymen and a
thoroughly national mode of composing them
when the disputants can be induced to
adopt it
When neebors anger at a plea,
An' just as wud as wud can be,
How easy can the barley-brie
Cement the quarrel!
It's aye the cheapest lawyer's fee,
To taste the barrel.
From the number of writers, solicitors, and
advocates who still every year enter the legal
profession, one may infer that this national
peculiarity shows no marked sign of abate-
ment. The institution of local courts of first
instance, all over the country, has enabled the
Scot to indulge in the luxury of law, without
the trouble and expense of going up to
Edinburgh. He can bring his case before
the Sheriff-Substitute, and appeal from his
decision to that of the Sheriff- Principal. If
an adverse judgment from both of these
officials has not damped his enthusiasm or
emptied his pocket, he has still the Court of
Session in the Scottish capital to fall back on,
LAW AND LAW-COURTS 145
and can there appeal to the Inner House ;
and, finally, if any fighting power should still
be left in him, he may carry his case to the
House of Lords. It is obvious that the legal
system of the country has been admirably
arranged for the gratification of his litigious
propensities.
That admirable story-teller, Sir Daniel Mac-
nee, President of the Royal Scottish Academy,
used to delight his friends with dramatic
pictures of his experiences of law-courts and
other scenes of Scottish life. It is matter for
infinite regret that his stories were never
written down. I used frequently to be privi-
leged to hear him, and may try to give from
recollection a mere outline of one of his
favourite narratives which had reference to
legal matters. He had been engaged as a
juryman in a trial, and after a long day in
court had finished his duties and come back
rather tired to his hotel. He there met an
old acquaintance, a Western laird, who spoke
with a strong Highland accent, and with
whom he had the following conversation :
' Ah, Mr. Macnee (it was before the painter
received his knighthood), I'm glad to see you
again. But you look very weary ; are you
well enough ? '
146 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
'Oh yes, thank you, I am quite well, but
somewhat tired after a long day in the jury-
court'
' A juryman ! Mr. Macnee, were you a
juryman? Well now, I hope you had some
personal satisfaction out of the case.'
' I really don't know what you mean. I
had the satisfaction of serving my turn
and doing my duty ; and I hope I am not
likely to be called again for some time to
come.'
'Of course, of course, you would be doing
your duty, whatever. But did you have no
personal satisfaction in your verdict ? '
' I am entirely at a loss to understand what
you can mean. I gave the verdict which
seemed to me just, and according to the
evidence.'
' No doubt, no doubt, Mr. Macnee, you
would indeed do that But I'll explain by
giving you an account of a case that once
happened to myself,' and he proceeded to
recount a narrative worthy of the days ' when
wretches hung that jurymen might dine.'
' Well, you see, there was a man in the village
near my place and his house was broken into
and a lot of valuable things were stolen from
it The police were on the spot next morn-
A JURY-TRIAL 147
ing, but for a time they could get no clue at
all. They found in the end that the last man
seen at the house was a baker in the village,
and their suspicions began to fall on him.
Well this baker was a notorious radical, and
he was corrupting the village with his radical
notions and theories. And I had determined,
if I could manage it anyhow, to get him away.
So I was not sorry to hear that the police
were looking up the baker and his doings.
At last, as they could get nobody else to
suspect, they arrested him, and after a while
a day was appointed for his trial. A jury was
summoned, and I was one of the jury ; and
being the chief man in the place, I was chosen
as foreman. Well, the case went to trial, and
we heard all the evidence the police could
scrape together, and the jury retired to consider
their verdict. When we were all met, I said
to them, " Well, gentlemen, what do you think
of the case ? " And they answered to a man,
" O the baker's as innocent as any of us." So
I looked amazed and said, " What's that you
say, gentlemen? Innocent! I really am
astonished to hear you say that. Just let us
go over the evidence." So I went over all
the facts and inferences, bit by bit, and showed
how they all made for the prisoner's guilt
148 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
I argued down every objection, and when they
were all silenced and convinced, we marched
back into the court with a unanimous verdict
of "guilty as libelled." You should have seen
the face of the judge, but still more, you should
have seen the face of the baker. But there
was the verdict, and so the judge passed
sentence of imprisonment on the baker, and
we have never seen him more in the village.
Now, Mr. Macnee, that's what I mean by
personal satisfaction \ '
The Scottish judges of the type of Her-
mand, Braxfield, Eskgrove and others, so
vividly pictured by Lord Cockburn, and of
whom so many anecdotes have been recorded,
have long passed away. One of the latest of
them was Patrick (or as he was familiarly
called, Peter) Robertson, of whose wit and
humour many reminiscences have been pre-
served. He was noted for his obesity which
occasioned the soubriquet applied to him by
Scott. According to the well-known story,
Robertson, while still an advocate, was one
day the centre of a group in the Parliament
House which he was amusing with his drollery
when Scott was seen approaching. ' Hush,
boys/ said he, ' here comes old Peveril I see
his peak,' alluding to the novelist's remarkably
PATRICK ROBERTSON 149
high skull. Scott, coming up in the midst of
the general laugh which followed, asked Lock-
hart what was the joke. When Robertson's
personal remark was repeated to him, Scott,
with a look at the advocate's rotund figure,
retorted with another personality, quietly
remarking, 'Ay, ay, my man, as weel Peveril
o' the Peak ony day as Peter o' the Paunch.'
In his younger days Robertson was travel-
ling for a stage or two on the coach from
Inverness to Perth, when a number of ministers
were his fellow-passengers, bound for the
General Assembly at Edinburgh. He engaged
in conversation with them, and led them to
believe that he was also a clergyman from
the extreme north of Scotland. When they
reached the point at which he meant to quit
the coach there was a halt for breakfast, and
Robertson was asked to say grace. He began
with a word or two of Gaelic, but as his
acquaintance with that language was but
slender, he poured forth a torrent of gibberish
pronounced through his nose with an occa-
sional Gaelic word interjected. The ministers
listened with praiseworthy decorum, uncertain
what particular dialect of Gaelic it might be,
for it was one with which none of them had
any acquaintance. But while Robertson still
ISO SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
continued his nasal monologue the coachman's
horn blew, and the clerical guests had to
hurry breakfastless back to their seats.
In the early years of last century Gaelic
was frequently heard in the Court of Session,
as Highland witnesses were often ignorant
of English, and their evidence had to be
translated by interpreters kept for the purpose.
Sometimes the ignorance of English was more
assumed than real. There is a story told of
Lord Cullen, long remembered for his brilliant
feats of mimicry, who had a case in court
where a Highland witness was evidently
'hedging' and prevaricating. The judge at
last lost his patience and asked the Gaelic
expert, ' Mr. Interpreter, will you inquire of
the witness whether he saw the thing or did
not see it, if his language is capable of so
fine a distinction.'
Another witness got the better of his cross-
questioner in a simple way. The question
in dispute turned upon the identity of a
particular box, and this witness was called
to prove that the nails in the box had been
made by him. The advocate for the other
side ridiculed the idea that any man could
recognise his own made nails, and badgered
the man into desperation. The poor fellow
LORD NEAVES rsi
at last leant across the witness-box and asked
his tormentor if he would allow him to look
at a sheet of paper lying in front of the counsel,
who had been making some jottings on it.
Having got the paper into his hands, the man
turned to the advocate and asked, ' Is that
your hand o' vrite ? ' ' Yes, it is,' was the
reply. ' But hoo can you prove it's yours ?
Could you swear to it anywhere ? ' 'Of
course I could.' 'Weel, then, if you can
swear to your hand o' vrite, hoo the deevil
should I no' swear to my ain nails ? '
One of the last of the old race of Scottish
judges was Lord N eaves, an excellent lawyer
and accomplished scholar, with so much
humour, wit and bonhommie that he generally
became the centre of any company where
he might be. One of his favourite diver-
sions was to write songs, which he sang
at convivial gatherings, such as the Royal
Society Club in Edinburgh. Many of these
appeared first in print among the pages of
Blackwoods Magazine, to which he was for
many years a valued contributor, and he col-
lected them into a little volume entitled
Songs and Verses, Social and Scientific, by
an Old Contributor to ' Maga* Some of
these were inimitably clever, and as sung
152 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
or chanted by him in his cracked, unmusical
voice, with appropriate gesticulations and
modulations, they were irresistibly droll. Some
of the scientific ditties, dashed off in the in-
tervals of work in court, and sung the same
evening at the club, were brimful of fun and
wit, hitting off points in theory or in dispute
with great acumen. Among these may be
mentioned ' The Origin of Species,' a versified
account of Darwin's views; 'Stuart Mill on
Mind and Matter'; and 'The Origin of
Language.' Some of the social ditties were
likewise delightful, such as 'I'm very fond
of water,' ' The Permissive Bill,' ' Let us all
be unhappy on Sunday ' (which has already
been cited), and the ' Sheriffs life at sea.'
A verse of one or two of these may be quoted
here.
Pray what is this Permissive Bill
That some folks rave about?
I can't with all my pains and skill
Its meaning quite make out.
1 O ! it's a little simple Bill
That seeks to pass incog.
To permit ME to prevent YOU
From having a glass of grog ! '
When appointed Sheriff of Orkney and
Shetland, N eaves had at stated times to pro-
LORD RUTHERFORD CLARK 153
ceed by steamboat from Granton to these
northern isles, and in one of the songs above
enumerated he gives a humorous account of
his experiences, which shows that he was
not always a good sailor.
The zephyr soon becomes a gale,
And the straining vessel groans, boys ;
And the Sheriffs face grows deadly pale
As he thinks of Davy Jones, boys.
Thinking here,
Sinking there,
Wearily, drearily,
Shakingly, quakingly;
Not from fear or sickness free
Is the Sheriff now at sea, my boys.
The late Lord Rutherford Clark was an
admirable example of the cultured lawyer,
quiet and restrained in manner, with a keen
sense of humour, and a singular power of witty
criticism. One evening at the house of the
late Professor Sellar, he came up to me before
dinner with a grave face, and remarked :
' There is a geological problem that puzzles me
a good deal ; perhaps you can throw some
light on it. How does it come about that all
the Scottish hills with which I am acquainted
are so much higher and steeper than they
used to be thirty years ago ? ' Towards the end
of his life I met him on the shore at Cannes.
154 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
Being a keen golfer he had brought his clubs
with him to the Mediterranean, and enjoyed
a daily game there. But the disease which
carried him off had already fastened its grip
upon him, and I saw him no more.
An advocate at the Scottish bar whom I
remember was a somewhat pompous orator,
and went by the name of Demosthenes. He
had written a book on Bills, and in the course
of pleading one day in Court he had occasion
to refer to his work. In a loud voice he called
out to the attendant ; ' Bring me myself on
Bills.'
Some of the Writers to the Signet and
Solicitors of the old school still survived in my
younger days. One of these characters had
some odd peculiarities. He paid his clerks
more liberal salaries than were common with
other lawyers, but he insisted on unremitting
attention to duty. He used to carry a ther-
mometer in his pocket, and from time to time
would go downstairs to the room in which the
clerks worked. If he found one of them off
his stool, he would clap the thermometer upon
it, and should the mercury not rise a certain
number of degrees, he inflicted a money fine on
the unfortunate occupant. But for the large
salaries, he could not have retained the men
EDINBURGH LAWYERS 155
in his service, or gratified his propensity for
fines. Another venerable Writer to the Signet
had a good library, and on his shelves a fine
series of the Scottish philosophers. He
insisted that if at any time a clerk should finish
his task before another piece of work was ready
for him, he must come into the library and take
a book, so as not to be a moment idle. One
of the staff selected Hume's Essays, but every
time he put the book away in his desk for
further perusal, he found next morning that
it had been removed and replaced on the
shelves. The old gentleman was an ardent
Free Churchman, and excluded Hume from
the authors that his clerks might read.
CHAPTER VI.
MEDICAL Men. Sandy Wood. Knox. Nairn and Sir Wil-
liam Gull. A broken leg in Canna. Changes in the pro-
fessoriate and students in the Scottish Universities. A St.
Andrews Professor. A Glasgow Professor. Some Edin-
burgh Professors Pillans, Blackie, Christison, Maclagan,
Playfair, Chalmers, Tail. Scottish Schoolmasters.
AMONG the professions that of medicine has
long held a high place in Scotland. Its reputa-
tion at home and abroad has been maintained
for a century and a half by a brilliant succession
of teachers and practitioners. The schools of
medicine in Edinburgh and Glasgow continue
to attract students from all quarters of the
British Islands, and from our colonies. Every
year hundreds of medical graduates are sent
out from the Universities, and they are now to
be found at work in almost every corner of the
wide globe.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century
one of the noted medical characters in Edin-
LANG SANDY WOOD 157
burgh was the surgeon eulogised by Byron
in the couplet :
Oh ! for an hour of him who knew no feud,
The octogenarian chief, the kind old Sandy Wood.
He was greatly admired for his medical skill,
and beloved for his kindly nature. His popu-
larity saved him once from instant death.
During a riot, the mob, mistaking him for
the provost, were preparing to pitch him over
the North Bridge, when he shouted out to
them, ' I'm lang Sandy Wood ; tak' me to a
lamp and yell see.' He used to take a
constitutional walk to Restalrig in the even-
ings, and frequently met a tailor carrying a
bundle, whom he invariably saluted with,
'Weel, Tarn, are ye gaun hame wi' your
wark ? ' The tailor rather resented this mono-
tonous enquiry, and one day he had his
revenge. Noticing the tall figure of the well-
known surgeon walking at the end of a funeral
procession, he instantly made up to him to
ask, ' Weel, doctor, are ye gaun hame wi'
your wark ? '
Rather later came the times of Burke and
Hare, with the terrors of the resurrectionists.
A prominent individual in Edinburgh at that
time was Robert Knox the anatomist, to whose
dissecting room the bodies of the victims
158 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
murdered in the West Port were sold. He
was for many years a successful lecturer, but
afterwards got into difficulties, when he tried
to retrieve his position by announcing courses
of lectures, or a single lecture on a sen-
sational subject. When one of the teachers
in the medical school, who had introduced
the practice of illustrating his lectures with
models, was discoursing on the anatomy of
the ear, Knox posted up a notice that on
a certain day he too would give a lecture
on the human ear, illustrated with the modern
methods of demonstration. When the day
came, the lecture-room was crowded with stu-
dents on the outlook for amusement. The
lecturer began his demonstration by holding
up an ear, which he had obtained from a
human subject, and pointing out the leading
features in its structure. At a particular part
of his lecture he gave a signal, and the door
behind him was opened by two men who carried
in a monstrous and grotesquely shaped model
of an ear. It was set down on the table, and
in a little while Knox, holding up the ear he
had already exhibited, said, ' This, gentlemen,
is the human ear according to God Almighty,
and that (pointing to the huge model), and that
is the human ear according to Dr. .'
EXTRA MURAL MEDICAL SCHOOLS 159
There was once a good deal of rivalry be-
tween the medical staff of the Universities
and the extra-mural schools of medicine. On
one occasion, a University professor, wishing
to make fun at the expense of a distinguished
member of the non-university school, told a
story of a man who consulted a famous sur-
geon as to constant pains in the head. The
surgeon pronounced that the complaint could
be completely cured by the removal of the
brain and the excision of some diseased parts.
The man consented to the operation, and was
told to come back in ten days, when the reno-
vated brain would be ready for him. The ten
days elapsed, however, and gradually grew
into three weeks without the patient having
returned. At the end of that time the sur-
geon met him on the street, and anxiously
enquired why he had never re-appeared. The
man answered that, since the operation, he
had obtained a government appointment, and
thought that as he was getting on very well
without the brain, he had better remain as
he was. A titter of course went through the
audience, in the midst of which the extra-
mural lecturer, against whom the tale was
pointed, rose and calmly said, ' May I enquire
of the speaker whether the crown appoint-
160 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
ment in question was a University professor-
ship?' The laugh was thus most effectively
turned the other way.
A medical professor having been appointed
Physician to Queen Victoria, the announcement
of this honour was written up on the black-
board of his class-room just before the hour
of lecture. A wag among the students, seeing
this notice, wrote in large letters underneath
it ' God save the Queen ! '
It is not unusual for medical men to have
two practices, one in this country, and one
abroad. A man may attend a circle of patients
during the summer in London, at Harrogate
or in the north of Scotland, and another
circle during the winter on the Riviera, in
Italy or in Egypt. One able physician, for
example, had an excellent practice for half
of the year at Nairn and for the other half
in Rome. He was on a friendly footing with
Sir William Gull, whose patients, worn out with
the distractions of London, were sent up to
him to be looked after in the salubrious
climate of the Moray Firth. A lady resident
of Nairn, who believed herself to be far from
well, and to be suffering from some complaint
which the local doctor did not understand,
insisted upon going to London and consulting
DOCTORING IN THE HEBRIDES 161
Sir William Gull. That eminent physician
diagnosed her case and prescribed ; ' What
you chiefly require, madam/ he said, ' is to
live for a time in a dry bracing climate.
There is one place which I am sure would
suit you admirably, and that is Nairn in the
north of Scotland.'
One of the difficulties of life among the
smaller islands of the Hebrides has long
been the inadequacy of medical attendance.
A stranger who first enters the region, and
realises from some painful experience what
are the conditions of the people in this respect,
may be forgiven if at first he may be inclined
to think that the authorities, whose duty it
should be to provide such attendance, share
the opinion of Churchill that
The surest road to health, say what they will,
Is never to suppose we shall be ill.
Most of those evils we poor mortals know
From doctors and imagination flow.
It must be remembered, however, that many
of the islands are too small, and many of the
districts too thinly inhabited to provide work
for a resident practitioner, even if the funds
for his salary were readily procurable. All
that has hitherto been attempted is to place
a doctor in some central position whence,
1 62 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
commanding as wide an area as he can be
supposed able to undertake, he may be ready
to proceed to any case where his services may
be required. But the distances are sometimes
considerable, and the weather often stormy,
so that for days at a time no boat can
pass from one island to another. Even under
the most favourable skies, it often happens
that when a message arrives, urgently re-
questing the attendance of the medical man,
he is found to be engaged with another serious
case in an island some leagues distant, from
which he may not be expected to return for
some days. An instance which happened a
few years ago in the little island of Canna
will illustrate this feature of social life in the
Inner Hebrides.
One of the workmen engaged in building
a dry-stone dyke met with a serious accident.
The materials he had to use consisted of large
rounded boulders and blocks of basalt, which
required some little care to adjust in order
that the structure might remain firm. When
the wall had been raised to its full height, a
portion of it gave way, and some large masses
of heavy basalt fell on the workman, smashing
one of his legs. His companions on extri-
cating him from the ruins, saw the serious
A BROKEN LEG IN CANNA 163
nature of the injuries. But there was no
doctor on the island, nor anywhere nearer
than at Arisaig, a distance of some twenty-five
miles across an open sea. No time was lost
in getting the poor man carried into a boat,
which two of his comrades navigated to the
mainland. On arriving there, however, they
found that the doctor had gone away inland
and would not be back for a day or two. As
there was no time to lose, the boatmen at
once set out for Tobermory in Mull, where
the next medical man was to be obtained.
They had to traverse a tract of sea which
is often rough. Even in calm weather more
or less commotion may always be looked for in
the water round the Point of Ardnamurchan
the 'headland of great waves.' It was some
thirty-six hours after the accident before the
poor sufferer was at last placed in medical
hands. The first thing to be done was, of
course, to amputate the mangled leg. The
patient stood the operation well, and in two
or three weeks was sufficiently recovered to
be able to be taken back to Canna. His
two faithful comrades, who had waited on
with him at Tobermory, had him carried
down to the pier, where their boat was ready
for him. When he came there he looked all
164 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
round him with some anxiety, and at last
exclaimed, ' But where 's my leg ? ' ' Your
leg! in the kirkyard, to be sure.' 'But I
maun hae my leg.' ' But I tell ye, ye canna
hae your leg, its been buryit this fortnicht in
the graveyard.' * Weel ' said the lameter,
steadying his back against a wall, ' I'll no stir
a fit till I get my leg. D'ye think I'm to
gang tramp- tram ping aboot at the Last Day
lookin' for my leg.' Finding persuasion use-
less, the unhappy boatmen had to interview
the minister and the procurator-fiscal, and ob-
tain authority to dig up the leg. When the
lost limb came up once more to the light of
day, it was in such a state of decomposition
that the men refused to have it in the boat
with them. Eventually a compromise was
effected. A second boat was hired to convey
the leg, and with a length of ten yards of
rope between them, was towed at the stern of
the first In this way the procession reached
Canna.
Throughout the Highlands the desire to
be buried among one's own kith and kin re-
mains wide-spread and deep-seated. And it
would also appear that a Highlander cannot
bear that the parts of his body should be in-
terred in different places. The Canna dyke-
PROGRESS OF THE UNIVERSITIES 165
builder only gave expression to the general
feeling. 1
In due time the natives felt it necessary
to celebrate in an appropriate way the recovery
and return of their fellow-islander, and the
re-interment of the leg in its native soil.
With an ample provision of whisky, a banquet
was held, and continued till a late hour. On
the way back from this orgy, the hero of the
accident stumbled across a heap of stones, and
broke the wooden leg that had replaced his own.
Partly from this fresh accident, but largely, no
doubt, from the effects of the debauch, the
man could not regain his cottage, but lay
where he fell until, in the morning light, he
was picked up and helped home.
That gradual modification of the national
characteristics which is observable in all parts
of the social scale, has not allowed the Uni-
versities to escape. On the one hand, the
professoriate is now constantly recruited from
the south side of the Tweed, by the selection
1 More ludicrous still was the desire of the Highland porter
in Glasgow who, as Dr. Norman Macleod relates, ' sent his
amputated finger to be buried in the graveyard of the parish
beside the remains of his kindred. It is said also that a bottle
of whisky was sent along with the finger, that it might be
entombed with all honour.'
166 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
either of Englishmen or of Scotsmen who
have been trained at the English universities.
On the other hand, a considerable proportion
of the students, more particularly in medicine,
come from England, Wales, Ireland, and the
colonies ; some of them even hail from the
Continent and from India. 1 As the non-
Scottish leaven thus introduced has no doubt
tended to enlarge the culture of the teachers
and perhaps to soften the asperities of manner
in the taught, the change has been welcomed.
The reproach that used to be levelled at the
nation that it was too clannish and acted too
much on the principle of its own unsavoury
proverb of ' keeping its ain fish-guts for its
ain sea-maws,' certainly cannot justly be
brought against its educational institutions.
For many years the obvious and earnest en-
deavour has been to secure the best men, no
matter from what part of the globe they
may come. The gradual obliteration of the
peculiarly Scottish characteristics of the Pro-
fessors and students is part of the price to
'The statistics for Edinburgh University during 1903 show
that of the 1451 students of medicine 677 or over 46 per cent
belonged to Scotland ; 333, or nearly 23 per cent., were from
England and Wales; 118 from Ireland: 72 from India; 232,
or about 16 per cent., from British Colonies ; and 19 from
foreign countries.
A ST. ANDREWS PROFESSOR 167
be paid for the general advancement. Yet
we pay it with a certain measure of regret.
There was a marked originality and individu-
ality among the Professors of the older type,
which gave a distinctive character to the
colleges where they taught, and in some
degree also to their teaching.
About the middle of last century the Pro-
fessor of Mathematics in the University of
St. Andrews was an able mathematician and
a singularly picturesque teacher. He spoke
not only with a Scottish accent, but used many
old Scottish words, if they were effective in
making his meaning clear. If, for instance,
he noticed an inattentive student, looking any-
where but at the black-board on which he was
demonstrating some proposition, he would stop
and request the lad to ' e'e the buird ' (look
at the board). He lectured in a dress suit,
and as he always wiped his chalky fingers on
his waistcoat, his appearance was somewhat
brindled by the end of the hour. One of his
old students gave me the following recollection
of an incident that took place in the class-
room. A certain student named Lumsden was
one day conspicuous for his inattention. The
professor at last stopped his lecture, and
addressed the delinquent thus : ' Mr.
i6S SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
will you come forrit here and sit down on that
bench there in front o" me. I have three
reasons for moving you. In the first place,
you'll be nearer my een ; in the second place,
you'll be nearer my foot ; and in the third
place, you'll be nearer the door.'
Among the Glasgow professors towards the
middle of the century, one with a marked
individuality was Allan Maconochie, afterwards
Maconochie Welwood. Coming of a race of
lawyers, for he was the son of one Scottish
judge and the grandson of another, he took
naturally to the bar, and became Professor of
Law in 1842. Being prompt and decisive in
his business habits, he soon acquired a con-
siderable practice as referee and arbiter in
disputed cases among the mercantile com-
munity of Glasgow, and thus saved the
disputants the long delays and heavy expenses
of the Court of Session. He gave himself
up with much energy to the work of his chair,
and to college business during the session,
but as soon as the winter term was over,
he used to depart at once for the Pyrenees,
where he possessed a chateau, and where he
would spend most of his time until he had to
resume his professional labours in this country.
During these years of residence abroad, he
A GLASGOW PROFESSOR IN SPAIN 169
acquired facility in speaking Spanish, and
he would make long solitary excursions, ming-
ling freely among the people.
In the year 1854 his father, Lord Meadow-
bank, succeeded to the Fife estates of Garvock
and Pitliver, and then took the surname of
Welwood. About the same time the reform
of the Scottish universities began to be mooted,
and as the professor looked forward with much
dislike to some of the proposed innovations in
the constitution and arrangements of these
institutions, he resigned his chair and estab-
lished himself as a country gentleman at
Pitliver, near Dunfermline. Having lost his
first wife, he had lately married Lady Margaret
Dalrymple, daughter of the Earl of Stair. I
was a frequent guest at Pitliver, and much en-
joyed his racy reminiscences of Glasgow and
of his experiences in Spain. One of these last
which he told me seems worthy of now being
put on record as an instance of the courage
and boldness of a peaceable Scottish professor.
During the ' forties ' of last century, Spain
was convulsed with revolution. Maconochie
had a strong desire to travel through some
of the disturbed districts and see the state
of the country for himself. He accordingly
arranged to make a long detour and cross
i;o SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the frontier to a French town, where his wife
was to await his coming. Disguising himself
as a miner, he procured a bag, a pick, and
a few pieces of rough stone. His money he
carried with him in gold, which he enclosed
in lumps of plaster of Paris, coloured and
dirtied to look like bits of natural rock. Thus
accoutred he set out on his journey, and passed
through the districts where the insurrection
was hottest. At night he would come into
a village inn, filled with insurgents, and throw-
ing his bag into a corner would retire to see
after his horse. Coming back to the chamber
where the warriors were assembled, he some-
times found them examining the contents of
his bag and holding some of his specimens
in their hands, with an exclamation about their
weight ' Plomo, plomo ' ; they were sure the
stones must be bits of lead-ore. He would
then join in the talk, and so disarm all
suspicion of his nationality that he had no
difficulty in gathering from them all the in-
formation he wanted, while they on their side
took him for a Castilian miner prospecting
through the country for metals.
In this way he travelled through all the
tract he wished to see, and had come at last
to the Spanish town nearest to the frontier
SPANISH INSURGENTS 171
place where he was to meet his wife. He
now discarded his disguise, and attired himself
in ordinary costume. The horse that had
carried him was a sorry nag which he had
chosen to be in harmony with the general
outfit of his supposed occupation. He now
made himself known to the mayor of the town
and asked his assistance to procure a good
horse. It so happened that a fine animal,
which had belonged to a government official
recently deceased, was for sale, but the price
asked for it was beyond the means of those
who would fain have bought it. The professor,
however, had money enough with him to
acquire the horse, and to fit himself for the
rest of his journey. A guide was procured
to conduct him through the mountains, and
he was advised to go armed and to be
constantly on his guard. In particular, he
was warned on no account to stop at the
top of the last pass, whence the road descended
in sharp zig-zags into the plain of France. All
went well until he came to that very place,
when his guide said they must halt a little.
This he refused to do, but insisted on his
companion riding on in front of him. They
had not gone far down when voices from
above called on them, loudly to stop. The
i;2 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
guide turned round, put his horse across the
narrow road, and on Maconochie trying to
brush past him drew out a pistol from his belt.
The professor, suspecting some action of this
kind, was on the alert, with his hand already
on his own pistol, which he at once discharged
at the breast of the guide, who rolled off his
horse into the bushes below. Realising now
the plot against him, and that there were
accomplices above, he put spurs to his horse,
and dashed down the road. So steep was the
descent, and so shaded with trees and bushes,
that he could only be seen at the bends, at
each of which a shower of bullets whizzed
past him. He succeeded in keeping ahead
of his assailants, who continued to pursue and
fire at him until they were almost within gun-
shot of the French sentries.
As soon as he arrived at the town, he
sought the commandant and told his story.
The officer, on learning where he had got
his horse, told him that he owed his life to
the animal, not merely for its speed. It
appeared that the insurgents knew the horse
well, and desired to procure it for one of
their leaders. When they heard that it had
been sold, they had evidently planned to possess
themselves of it, and had arranged the ambush
PROFESSOR PILLANS 173
to which the professor of law had nearly fallen
a victim. But it was the horse they wanted,
not its rider. Had mere robbery been their
object, they could easily have shot the horse,
and whether or not they put a bullet through
him also, they would have stripped him of
all his possessions. But they purposely fired
high for fear of wounding or killing the animal,
which they had expected to be able to present
to their leader.
Robert Chambers used wittily to classify
mankind in two divisions those who had
been 'under Pillans,' and those who had not.
I am glad to be able to range myself in the
first class. Pillans was Professor of Latin (or
Humanity as the subject used to be termed
in Scotland) in the University of Edinburgh.
Perhaps his name was most widely known
from its having been unwarrantably pilloried
by Byron in his English Bards and Scotch
Reviewers. He was a born educationist, far
in advance of his time in certain departments
of teaching, more particularly in his recognition
of the place that should be assigned to geo-
graphy in the educational system of the country.
When I sat in his class-room he had reached
his seventy-seventh year, and was no longer as
able as he had once been to control a large
174 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
gathering of lads fresh from school. But even
then no one who was willing to learn could
fail to find much that was suggestive in his
prelections. As he sat in his chair behind his
desk, his small stature was not observable. One
only saw the round bald head, the rubicund
cheeks, the mild blue eyes, the hands wielding
a huge reading glass (for he would never con-
sent to wear spectacles) and the shoulders
wrapped round in his velvet-collared black
gown. He was a scholar of the antique type,
more intent on the subject, spirit, and style of
his Latin favourites, than on grammatical nice-
ties or various readings. How he loved his
Horace, and how he took to his heart any
student in whom he could detect the rudiments
of the same affection ! Having gained his
friendship in this way, I saw a good deal of him
in later years. He kept up the pleasant old
custom of asking his students to breakfast with
him. In later years I met some of his early
friends at that meal, among them, Leonard
Horner. I remember one morning having a
talk with him about English literature, when he
said, ' I have been all my life fond of poetry,
and I find great solace in it still. But I must
go back several generations for what really
interests and pleases me. There is Tenny-
PROFESSOR BLACKIE 175
son, and another writer, Browning, that I hear
people raving about. I have tried to read them,
but I confess that I cannot understand much
of them, and they give me no real pleasure.
When I want to enjoy English verse, I go
back to the masterpieces of Dryden and Pope.'
Pillans was one of the early pioneers in
the organisation of infant-schools. He ener-
getically combated the system of teaching by
rote, and of compelling young children to
burden their memories with genealogies and
dates. He once remarked to me, ' I was
in an infant-school lately, and you won't guess
what question I heard put to a class of little
tots, not more than four or five years old
" How long did Jeroboam reign over Israel ?"
The most perfervidly Scottish professor of
my time was undoubtedly John Stuart Blackie,
who taught a multifarious range of subjects, in-
cluding some Greek, of which he was Professor.
Although those of his students who really
wanted to increase their knowledge of Greek
would fain have been spared some of his dis-
quisitions on the current politics or problems
of the day, they could not but recognise his
boundless enthusiasm, his cheery good nature,
and his high ideals of life and conduct. In
my time he wore a brown wig, which was
1 76 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
so manifestly artificial that we used sometimes
to imagine that it was coming off, and specu-
lated on what the professor would be like
without it. But in later years he allowed his
own white hair to grow long, and with his
clean-shaven face, his broad soft felt hat, and
his brown plaid over his shoulders, he became
by far the most picturesque figure in the
Edinburgh of his time. He had been so
much in Germany, and was so well versed in
German life and literature, that he seemed
naturally to assume the manner of a Ger-
man professor. There was, indeed, a good
deal of external resemblance between him and
the late venerable historian Mommsen. But
Blackie was distinguished from his more
typical continental brethren by the boisterous
exuberance of his spirits. Even in the class-
room this feature could not be wholly re-
pressed, but it reached its climax among
friends at a dinner table, more especially at
such gatherings as those of the Royal Society
Club. After eloquent talk he would eventu-
ally be unable to remain seated, but would
start up and march round the room, gesticu-
lating and singing a verse of some Scottish
song, or one of his own patriotic ditties.
Besides the genial Blackie, the Senate of
SIR DOUGLAS MACLAGAN 177
Edinburgh University, when I was a member
of it, contained some other less vociferous but
extremely clubbable professors. Two of them
deserve special mention here Christison and
Maclagan. Sir Robert Christison was excel-
lent company, with his ample fund of reminis-
cence and anecdote. At the club-dinners Sir
Douglas Maclagan never failed to regale us
with one of his inimitable songs. He had a
good voice, and sang with much expression
and humour. His ' Battle of Glen Tilt' was a
source of endless pleasure to his friends, and
he entered so thoroughly into the spirit of it
that one could almost see the scene between
the duke and his gillies on the one side, and
the botany professor and his students on the
other. Some of the touches in that ditty are
full of sly fun, such, for example, as the de-
scription of the botanising :
Some folk '11 talc' a heap o' fash
For unco little en', man;
An' meikle time an' meikle cash
For nocht ava' they'll spen', man.
Thae chaps had come a hunder' mile
For what was hardly worth their while ;
'Twas a' to poo
Some gerse that grew
On Ben M'Dhu
That ne'er a coo
Would care to pit her mouth till.
i;8 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
On rare occasions Christison and Maclagan
sang a humorous duet in the most dolorous
tones, acting the character of two distressed
seamen begging on the street. It was comical
beyond description.
Another of the luminaries in the Edinburgh
University was Lyon Play fair, professor of
chemistry, who, after quitting his chair and
entering parliament, devoted himself mainly to
politics, and was finally raised to the peerage.
He too was a true Scot, though most of his
life was passed in England. He enjoyed and
could tell a good story, and relished it none
the less if it bore against himself. In his later
years he used to pay a yearly visit to America,
and from one of these journeys he brought
back the account of an experience he had
met with among the Rocky Mountains of
Canada, and which he would tell with great
vivacity. He had halted at some station
on the Canadian Pacific Railway, and in the
course of a stroll had made his way to the
foot of a heap of material that had been
tumbled down from the mouth of a mine. He
was poking out some of the pieces of stone
with his stick, when a voice saluted him from
the top of the bank, and the following con-
versation ensued :
CHALMERS AND THE DENTIST 179
' Hey ! what are ye daein' there ? '
' I am looking at some of these bits of
stone.'
' But there's nae allooance here.'
1 Is there not ? I think you must be a
Scotsman like me.'
'Ay! man, and are ye frae Scotland? And
what's your name ? '
4 My name is Play fair.'
' Maybe ye'll be Lyon.'
'Yes, that's my name. How do you come
to know it ? '
' Od, man, your name has travelt far faurer
nor thae wee legs '11 ever carry yoursell.'
When at the time of the Disruption the
theological chairs were resigned by the pro-
fessors who seceded to the Free Church, the
classes of the new College which that church
established in Edinburgh were held in a house
next door to a well-known dentist. Dr.
Chalmers was one of those who had left the
University, and he had an enthusiastic body
of students in the new rooms. The applause
with which they greeted the Professor's bursts
of eloquence proved, however, rather trying to
the dentist and his patients, for the house
partitions were none of the thickest. The
story is told that a polite note was sent to
i8o SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
Dr. Chalmers, asking whether it would be
possible for him to moderate the noise made
by his pupils. Next day the doctor, before
beginning his lecture, explained the circum-
stances to his class, and begged them to
remain quiet, 'for,' he added, 'you must bear
in mind that our neighbour is very much
in the mouth of the public.'
The late Professor Tait, so widely known
and so affectionately remembered, used to cite
one of the answers he received in a class-
examination. The question asked was, ' Define
transparency, translucency and opacity,' and
the following was the answer. ' I am sorry
that I cannot give the precise definition of
these terms. But I think I understand their
meaning, and I will illustrate it by an example.
The windows of this class-room were originally
transparent ; they are at present translucent,
but if not soon cleaned, they will become
opaque.' The professor, in repeating this reply,
laughingly said that he had allowed the man
full marks for it.
The Scottish schoolmaster of the old type
is probably as extinct as the parish school
system under which he flourished. What
with revised codes, inspectors, examinations,
grants in aid, Board of Education and other
OLD TYPE OF DOMINIE 181
machinery, the educational arrangements of
Scotland have during the last half-century
been transformed to a remarkable degree.
There can be no doubt that on the whole,
and especially in recent years, the changes
have been in the right direction. Neverthe-
less, we may regret the disappearance of some
of the characteristic features of the old regime.
The parish schools served to commingle the
different classes of the community, and there
was a freedom left to the teachers which gave
them scope in their methods and range of
subjects, and enabled them to send up to the
university numbers of clever and well-trained
scholars. Untrammelled by the fear of any
school-board or Education Department, the
'dominie' was left to develop his own indi-
viduality, which, though it sometimes took
the form of eccentricity, was in most cases
the natural outgrowth of a cultivated mind,
and was a distinct benefit to his pupils. In
the delightful Memories Grave and Gay of
Dr. Kerr, who has spent his active life in
practically furthering the cause of education
in the country, an interesting account is
given of the process of transformation, to-
gether with many anecdotes of his experience
of country schools and country schoolmasters.
1 82 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
To his ample stores those interested in the
subject should turn.
In the early days of examinations an in-
spector came to a school, and in the course of
the reading stopped to ask the class the mean-
ing of the word curfew in Gray's line :
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.
There was complete silence in the room. He
tried to coax the boys on to an answer, but
without effect ; until the teacher, losing patience
with them, exclaimed in vexation, ' Stupit fules!
d'ye no ken what's a wkaup ? ' whaup being
Scottice for curlew.
A clerical friend of mine was, many years
ago, visiting a parish school in Argyleshire
where Gaelic was taught as well as English.
He spoke to them in Gaelic, and asked them
to spell one of the words he had used. They
looked in blank amazement at him, and gave
no reply. At last the master, turning round
deprecatingly to the clergyman, said, ' Oich,
sir, there's surely no spellin' in Gaelic.'
A story is told in the north of Scotland
of a certain school in which a boy was reading
in presence of an examiner, and on pronounc-
ing the word bull as it is ordinarily sounded,
was abruptly corrected by the schoolmaster.
A DOMINIE'S PRONUNCIATION 183
'John, I've told you before, that word is
called bull ' (pronouncing it like skult).
' Excuse me, sir,' said the examiner, ' I think
you will find that the boy has pronounced it
correctly.'
' O no, sir, we always call it bull in this
parish.'
' But you must pardon me if I say that the
boy's pronunciation is the usual one. Have
you a pronouncing dictionary ? '
1 Dictionary ! O yes. Charlie, rin round to
the house and fetch me the big dictionary.
Meantime, John, go on wi' the reading.' So
John went on with ' bull,' and Charlie brought
the dictionary, which the master turned up in
triumph, ' There, sir, is the word with the
mark above the u, and there are the words
that it's to be sounded like put, push, pull
(pronouncing these all like but, brush, dull).
And now, John, you will go on wi' bull.'
The questions put by the examiners are not
always judicious. The man who asked ' If
Alfred the Great were alive now, what part
of our political system would he be likely to
take most interest in ? ' need not have been
surprised to receive the answer, ' Please sir, if
Alfred the Great were alive now, I think he'd
be so old he wouldn't take interest in anything.'
184 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
The difference between the pronunciation of
Latin on the two sides of the Tweed used to
give rise to curious confusion, whether we
'gave up Cicero to C or K.' I remember a
boy who had previously attended a grammar
school in Yorkshire and had come to the
Edinburgh High School, being called on to
read the introductory lines of the first book
of Ovid's Metamorphoses. He began pro-
nouncing in the English way, ' Ante mare et
tellus.' ' What, what do you say ? ' interrupted
Dr. Boyd, ' Aunty Mary,' forsooth ! ' I suppose
we shall have Uncle Robert next'
CHAPTER VII.
OLD and new type of landed proprietors in Scotland. Highland
Chiefs Second Marquess of Breadalbane ; late Duke of
Argyll. Ayrshire Lairds T. F. Kennedy of Dunure ; 'Sliddery
Braes ' ; Smith of Auchengree. Fingask and Charles Martin.
New lairds of wealth.
THE most outstanding change in regard to
landed proprietorship during the last half cen-
tury has been in Scotland, as elsewhere in
Britain, the successive extinction or displace-
ment of families that long held their estates,
and ' proud of pedigree, but poor of purse,' have
had to make way for rich merchants, bankers,
brewers, iron-masters, and manufacturers. Of
the great landowners the most striking per-
sonality in my time was undoubtedly the
second Marquess of Breadalbane. Tall and
broad, with a head like that of Jupiter Tonans,
having the most commanding presence com-
bined with the most winning graciousness of
manner, he was the incarnation of what one
1 86 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
imagined that a great Highland chief should
be. When in 1860 at the head of his Highland
Volunteers, all in kilts of the clan tartan, he
marched to the great review held by Queen
Victoria in Edinburgh, one's thoughts travelled
back to the days of Prince Charlie, for since
that time there had been no such mustering of
warlike men straight from the Highland glens,
and no such chieftain in command of them.
When in the autumn he established himself at
the Black Mount, and filled his hospitable
house with guests, he would start off for a day's
deer-stalking, mounted on the box of a large
drag, with the reins and whip in his hands,
his friends seated around him and his gillies
behind. No one of the party was a keener
or more successful sportsman than he. A
liberal and enlightened landlord, he had done
much to improve his vast estates, and was
beloved by his tenantry and people. He never
could understand why the Scottish mountains
should not supply abundance of metallic ores,
and afford a source of wealth to the country.
For years he employed a German expert to
prospect all over his property, and he continued
to work his mines at Tyndrum even at a loss.
Among his acquirements he had gained some
knowledge of mineralogy. Sir Roderick Mur-
THE LATE DUKE OF ARGYLL 187
chison, when visiting him in 1860, after a tour
through the western Highlands, remarked to
him at dinner that one great difference between
the oldest rocks of the north-western and those
of the Central Highlands lay in the presence
of abundant hornblende in the former and its
absence from the latter. ' Stop a bit, Sir
Roderick,' interrupted the Marquess, 'You come
with me to-morrow, and I'll show you plenty
of hornblende.' Next day a walk was taken
across a tract of moor near the Black Mount,
Sir Roderick accompanying some ladies, while
the chief marched on in front. At last when
the rock in question was reached, the Marquess
shouted out in triumph, ' Here's hornblende
for you.' And he was right, as Murchison, with
a queer non-plussed look on his face, had to
admit. Nevertheless the geologist's generalisa-
tion, though not universally applicable, had in
it a certain element of truth.
Another distinguished Highland chief of last
century was the late Duke of Argyll. Gifted
with great acuteness and versatility of intellect,
he directed his thoughts to a wide range of
subjects, and having a remarkable command of
forcible language, he was able to present these
thoughts in such a form as to compel attention
to his reasonings and conclusions. As orator,
1 88 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
statesman, historian, poet, naturalist, geologist,
agriculturist, chief of a great Highland clan,
and landed proprietor, he was undoubtedly
one of the living forces of his country dur-
ing his active career. Moreover, he never
failed to show that, like the long line of his
illustrious ancestors, he was an ardent and
patriotic Scot In the midst of his conver-
sation he would every now and then throw
in a Scottish word or phrase, as more tersely
expressive of his meaning than anything he
could find in English. He knew the West
of Scotland better than most of his country-
men, for not only was he born and bred there,
and passed most of his life in the midst of his
ancestral possessions, but for many years he
kept a yacht on which he peered into every
bay and creek among the Western Isles. He
had considerable artistic power, and was never
happier than when sketching some scene that
delighted him. After a great speech, or during
the intervals in the preparation of one of his
published volumes, he found rest and solace
in working up his sketches, of which he left
a large collection.
Though cast in a smaller bodily mould than
his burly kinsman of Breadalbane, he carried
himself with a singular dignity of bearing. His
INVERARAY CASTLE 189
finely formed, expressive face and his abundant
golden hair made him a conspicuous figure in
any assembly. But he was perhaps best
seen under his own roof at Inveraray enter-
taining the landed gentry of Argyleshire, when
met for the transaction of county business
including many of the Campbell clan who
counted the Mac Callum More as their chief,
and from some of whom he could claim feudal
service. One of them in particular used to
be prominent from the massive silver chain
which he wore with a key hung at the end
of it. His castle was now a ruin, but, in
accordance with ancient usage, he was bound
to present the key of it when he came to see
his chief. The Duke moved about among the
guests as the grand seigneur, entering into ani-
mated talk, now about land and rent, or improve-
ments in the county, or some recently opened
tumulus, dredgings in Loch Fyne, the political
situation of the country, or the probability of
getting fossils out of his schists and limestones.
He was keenly desirous to preserve every
relic of antiquity on his property, and had
made a kind of museum in the central hall
of the castle in which he kept the smaller
objects that had been picked up. Among
these he was especially proud of an old knife
SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
with what he believed to be Rob Roy's initials
on it that had been found near the place
where that Highland freebooter lived, when
he placed himself for a time under the shelter
of the Argyll of his day.
Perhaps no county in Scotland could fur-
nish an ampler list of landed proprietors than
Ayrshire, both of the old stock and of the new
comers. The former included both titled pos-
sessors of large estates and smaller lairds who
could trace their genealogy back to a remote
ancestry. One of the best examples of these
landed gentry whom I have known was the
Right Honourable Thomas Francis Kennedy
of Dunure. Educated in Edinburgh under
Pillans and Dugald Stewart, he was associated
from his youth with the brilliant literary
coterie which then flourished in that city, and
delighted to recount his reminiscences of the
men and the clubs of the time. As he was
born near Ayr, and had passed much of his
life in Ayrshire, where he possessed consider-
able estates, he retained a lively recollection of
the state of the south-west of Scotland in the
closing years of the eighteenth and the early
part of the nineteenth century. I have heard
him tell of the hardships of the peasantry and
small farmers in his boyhood, how in severe
KENNEDY OF DUNURE 191
winters they were compelled to bleed their
cattle and mix the blood with oatmeal to keep
themselves in life. He used to describe the
cuisine of his early days, and the contrast
between it and modern cookery. One of the
dishes, rather a favourite in Carrick, was roast
Solan goose from Ailsa Craig. But his account
of it was not itself appetising, for he told how
they had to bury the bird for some time in the
garden, and when it came to be cooked, all the
windows in the house had to be kept open, to
let out the 'ancient and fish-like smell.' White
and black puddings, now almost entirely
banished, still maintained their place, together
with ' crappit heads,' 'singed sheep's head,'
and sundry other national dishes which have
long been banished from the tables of polite
society. He used sometimes to revive a few
of these dishes, and I thought them excellent,
but he never, so far as I experienced, tried the
Solan goose again.
He was a gentleman of the antique cast,
courteous and stately in his manners, proud of
his descent and of his ancestral possessions,
and tenacious of his rights, which he was some-
times thought to insist upon rather more than
he need have done. When I came to know
him about the year 1863 he had retired from
192 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
public life, and devoted himself to the care of
his property. He looked carefully after his
breeds of cattle, and was keenly alive to new
inventions for the improvement of agriculture,
which he was always ready to test on his own
land. Part of one of the smallest coalfields in
Scotland underlay his estate of Dalquharran,
and he worked the mineral according to the
best known methods.
Yet he had been an active politician in his
time. He was for sixteen years in Parliament,
as member for the Ayr Burghs. In associa-
tion with Cockburn, Jeffrey, Horner, Murray,
Graham, and others, he took a leading part
in the preparations for the Scottish Reform
Bill. On retiring from Parliament, he obtained
an official appointment in Ireland, where he
spent some years, until in 1850 he received
a commissionership in the Office of Woods
and Forests. Owing to some dispute in the
staff, he retired from this appointment in 1854,
and thereafter lived entirely at his Ayrshire
home, save that for some twenty years he
continued to come up for the season to
London. The Government of the day would
not grant him a pension, a decision for which
he believed that Gladstone was mainly re-
sponsible. His friend Lord Murray thought
KENNEDY OF DUNURE 193
him so badly used that he settled a pension
of ;i2OO a year upon him, which he enjoyed
up to the time of his death. Though no
longer actively interfering in politics, he con-
tinued to take the keenest interest in the
events of the time, kept himself in touch with
his old Whig friends in and out of Parliament,
and gave free vent to his disapproval when
he had to criticise their policy.
His wife, a daughter of Sir Samuel Romilly,
was a singularly gentle and gracious old lady.
They had been married twenty years before
a son, their only child, was born to them.
Kennedy used to remark on the curious co-
incidence that he himself was also an only
child, born after twenty years of wedlock. The
inhabited Dalquharran Castle is a large mod-
ern mansion, built in a massive but rather
tasteless style, a strange contrast to the older
castle which it replaced, and which now stands
as a picturesque ivy-clad ruin a short distance
off, near the river. The laird remembered
when this ruin still had its roof on, and was
partly habitable.
Another Ayrshire laird had a row of fine
silver firs in the avenue to his romantically-
placed old castle. As several of these trees
had been struck by lightning during a series of
N
194 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
years, his wife asked me one day if I thought
it possible that the lightning was attracted
by a seam of ironstone in the ground beneath.
She hoped it was not, for if her husband sus-
pected such a thing, she knew he would have
lawn, avenue, trees, and everything else dug
up in order to get at it I was able to assure
her that there was no ironstone there, and
that the attraction was in the trees them-
selves.
In the same county I was acquainted about
forty years ago with a bachelor laird who
possessed a fine estate, on which he lived with
two maiden sisters. He had a large collection
of minerals, and more particularly of gems,
many of which were mounted as rings. When
low-spirited, he would array himself in his
dressing-gown, retire to his library, cover his
fingers with rings, and lay himself out on a
sofa to gaze at and admire them. He dabbled
a little also in water-colours, and it used to
be said of him that ' he painted a picture
every day, and on Sundays he painted a
church.'
One of the oddest specimens of a laird I
ever personally knew was the owner of a
small estate to the north of Kilmarnock, where
he lived with two unmarried sisters. He had
'SLIDDERY BRAES' 195
nicknames for everybody and everything. His
mansion-house, owing to the steepness of the
approach to it, he always called ' Sliddery
Braes.' His sisters, he used to speak of, the
one as the 'Mutiny at the Nore,' the other
as the ' Battle of the Baltic,' because they were
born in the years when these two events
occurred. He used to take whims, pursue
them with great earnestness for a time, and
then change to something else. Many of
these occupations had a theological cast. At
one time he devoted himself to a serious
study of the Book of Revelations, and in order
to get the better at its meaning, he took to
the Greek original. He found that Dr. Sloan
of Ayr had a more modern lexicon than that
at Sliddery Braes, so he would come down
day after day, and work with this volume in
the doctor's consulting room. His presence
there, however, becoming troublesome, the
book was sent upstairs to the drawing-room,
and instructions were given to the servant
to take the laird there the next time he came.
On entering that room one day, he found the
doctor's sister sitting at the window, engaged
in some needle-work. With apologies for his
interruption, he begged her not to allow him
to disturb her, for he would be engrossed in
196 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
his study of the chapter on which he was
then engaged. After some time he turned to
Miss Sloan and said, * I've been investigating
the account given in Revelation of the White
Horse, and I think I now understand about
it. The animal must have been a large beast,
for standing in the street there, its back would
be up on a level with the window you're
sitting at.' And he proceeded to describe in
the most whimsical way the look and qualities
of this wonderful horse. His narrative was
so comical, that the poor lady could hardly
repress her laughter. At last he noticed that
his discourse had not in the least solemnised
her, and he thereupon started up remarking,
4 Ah, Miss Sloan, you may laugh, but its no
laughing to some of them ; good day.' So
ended his Greek studies.
His eccentricities at last became so great,
that Dr. Sloan thought it right to send a
letter to the elder sister, pointing out the
desirability of having her brother watched,
and provided with an attendant, for his own
sake as well as for that of others, since the
doctor did not think it was safe to allow him
to go about alone. The lady thoughtlessly
left this letter inside her blotting-book, where
it was soon afterwards found by the laird
AN ECCENTRIC LAIRD 197
himself. He immediately sat down and wrote
a long letter to Dr. Sloan, beginning, ' I am
not mad, most noble Festus,' and maintaining
that he knew what he was about, and could
manage himself and his affairs without the
help or interference of anybody. The doctor
told me that for a long time afterwards he
himself went about in some fear of his life,
for he never could be sure what revenge
1 Sliddery Braes ' might be prompted to take.
But the laird had really no homicidal mania.
He grew, however, queerer every year. One
of his last crazes was to hunt up all the graves
of the persecuting lairds of covenanting times.
On one occasion he set out on horseback for
Dunscore, to see where the notorious Grierson
of Lag, ' damned to everlasting fame/ was
buried. As he made his way through the
lonely uplands of Dumfriesshire, and was
nearing his destination, he overtook a pedlar
with his pack, and asked him to mount on the
horse behind him. When at last he reached
the grave-yard, tying the horse to the gate,
he insisted on his companion accompanying
him to look for the tombstone of the perse-
cutor, and on finding it, proceeded to read out
and sing a Psalm, in which his companion
was also instructed to join. At the end of
198 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
this performance, the laird turned suddenly
round, looked the pedlar sternly in the face
and exclaimed, 'Now, sir, d'ye ken whaur ye
are ? Ye' re sitting on the grave o' a man
that's been in hell mair than a hundred years.
It's a long time, sir, a long time.' The poor
pedlar, now convinced that he was in the
hands of a madman, made his escape from
the place, and left the laird to complete his
devotions and execrations.
About the same time that this whim
possessed him, he determined to see the por-
trait of a certain member of the Cassilis family
who had likewise distinguished himself for his
zeal against the Covenanters. But the diffi-
culty was how to get access to the picture,
which formed part of the collection at Culzean
Castle, the seat of the Marquess of Ailsa,
and was hung in a room reserved for private
use. Watching for an opportunity when the
family was from home, he succeeded in pre-
vailing upon the housekeeper to open this
room for him and let him see the portrait
in question. He used to describe his experi-
ence thus : ' I stood looking at the picture for
a while ; it was really a good-looking face,
not what I thought a persecuting laird would
be like. But at last I saw the truth in his
ECCENTRIC AYRSHIRE LAIRDS 199
eyes, for as I watched them, I could see that
they had the true twinkle of damnation.'
Another crack-brained laird in the same
county has left inscribed on a stone monument
upon his property a record of his eccentricity.
I came upon it standing by itself near an oak
tree at Todhills in the parish of Dairy. On
the west side of the stone the following
inscription has been cut ;
'There is an oak tree a little from this, planted in the
year 1761, it has 20 feet of ground round it for to grow
upon, and all within that ground reserved from all suc-
ceeding proprietors for the space of 500 years from the
above date by me, ANDREW SMITH, who is the ofspring of
many Andrew Smiths who lived in Auchengree for unknown
generations.'
On the south side the stone bears the sub-
joined lines :
My Trustees
ROBERT GLASGOW
Esq of
Montgreenan
WILLIAM COCHRAN
Esq of
Ladyland
I stand here to herd this tree
And if you please to read a wee
In seventeen hundred and sixty one
It was planted then at three feet long
I'll tell more if you would ken
200 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
It was planted at the byre end
I'll tell you more you'll think a wonder
It's alloud to stand for years five hundred
It has twelve yards a cross and round about
It belongs to no man till that time is out
But to ANDREW SMITH tho he were dead
He raised it out of the seed
So cut it neither Top nor Tail
Least that the same you do bewail
Cut it neither Tail nor Top
Least that some evil you oertak
Erected
By
ANDREW SMITH
of Todhills Octr 1817
When in the year 1867 the British Associa-
tion met in Dundee, some of the members were
entertained at Fingask that charming old
Scottish chateau, with its treasures of family
and Jacobite antiquities. Among the visitors
was Professor Charles Martin of Montpellier,
who so delighted the Misses Murray Thriep-
land with his enthusiasm for Scotland and
everything Scottish, that they bade him kneel,
and taking a sword that had belonged to
Prince Charlie, laid it on his shoulder and,
as if the blade still possessed a royal virtue,
dubbed him knight. Some years afterwards
I chanced to meet him on a river steamer
upon the Tiber, bound for Ostia with a party
NEW LAIRDS 201
from the University of Rome. He was de-
lighted to be addressed as 'Sir Charles Martin,'
and recalled with evident enthusiasm the
charms of Fingask and of the distinguished
ladies who so hospitably entertained him there.
The new lairds include many excellent and
cultivated men well worthy to take their place
among the older families. Their command of
wealth enables them to improve their estates,
and to beautify their houses in a way which
was impossible for the impoverished owners
whom they have replaced ; their taste has
created centres of art and culture, and their
public spirit and philanthropy are to be seen
in the churches, schools, and village-reading
rooms which they have erected, and in the
good roads which they have made where none
existed before. On the other hand, among
their number are some of whom the less said
the better, and who make their way chiefly
in those circles of society wherein 'a man of
wealth is dubbed a man of worth.'
Many incidents have been put in circulation
regarding the race of coal and iron-masters
who, starting as working miners, have made
large fortunes in the west of Scotland. A
good number of these tales are probably
entirely mythical, others, though founded on
202 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
some original basis of fact, have been so
improved in the course of narration, that they
must be looked upon as mainly fabulous. Yet
the alterations have generally kept to the spirit
of the story, and represent the current estimate
of the character and habits of the individual
round whom the legend has gathered. Accord-
ing to one of these tales a wealthy iron-master
called on a country squire and was ushered
into the library. He had never seen such a
room before, and was much impressed with
the handsome cases and the array of well-
bound volumes that filled their shelves. The
next time he went to Glasgow he made a point
of calling at a well-known bookseller's, when
the following conversation is reported to have
taken place.
' I want you to get me a leebrary.'
'Very well, Mr. I'll be very pleased to
supply you with books. Can you give me
any list of such books as you would like?'
' Ye ken mair aboot buiks than I do, so you
can choose them yoursell.'
' Then you leave the selection entirely to
me. Would you like them bound in Russia
or Morocco ? '
4 Russia or Morocco ! can ye no get them
bund in GlascoV
A WEALTHY IRON-MASTER 203
One of these men went to see Egypt, and
took with him as a kind of guide and com-
panion, an artist of some note. When they
came to the Great Pyramid, the magnate stood
looking at it for a time, and in turning away
remarked to his friend, * Man, whatna rowth o'
mason-wark not to be fetchin' in ony rent!'
On the same occasion the iron-master, now
getting tired of sight-seeing, was with some
difficulty persuaded to cross over and see the
Red Sea. He made no observation at the
time, nor on the way back, but after getting
to bed he found vent for his ill humour.
Opening the mosquito curtains, he blurted out
to the artist, who occupied another bed in the
same room, ' D'ye ca' yon the Red Sea ? It's
as blue as ony sea I ever saw in my life.
Gude nicht.'
It is told of a Paisley manufacturer that at
the time of one of the meetings of the British
Association at Glasgow, he entertained a large
company of the members, a number of whom
invited him to visit them when he came to
London. He had noticed that his guests had
various initials printed after their names on
the programmes of the association F.R.S.,
F.C.S., D.C.L., LL.D., etc., and, thinking
that this was customary in good society, he
204 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
selected three letters to affix to his own name
on his visiting cards. In due time he made
his appearance in the south ; and presented
his cards. Some of his southern acquaintances
ventured to ask what the letters after his
name were intended to signify. ' O,' said he,
' I saw it was the richt thing to hae the let-
ters, and as I didna very weel ken what a'
you fowk's letters mean, I thocht I wud put
just L.F.P. ; that means, Lately frae Paisley.'
CHAPTER VIII.
LOWLAND farmers ; Darlings of Priestlaw. Sheep-farmers. Hall
Pringle of Hatton. Farm-servants. Ayrshire milk-maids.
The consequences of salting. Poachers. 'Cauld sowens
out o' a pewter plate.' Farm life in the Highlands. A
Skye eviction. Clearances in Raasay. Summer Shielings
of former times. Fat Boy of Soay. A West Highlander's
first visit to Glasgow. Crofters in Skye. Highland ideas
of women's work. Highland repugnance to handicrafts.
THE vicissitudes of agriculture have told on
the farmers and farm-labourers of Scotland,
as they have done everywhere else in the
British Islands. To a large extent the small
farms have been swallowed up in enlarged
holdings. It is much less common now than
it used to be to find one of them worked by
a single family, where the husband, wife, sons
and daughters all take their respective shares
of the labour. The extensive adoption of
agricultural machinery, and the replacement
of corn crops by pasture have reduced the
206 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
number of labourers needed in a farm, while
the attractions of town life have still further
tended to deplete the rural population. These
important changes could not take place without
affecting the position and characteristics of the
farming class. It is for the most part only
in the remoter districts of the country that
one can now meet here and there with a
specimen of the .type that was prevalent a
generation or two ago.
Forty years since there lived at Priestlaw,
in the heart of the Lammermuir Hills, a
family of farmers, Darling by name, who
were perhaps the most excellent examples of
that type I have ever encountered. The farm
had been tenanted by their forebears for several
generations, and the occupants were now two
brothers and a sister, all unmarried. Active,
intelligent, kindly and honourable, they were
universally respected and esteemed throughout
Lammermuir far and near. One of the brothers
was once riding home from a fair when he
was attacked by one of the navvies who were
engaged in draining a neighbouring farm.
The ruffian had pinned the old man to the
grassy bank by the side of the road, and was
dealing him some heavy blows, when a group
of farmers returning from the same fair came
DARLINGS OF PRIESTLAW 207
in sight and rushed forward to save life.
When they saw who the victim proved to be,
their indignation rose to such a height that,
but for the intervention of the policeman who
happened to come up with another large
contingent of pedestrians, they would have
executed summary justice themselves. Some
of the party conveyed the injured farmer to
Priestlaw, while the great majority of the
company marched their prisoner off to Had-
dington, a distance of some twelve miles, and
never relaxed their hold of him until they
saw him locked up within the police-cell.
The brothers were delightful men to con-
verse with. The sister, besides the family
charm, had a keen interest in natural history,
and in all the legends and traditions of the
hills. I had come to the district to carry
on the Geological Survey there, and on making
Miss Darling's acquaintance, found from her
that when a girl she had accompanied Sir
James Hall and Professor Playfair in their
excursions up the Fassney Water. She had
seen no geologist since then, she said, some
sixty years before, and she would fain hear
something of what was thought and said about
the history of the earth now. We exchanged
wallets, I giving her such information as I
208 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
had been able to gather regarding the rocks
around her home, and she, on the other
hand, retailing to me a most interesting
series of traditions that clung to particular
spots visible to us as we sat in her garden,
looking over to the Whitadder and across
into the heathy uplands. One of her tales
has always seemed to me to carry a strong
appeal in favour of the trustworthiness of
persistent local tradition. Ever since the time
of the Battle of Dunbar, she said, it had
been handed down that Cromwell, finding his
way barred by Leslie and the Covenanters,
sought to discover some route through the
hills practicable for his army, and sent out
scouts for that purpose. Two of these men,
disguised as peasants, had made their way
down the valley of the Whitadder, as far as
the mouth of a little dell or cleugh, when a
gust of wind from the hollow blew their cloaks
aside, and showed their military garb to some
of Leslie's emissaries who were on the outlook.
They were promptly shot and buried, and
tradition had always pointed to a low mound
with some gorse bushes, as marking the site of
their grave. Miss Darling sought and received
permission from the proprietor who, I think,
was the Marquess of Tweeddale, to open a trench
LAMMERMUIR TRADITIONS 209
at the place with the view of seeing whether
any corroboration of the tradition could be
obtained. To her great delight she found,
among some decayed bones, a few buttons
and a coin or two of the reign of Charles I.
It was arranged that after I had taken a
few weeks of holiday, I should return to
Priestlaw, where she was to have a collection
of stones brought up from the river, that I
might discourse to her from them, while she
on her part promised to continue her stories
and legends. But when I came back to the
Lammermuirs, Miss Darling and one of her
brothers had been already laid in their graves.
The farm-house of Priestlaw stands not far
from one of the old tracks or drove-roads
through the hills, which, though now com-
paratively little used, serves as the chief
thoroughfare for pedestrians from East Lothian
into the Merse of Berwickshire. It appeared
that one day a tramp had halted at the door
of Priestlaw, from which, as was widely known,
no needy beggar was ever turned away empty.
The man looked ill, and when Miss Darling
saw him she would not let him trudge any
further on his way, but had a shake-down of
straw made for him in one of the outhouses.
She would not allow any of her servants to
o
210 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
attend on him, lest he should have some
infectious complaint, but took charge of him
herself. It proved to be a case of scarlet-
fever. The man ultimately recovered, but she
and one of her brothers caught the infection
and died. With this most excellent woman,
I fear, much of the unwritten history of
Lammermuir perished. She had from girl-
hood collected and treasured in a tenacious
memory every tradition of the district. She had
watched every excavation, whether for drain-
ing or building, and had gathered every relic
of antiquity on which she could lay hands.
The past was a living reality to her, and she
found a keen pleasure in recounting it to any
one of like tastes and sympathies. Of her,
unhappily, it may be truly said that she is
among those ' which have no memorial, who
are perished as though they had never been,
and are become as though they had never
been born. But these were merciful men,
whose righteousness hath not been forgotten.'
Among the Scottish farmers, though the
general type is actively intelligent and pro-
gressive, examples may be found, in the re-
moter upland districts, of men
Who scorn a lad should teach his father skill,
And having once been wrong, will be so still.
SHEEP-FARMERS 2 1 1
Thus a small farmer in Cunningham in
descanting upon the changes he had himself
witnessed in the agriculture and general con-
ditions of his own neighbourhood had ruefully
to make the confession ' When I was young
I used to think my faither hadna muckle
sense, but my sons look on mysel' as a born
eediot.' 1
A sheep farmer in the Cheviot hills had
been told that it was useful to have a baro-
meter in the house, for it would let him know
when the weather would be good or bad. He
was accordingly persuaded to procure a mer-
curial instrument with a large round dial,
which he hung up in his lobby, and duly con-
sulted every day without much edification. At
last there came a spell of rainy weather, while
the barometer marked 'set fair.' The rain con-
tinued to fall heavily, and still the hand on the
dial made no sign of truth. At last he took
the instrument from its nail, and marched with
it to the bottom of the garden where a burn,
1 This story is sometimes said to have been told by the Rev.
Dr. Guthrie. It is also reported as having had its origin in a
smiddy at Auchtermuchty, in Fife. The idea is probably as
old as the human race. The Ayrshire farmer's expression of
it however was a good deal more graphic than Pope's
We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow,
Our wiser sons, no doubt, will think us so.
212 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
swollen with the drainage of the higher slopes,
was rushing along, brown and muddy. He
then thrust the glass into the water, exclaiming,
'Will you believe your ain een noo, then?'
Another farmer who had also procured a
barometer had greater faith in its predictions.
The ploughing on his farm had been stopped
on account of the rain, but he noticed at last
that the glass had begun to rise, whereupon
he sent his daughter to get the ploughing
begun again. ' Ye're to gang on wi' the
plooin' noo, John, for faither says the glass is
risinV ' Deil may care, the rain's aye fa'in,'
was the gruff response.
The hill farmer has been the subject of a
good many stories not much to the credit of
his intelligence. One of these men, whose
holding was on the hills to the north of
Strathmore, had laid in at Perth his stock of
matches for the winter. On his wife opening
the first box she found that she could not
get the matches to strike upon it The
husband also tried unsuccessfully. The next
time he had to revisit Perth he took the pile
of match-boxes with him, and going to the
shopkeeper from whom he had bought them,
threw them indignantly down on the counter,
with the ejaculation, ' They wunna licht'
A FIFE FARMER 213
'Wunna licht,' exclaimed the shopkeeper in
amazement, as he opened a box. Taking out
a match, he drew it smartly across the side of
his trousers and brought it up, alight. He
repeated the same action with a second, and
a third, each of which burst into flame as before.
' What do you mean,' asked the aggrieved
shopkeeper, 'by sayin' that thae matches wunna
licht?'
'Ay,' answered the farmer, 'and div you
think I can come doon a' the way to Perth,
to hae a rub o' your breeks every time I want
a licht?'
Hall Pringle was in my boyhood the tenant
of a farm near Largo in Fife, and belonged
to an antique type of farmer. He still wore
knee-breeches, and when dressed for church,
or for a visit to Edinburgh, used to mount
a blue tail-coat with brass or gilt buttons,
a broad-brimmed beaver-hat and a formid-
able walking-stick. He was tall and broad-
shouldered, walked with a swinging pace, and
when he appeared on the pavement of Princes
Street, he cleared a way for himself and
attracted universal attention. He was a great
friend of John Goodsir, the anatomist, for they
were both Largo men, and when in Edinburgh
he usually stayed with the professor, who in
214 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
return used from time to time to pay him
visits at Hatton. On the occasion of one of
these visits, Pringle was full of indignation
over the post-mistress of the village, who he
maintained was in the habit of opening his
letters. He declared to Goodsir that he would
not rest until he got her removed from her
situation. The professor wagered him a new
coat that he would fail in his endeavour. The
task proved more difficult than he supposed,
but in the end, with the assistance of the post-
office officials at head quarters, he succeeded
in gathering such unquestionable proofs of the
delinquencies of the post-mistress, that she
was dismissed. In due time the bet, with
the existence of which the village was well
acquainted, was paid, and the new coat duly
arrived at Hatton. On the first Sunday there-
after Hall came to church wearing the gar-
ment, and as he passed the pew of the post-
mistress, he was observed to give the tails of
his coat a triumphant flourish.
I was once seated on the top of a stage-
coach in the Lothians with a Peeblesshire
farmer next to me, who had a sarcastic remark
to make upon most of the farms as we passed
along. I remember one place in particular
where the owner had built a new house, and
AN AYRSHIRE MILKMAID 215
had taken infinite pains to lay out his garden,
which he had stocked well with fruit-trees,
herbaceous plants, and annuals. I had often
admired the taste with which the whole had
been planned and carried out, and turned to my
neighbour to ask if he had not a good word to
say for at least that little property. ' Ou ay,'
was his remark, ' its a bonny bit place. The
only thing it wants is soil.'
The farm-servant changes more slowly than
his master. When resident in Ayrshire I fre-
quently entered into talk with the 'hinds,' as
they are called, and found among them some
intelligent men. The young women who
attend to the cows are often admirable speci-
mens of their sex, comely, well-grown, and
strong, with a frankness and good humour
delightful to meet with. I was once walking
up a hilly road on the south side of the valley
of the Girvan water, and overtook one of these
girls, who was trundling a heavy wheelbarrow
in which lay a large cheese and other supplies
for the farm. She had already come a distance
of some miles, and was evidently a little tired
with her exertions. I volunteered to take
the wheelbarrow for a little an offer which she
willingly accepted, and she walked alongside,
giving me an account of her farm, her master,
216 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
his family, the farm-servants, the cows, the dairy,
and so forth. I soon found that to arms un-
accustomed to the task it was much harder to
push a heavy wheelbarrow up a hill than might
have been supposed. The girl's bare arms
were muscular, and seemed fit for any amount
of hard work. As we drew near her farm we
could see the master and some of the servants
at work in the field below the road, which now
wound round the side of the hill. She named
each of them, and laughed aloud when she
saw them looking up at our little cavalcade,
evidently puzzled to make out who the stranger
could be that Jean had got hold of. 'O, look
at Tarn Glen/ she burst forth. ' See how
he's glowerin' ! ' I presumed that Tarn had a
special interest in her, so not to give him
cause for jealousy, I dropped the wheelbarrow
at the corner of the steading and went on
my way, with the good wishes of the milk-
maid, who assured me that if ever I passed
that way she would see that I got a good big
glass of milk.
It is interesting to hear these young women
calling to their cows 'proo, proo, proochiemoo,'
a cry which the animals understand and obey.
The words are said to be a corruption of
approcJiez moi, and to date from the time, three
SALTED FOOD 217
hundred years ago, when French ways and
French servants were widely in vogue through-
out Scotland.
A farm-servant in service among the hills
above Dingwall changed to another farm a
long distance off. He was found there by some
acquaintances, who enquired why he left his
former situation.
'Well, you see,' said he, 'I wass not very
fond of saalt/
' Saalt ! But what had saalt to do wi' your
shifting ? '
'Well, I'll tell you all aboot it. The maister
wass a very prudent man, and when a cow died
he wad be saaltin' the beast, and we wad be
eatin' her. Then by and by there wass a great
mortaality among the cocks and hens, and they
died faster than we could be eatin' them ; and
the master, he saalted the cocks and the hens,
and we wad be eatin' them too. Well, ye see,
it wass comin' on for Martinmas, and the
weather wass mortial cowld, and at last the
ould man, the maister's faither, he died. The
maister, he cam' to me the next mornin', and
said he, " Donald, I see we're rinnin short o'
saalt, so I'm thinkin' you'll need to be goin'
doon to Dingwall for some more." Well, you
see, I went down to Dingwall, whatefer, but I
218 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
wass never going back to Auchengreean at all,
at all.' 1
Occasionally a farm labourer becomes a
dexterous poacher, and shows by the ingenuity
of his methods how well he would have suc-
ceeded had fortune opened a way for him in
an honest calling that would have given scope
for his abilities. The experienced poacher is
not infrequently a successful competitor in
games where skill as well as strength is re-
quired. In curling, for instance, which, even
more than golf, brings together men of all
ranks in the social scale, the Sheriff may
sometimes be seen playing in the same game
with men on whom he has had to pass sen-
tence. There is a story of one of these
associations, wherein a notorious poacher, who
had often been imprisoned, shouted out to
the Sheriff who had tried him, ' Now, Shirra,
drive the stane in ; gie her sax months ' ; six
months' imprisonment being an extreme dis-
play of the Sheriffs legal power with which
the speaker had made practical acquaintance.
A former minister of the parish of Kirk-
michael, in Ayrshire, was resting in his study
one Saturday afternoon after having finished
1 Another version of this story changes the father into the
grandmother 1
CAULD SO WENS 219
the preparation of his sermon for next day,
when he was startled with sounds of violent
quarrelling in his own house. He jumped up
from his easy chair, opened the door, and
heard the angry voice of his own ' man '
shouting in the kitchen, ' Na, noo ye limmer,
tho' I chase ye to Jericho I'll catch ye.'
The minister rushed off to save life, burst
into the kitchen, and found there, to his great
surprise, nobody but the man himself who
worked on the glebe, and who was now
seated at a table taking his supper. 'John,
John, what's the meaning o' this.? What
were ye swearing at? Wha were ye fechtin'
wi' ? ' ' Me, minister,' said the astonished
John, 'I'm no fechtin', I'm no swearin' at
onybody, I'm only suppin' thae cauld sowens
oot o' a pewter plate wi' this thick horn-
spoon, and they're gey an' fickle to catch.'
Let me now turn to some recollections of
farm and crofter-life in the Highlands, as they
presented themselves to me in the year 1854
and thence onwards. The house which for
some happy weeks in that year, and at intervals
for forty years afterwards, became my home in
Skye, was Kilbride, to which I have already
made reference as the residence of my friend
the minister of Strath. Besides his ministerial
220 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
duties, Mr. Mackinnon had a large farm,
most of which was rough pasture for sheep
and cattle, but with some arable land in the
valley bottom, where crops of oats and pota-
toes were grown.
Farming in the neighbourhood of a deer
forest entailed in those days some serious trials,
besides what arose from scanty soil, tempestu-
ous seasons, uncertain crops, and late harvests.
And with these trials I soon came actively to
sympathise at Kilbride. The farm lay at the
west end of the valley of Strath, immediately
at the foot of the range of the Red Hills.
These heights formed part of Lord Mac-
donald's deer-forest, and though the deer
were not numerous, the fields of oats or
green crops at Kilbride and the neighbour-
ing hamlet of Torrin offered a tempting pas-
turage to them, as a change from their sterile
granite corries above. Barbed wire, or indeed
wire of any kind, had not made its way to
these parts, as a help towards the enclosing
of land. The fields were only fenced in with
low dry-stone dykes, which offered no pro-
tection against inroads even from stray sheep.
Hence it was needful to watch all night and
to make noise enough to frighten away the
deer. I can remember sometimes awaking
FARMING IN SKYE 221
before daylight, and hearing the thumping of
trays, blowing of horns, and shouting of the
watchmen. And yet with all this labour and
some occasional depredation and loss, when
the deer contrived to elude detection, one
seldom heard any complaints, and I never in
those days knew of a deer being shot or
injured either by the farm-servants or by the
crofters around.
Another source of vexation in the farming
operations at Kilbride arose from a very
different cause. Although the arable fields
were more or less enclosed, it had not been
found possible to enclose the farm as a whole,
much of the ground being rough hill-pasture.
Sheep and cattle were thus liable to stray
elsewhere unless watched. Through the lower
ground, where, the herbage being best, the
animals chiefly grazed, ran the only road from
Strathaird to the east coast. To prevent the
flocks from escaping along this thoroughfare
into other pastures, a rude fence had been
constructed there for some distance on either
side of the road, across which a gate had
been placed. Except the scattered crofters,
who gave no trouble, as they performed their
journey on foot and willingly closed the gate
when they had passed through, Kilbride had
222 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
no near neighbours. On the west side, how-
ever, some six miles off, there lived an
eccentric and somewhat quarrelsome laird.
He received inebriates in his remote dwelling
with a view to their cure by distance from
temptation. If all tales we heard were true,
he was by. no means a teetotaller himself It
was even reported that he allowed strong
drink to be placed on the dinner-table, and
partook of it himself, but required his patients
to pass the bottle round without helping
themselves. We did not wonder that under
such a regime some of them, like Lucio,
'had as lief have the foppery of freedom as
the morality of imprisonment/ and that we
now and then met those who had escaped,
and who were walking all the way to Broad-
ford, some nine miles off, and back again in
order that they might once more have a glass
or two of whisk).
Between the laird and the Kilbride family
there was no love lost As the public road
passed through the heart of the minister's
farm, it was necessary to have a gate across
it at the farm boundary-wall, otherwise the
cattle and sheep would have escaped. But
this gate was a dire offence to the laird.
For a while, every time he drove that way,
SUMMARY JUSTICE IN SKYE 223
he would lift the gate off its hinges and
fling it into the loch at Kilchrist. At last
the consequences of this conduct became too
serious to be tolerated, and the minister was
preparing to take legal steps to protect him-
self, when two of his giant sons quietly
resolved to take the law into their own
hands. Ascertaining when the laird would
pass along the road, they concealed them-
selves among some copse on the hillside
immediately above the gate, and waited for
their man. In due time he arrived, and
finding the gate closed as usual, he jumped
from his dogcart, wrenched it off its fasten-
ings, and threw it, with an angry imprecation,
into the lake. In an instant he was seized
by the two young men, and, after receiving a
sound horse- whipping, was sent on his journey.
As the result of this escapade, the assaulters
were summoned before the Sheriff and fined,
but they let it be widely known that they would
willingly pay the fine ten times over for the
pleasure of thrashing the laird once more, if
he ever ventured to remove the gate again.
He never did remove it, but he always left
it wide open thereafter, and some lad had to
be employed to see that it was duly shut
after he had passed.
224 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
At the head of the sea-inlet of Loch Slapin
lies an alluvial plain, through which a broad
stream brings down the drainage of the
valley of Strath More. On this plain the
water has gathered into a lake a favourite
haunt of sea-trout, which the minister had the
right of dragging with the net The days
set apart for this employment were red-letter
days at Kilbride. We sometimes hauled ashore
large numbers of fine fish, which in various
forms fresh, dried, and pickled supplied the
commissariat for some time thereafter.
During my earlier visits to Skye I saw
much of the crofters. On distant excursions
I used to find quarters for the night in their
cottages, being franked on to them by some
minister or other friend who knew them well.
In those days the political agitator had not
appeared on the scene, and though the
people had grievances, they had never taken
steps to agitate or to oppose themselves to
their landlords or the law. On the whole,
they seemed to me a peaceable and contented
population, where they had no factors or
trustees to raise their rents or to turn them
out of their holdings. In a later chapter,
which will contain some reminiscences of my
wanderings as a geologist among the Western
A SKYE EVICTION 225
Isles, I shall give some particulars of my
intercourse with the crofters of Skye.
One of the most vivid recollections which
I retain of Kilbride is that of the eviction
or clearance of the crofts of Suishnish. The
corner of Strath between the two sea-inlets of
Loch Slapin and Loch Eishort had been for
ages occupied by a community that cultivated
the lower ground where their huts formed a
kind of scattered village. The land belonged
to the wide domain of Lord Macdonald, whose
affairs were in such a state that he had to
place himself in the hands of trustees. These
men had little local knowledge of the estate,
and though they doubtless administered it to
the best of their ability, their main object was
to make as much money as possible out of
the rents, so as on the one hand, to satisfy
the creditors, and on the other, to hasten the
time when the proprietor might be able to
resume possession. The interests of the
crofters formed a very secondary considera-
tion. With these aims, the trustees deter-
mined to clear out the whole population of
Suishnish and convert the ground into one
large sheep- farm, to be placed in the hands
of a responsible grazier, if possible, from the
south country.
226 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
I had heard some rumours of these intentions,
but did not realise that they were in process
of being carried into effect, until one afternoon,
as I was returning from my ramble, a strange
wailing sound reached my ears at intervals on
the breeze from the west. On gaining the top
of one of the hills on the south side of the
valley, I could see a long and motley procession
winding along the road that led north from
Suishnish. It halted at the point of the road
opposite Kilbride, and there the lamentation
became loud and long. As I drew nearer,
I could see that the minister with his wife
and daughters had come out to meet the
people and bid them all farewell. It was
a miscellaneous gathering of at least three
generations of crofters. There were old men
and women, too feeble to walk, who were
placed in carts ; the younger members of the
community on foot were carrying their bundles
of clothes and household effects, while the
children, with looks of alarm, walked alongside.
There was a pause in the notes of woe as the
last words were exchanged with the family of
Kilbride. Everyone was in tears ; each wished
to clasp the hands that had so often befriended
them, and it seemed as if they could not tear
themselves away. When they set forth once
RAASAY CLEARANCES 227
more, a cry of grief went up to heaven, the
long plaintive wail, like a funeral coronach,
was resumed, and after the last of the emi-
grants had disappeared behind the hill, the
sound seemed to re-echo through the whole
wide valley of Strath in one prolonged note
of desolation. The people were on their way
to be shipped to Canada. I have often
wandered since then over the solitary ground
of Suishnish. Not a soul is to be seen there
now, but the greener patches of field and the
crumbling walls mark where an active and
happy community once lived.
Another island that formerly possessed a con-
siderable crofter population is Raasay. When
I paid it my first visit from Kilbride, the
crofters had only recently been removed; many
of their cottages still retained their roofs, and
in one of these deserted homes I found on
a shelf a copy of the Bible wanting the boards
and some of the outer pages. When I revisited
the place a few years ago, only ruined walls
and stripes of brighter herbage showed where
the crofts had been. In diminution of popula-
tion, the island has changed much from what
it was when Johnson was charmed with the
society and hospitality of the Macleods. The
old house, indeed, in which he was entertained
228 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
still stands, but so built round with ampler
additions as to be almost concealed behind the
wings and frontage of a large modern mansion.
The natural features of the island, however,
must be pretty much as he saw them.
The Dun Can, one of the most wonderful
monuments of geological denudation in the
Inner Hebrides, rises as a truncated cone,
the flat top of which forms the summit of the
island. This conspicuous landmark is the last
fragment left of the sheets of lava which
stretched eastwards from Skye across Raasay
towards the mainland. Besides its geological
importance, it has long had for me a senti-
mental interest, for at a picnic on the top my
old friends, John Mackinnon of Kilbride and
his future wife, became engaged to each other.
One of the characteristics of this island is
to be found in the holes, tunnels, and per-
forations which in the course of ages have
been made by rain-water descending through
the calcareous sandstone that forms the higher
part of the eastern cliffs. These holes open
on the moor above, and as they are apt to
be concealed by bracken and heather, they
form dangerous pitfalls for sheep. In former
days, when numerous crofts stretched along
the eastern slopes and there was some traffic
LIFE IN RAASAY 229
across the middle of the island, even an
occasional crofter would be lost if benighted,
or during the thick fog that sometimes settles
on these heights. It is told that a woman,
on her way back from the store on the west
side of the island, fell into one of these
chasms in the dark. Bruised, but not seri-
ously injured, she succeeded in slowly de-
scending between the rough walls, and was
found late on the second day crawling along
the track below the cliff, not far from her
own cottage, with her clothes torn into tatters.
All over the west Highlands the tradition is
current that such subterranean tunnels have
been traversed by dogs, which on emerging
at the further end have appeared without any
hair, their exertions in squeezing themselves
through the long narrow passages having
rubbed them bare.
One of the hamlets on the east side of
Raasay, built beneath the cliff and at the top
of the steep declivity that descends from the
base of the precipice to the edge of the sea,
was known by a Gaelic name meaning 'Tether-
town,' because to prevent them rolling down
the slope into the sea, the small children had
ropes tied round their waists and were tethered
to pegs firmly driven into the ground.
230 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
Up till towards the close of the eighteenth
century it was the general practice in the
Highlands to move the cattle and sheep in
the summer up to the hills, where the pasture
was held in common. One of the great
events of the year was this migration to the
'shielings,' where for some happy and busy
weeks the women and children made butter
and cheese, and their flocks gained strength
and flesh in the fresh open air and on the
sweet young herbage. But the rapid develop-
ment of sheep-rearing in large farms drove
the communities away from their summer
retreats, and began that impoverishment of the
Highlanders which has continued ever since.
Many a time, in my wanderings among the
mountains, have I come upon the traces of
these shielings patches of greener verdure,
with ruined walls or heaps of stones, over-
grown with nettles and other plants indicative
of human occupation, but all now solitary and
silent
At the mouth of Loch Scavaig lies a small
flat island of red sandstone named Soay, which
when I first came to the district was chiefly
noted for possessing the fattest boy in the
West Highlands. The soil of this island is
thin and poor, the climate rather moist, and
THE FAT BOY OF SOAY 231
the situation, facing the Atlantic, cuts the
island off from constant communication with
Skye. The crofters had their little bits of
land, and some of them possessed also frail
boats, with which they ferried themselves over
the sound to the Skye shore, and added to
their slender fare by a little fishing. But one
family owned the fat boy, and the brilliant
idea occurred to his parents to take him to
Glasgow, and earn an honest penny by ex-
hibiting him to the public. They left the
island for this purpose, with bright visions of
success. But they had no Barnum to take
charge of them, nor do they seem to have
fallen into the hands of any other showman
experienced in
All our antic sights and pageantry,
Which English idiots run in crowds to see.
Had large posters been widely placarded an-
nouncing that the veritable fat boy of Pick-
wickian fame could be seen in all his rotundity
for the modest charge of sixpence, enough
money might have been made, not only to
keep the family for the rest of their lives,
but perhaps to buy up the whole island, and
establish a dynasty of Kings of Soay. But
the young prodigy and his disappointed
232 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
parents had sorrowfully to return wiser and
poorer to their northern home.
The first visit to Glasgow is a memorable
event in the lives of those West Highlanders
who have never seen more people together
than at a fair or a sacrament, or more houses
than make one of their little clachans. Donald's
astonishment at the crowded streets, the inter-
minable array of high houses, and the bustle
and swirl of city-life, has been chronicled in
many ludicrous anecdotes. One of these may
be quoted as illustrative of one aspect of com-
mercial dealing. Many years ago a newly-
arrived Highlander was being shown the
sights of Glasgow by a fellow-countryman
who had now got used to them. As they
crossed a street, they saw in the distance a
dense crowd of people, and the newcomer
naturally asked what it meant. He was told
that there was a man being hanged. He then
enquired what they were hanging him for,
and was told it was for sheep-stealing. He
looked aghast at this news, and at last ex-
claimed : ' Ochan, ochan ; hanging a man
for stealing sheeps I Could he no" ha' bocht
them and no' peyed for them ? '
The best opportunity of seeing the whole
crofter population of a district is furnished by
A HIGHLAND FAIR 233
the summer fairs or markets. In Strath, this
important gathering is held on an open moor
not far from Broadford. Everybody who has
anything to sell or to buy makes a point of
attending it, from far and near, accompanied
by a still larger number of idlers, intent only
on fun and whisky. Old and young, men,
women, and children, horses and cattle, sheep
and dogs, find their way to the 'stance.'
Whether or not much business profitable to
the crofters was done, the fair to the outside
spectator used always to be eminently amusing
and picturesque.
The quantity of whisky consumed on these
occasions must have been enormous. There
was likewise a kind of epidemic of bargaining.
I remember the case of a woman who brought
a small terrier dog for sale, which she had
named Idir a Gaelic word, equivalent to our
expression 'At all.' Having sold her dog,
she passed on complaining, 'Cha 'n 'eil margadh
IDIR, IDIR' (This is no market, at all, at all),
sounding out the last word so loudly as to
reach the ears of the dog, which, when it
came to her, she caught up in her arms and
sold again in a more distant part of the fair.
Another occasion which brought the scat-
tered crofter communities of Strath together
234 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
was the half-yearly celebration of the com-
munion in Broadford Church. Not only the
people of the parish, but numbers of others
from adjacent parishes, tramped many a long
mile to attend the services.
One cannot live much in the Highlands
without meeting with instances of that in-
veterate laziness already alluded to, more
especially on the part of the men. They have
a certain code of work for women, and another
for themselves, and that of the women is gene-
rally the heavier of the two. This national
characteristic has been often noticed. Writing
as far back as 1787, Mrs. Grant, of Laggan,
gave what is not improbably its true explana-
tion. After alluding to the Highlanders as
formerly fighters, hunters, loungers in the
sun, fond of music and poetry, she continues
thus : ' Haughtily indolent, they thought no
rural employment compatible with their dignity,
unless, indeed, the plough.' Hence they left
all the domestic and family concerns to their
women, who worked the farms, attended to
the cattle and other cognate labours. 'The
men are now civilised in comparison to what
they were, yet the custom of leaving the
weight of everything on the more helpless
sex still continues. The men think they pre-
"WOMEN'S WORK" IN HIGHLANDS 235
serve dignity by this mode of management ;
the women find a degree of power or conse-
quence in having such an extensive department,
which they would not willingly exchange for
inglorious ease.' 1
More than a hundred years have passed
since these words were written, yet the usages
Mrs. Grant described may still be seen in
operation. A few years ago, in boating
along the north shore of Loch Carron, on a
warm day, I passed a field where the women
were hard at harvesting work, while the men
were leaning against a wall, with tobacco-
pipes in their mouths and their hands in their
pockets. I remarked to my two boatmen that
these hulking fellows should be ashamed of
themselves, to let the women do that heavy
work under the hot sun, while they looked on
in idleness. The answer was characteristic
and not unexpected : ' Ye surely wadna hae
men doin' women's wark, wad ye, sir?'
This habit of allowing the women to do
menial drudgery, so characteristic of uncivilised
races, seems hard to throw off, though pro-
bably it is now undergoing amelioration. Burt,
writing in the earlier part of the eighteenth
century, gives an amusing instance of how
1 Letters from the Mountains, 5th edition, vol. ii., p. 124
236 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the treatment of women in the Highlands
appeared to a foreigner. 'A French officer
coming hither to raise some recruits for the
Dutch service, met a Highlandman with a
good pair of brogues on his feet, and his wife
marching bare-foot after him. This indignity
to the sex raised the Frenchman's anger to
such a degree, that he leaped from his horse
and obliged the fellow to take off the shoes,
and the woman to put them on.' In com-
menting on this incident, the editor of the
fifth edition of Burt's volumes records an
instance in which 'a stout fellow of the very
lowest class in Ardgour, took his wife and
daughter, with wicker baskets on their backs,
to a dunghill, filled their baskets with manure,
and sent them to spread it with their hands
on the croft ; then, with his greatcoat on,
he laid himself down on the lee side of the
heap, to bask and chew tobacco till they
returned for another load. A stranger, who
merely looked at the outside of things, would
hardly believe that this man was a kind and
tender husband and father, as he really was.
The maxim that such work (which must be
done by some one) spoils the men, has been so
long received as unquestionable by the women,
that it makes a part of their nature ; and a
MANUFACTURES IN HIGHLANDS 237
wife would despise her husband, and expect the
contempt of her neighbours on her husband's
account, if he were so forgetful of himself, as
to attempt to do such a thing, unless her situa-
tion at the time did not admit of her doing it.' 1
Manufactures have never flourished in the
Highlands. Yet the region has many advan-
tages for the establishment of industries, espe-
cially abundant water-power and the existence
of numerous inlets and natural harbours to
and from which commodities could easily be
shipped. Whisky-making, indeed, has long
flourished, the traditions of the 'sma' still' no
doubt making it natural to take service in a
large distillery. Mrs. Grant of Laggan main-
tained that ' nature never meant Donald for
a manufacturer; born to cultivate or defend
his native soil, he droops and degenerates in
any mechanical calling. He feels it as losing
his caste ; and when he begins to be a weaver,
he ceases to be a Highlander. Fixing a moun-
taineer on a loom too much resembles yoking
a deer in a plough, and will not in the end
suit much better.' 2 The indignant imprecation
1 Burl's Letters^ 5th edition (1818), vol. ii., pp. 46, 47.
2 Essays on the Superstitions of the Highlanders of Scotland
(1811), vol. ii., p. 143. Writing some thirty years earlier she
expressed herself to the same effect in her Letters from the
Mountains ) vol. ii., p. 103.
238 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
which Scott puts into the mouth of Rob Roy,
when honest Bailie Nicol Jarvie proposes to
make the Highlander's sons weavers, repre-
sents the ingrained national repugnance to
mechanical crafts. In recent years a few in-
dustries have been introduced on a small scale
into some of the little Highland towns, such
as Inverness, Oban, and Campbeltown. These
innovations, however, make slow progress.
Possibly the utilisation of the Falls of Foyers
by a Sassenach company of manufacturers
may prove to be the forerunner of other
similar invasions. But if the future of the
Highlands be left to Donald himself, the
lovers of the unspoilt charms of the mountains
may console themselves with the belief that
these charms will remain much as they still
are for many a long day to come.
CHAPTER IX.
HIGHLAND ferries and coaches. The charms of lona. How
to see Staffa. The Outer Hebrides. Stones of Callernish.
St Kilda. Sound of Harris. The Cave-massacre in Eigg.
Skeleton from a clan fight still unburied in Jura. The hermit
of Jura. Peculiar charms of the Western Isles. Influence
of the clergy on the cheerfulness of the Highlanders. Dis-
appearance of Highland customs. Dispersing of clans from
their original districts. Dying out of Gaelic ; advantages of
knowing some Gaelic ; difficulties of the language.
IN continuation of the Highland reminiscences
contained in the last chapter, reference may
here be made to some further characteristics
of the Western Isles, and to a few of the
more marked changes which, during the last
half century, have affected the Highlands as a
whole.
Fifty years ago Highland ferries were much
more used than at the present day, when
railways and steamers have so greatly reduced
the number of stage-coaches and post-horses.
These little pieces of navigation across rivers,
240 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
estuaries, and sea-lochs, afforded ample scope
for certain Celtic idiosyncrasies. The ferryman
could, as occasion served, contract his know-
ledge of English, and on one pretext or another
contrive to exact more than the legal or reason-
able fare, remaining imperturbably insensible
to the complaints and remonstrances of the
passengers. An illustrative story is told by
Dr. Norman Macleod in his charming Reminis-
cences of a Highland Parish. A Highland
friend of his who had been so long absent in
India that he had lost the accent, but not the
language of his native region, had reached
one of these ferries on his way home, and
asked one of the boatmen in English what
the charge was. The question being repeated
in Gaelic by the man to his elder comrade,
the answer came back at once in the same
language, ' Ask the Sassenach ten shillings.'
1 He says,' explained the interpreter to the
supposed Englishmen, 'he is sorry he cannot
do it under twenty shillings, and that's cheap.'
No reply was made to this extortion at the
moment, but as the boat sailed across, the
gentleman spoke to the men in good Gaelic.
Whereupon, instead of taking shame to him-
self for his attempted cheat, the spokesman
turned the tables on the traveller : ' I am
HIGHLAND FERRYMEN 241
ashamed of you,' he said, ' I am, indeed, for
I see you are ashamed of your country ; och,
och, to pretend to me that you were an
Englishman ! You deserve to pay forty shil-
lings but the ferry, is only five ! '
On another occasion, when a sea-loch had
to be crossed where strong currents swung the
ferry-boat round and some manoeuvring with
the oars was required, the chief ferryman kept
saying, ' Furich, Donald,' to the one assistant,
and ' Furich, Angus,' to the other. At the
other side of the loch the passenger paid the
fare and then said to the ferryman, ' Now, I'll
give you another shilling if you will tell me
what you mean by " Furich, furich," which I
have heard you say so often in the passage
across. It must surely have many different
meanings.' The coin was duly pocketed and
the Highlander thus deliberately explained :
4 Ah, it's ta English of ta Gaelic " furich" 'at
you wass wantin' to know. Well, I'll tell you ;
it's meanin' "Wait," "Stop"; och ay, it means
" Howld on," " Niver do the day what you can
by any possibeelity put off till to-morrow." '
I was once crossing in an open rowing boat
from Skye to Raasay, propelled by two men,
a younger Highlander, who sat nearest to me,
and an elderly man on the bench beyond.
Q
242 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
The latter was dressed in a kilt, and with his
unkempt locks and rugged features, made a
singularly picturesque figure. My neighbour
caught my eye now and then fixed on his
comrade, and at last he broke silence with a
question :
'You're looking at Sandy, sir, I see?'
' Yes, he is well worth looking at. He must
be an old man, though he seems to pull his
oar well still.'
'Ay, I'm sure, he's an auld man noo. But
ye wass hearin' o' Sandy afore ? '
' No, I don't think I have ever seen or heard
of him before. What about him?'
' D'ye mean, sir, railly noo, that you never
heard tell o' Sandy o* the Braes ? '
' No, really, I never did. What is he famous
for?'
' Ochan ! Ochan ! wass ye never kennin'
aboot his medal ? '
' Medal ! no, so he is an old soldier is he ?
What battle was he at?'
' Sodger ! He's never been at ony battles,
for he wass never oot o' Skye and the islands.'
' But how did he come to get a medal, then?'
'Just to think that ye wass never hearin' o 1
that ! Weel, ye see, there's some Society in
Embro, I wass thinkin' they call it the "Heeland
HIGHLAND STAGE-COACHMEN 243
Society," and they gied Sandy a medal, for
he wass never wearin' onythin' but a kilt all
his days.'
Besides the ferrymen, the drivers of the old
Highland coaches included some quaint char-
acters, who have disappeared with the vehicles
which they drove, and occasionally capsized.
Half a century ago the coach that ran between
Lochgoilhead and St. Catherine's through the
pass known as ' Hell's Glen ' was driven by
a facetious fellow, one of whose delights was
to make fun at the expense of his English
passengers. One day when he had brought
the coach to the top of the pass and halted
the horses, he got down, remarking to an
English lady who sat on the box seat beside
him, and on whom the brunt of his sarcasms
had fallen, that if now this place had been
in England, he would doubtless have to
search a long time before he could find a
bit of old leather to stick into the drag for
the run down hill. Looking under a stone
he pulled out an old shoe, which of course
he had placed there on a previous journey,
and which he now held up as a proof of
the great superiority of Scotland. Some
weeks afterwards, a barrel arrived addressed
to him. As he was not accustomed to such
244 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
presents, he opened it with not a little excite-
ment. Pulling out some straw he saw a large
paper parcel inside, and after removing a
succession of coverings, came at last upon a
small packet carefully sealed. He felt sure it
must be something of great value from the
pains that had been taken to protect it. So
he opened it with trembling hands and found
that it contained a pair of old shoes, with
the compliments of the lady whom he had
made his butt.
Among the Western Isles two of small size
have attained a distinguished celebrity Staffa
and lona. Three times a week in the summer
season, a large and miscellaneous crowd is
disembarked upon each of them from Mac-
brayne's steamboat, which, starting from Oban
in the morning, makes the round of Mull, and
returns in the evening. If any one desires
that the spell of these two islets should fall
fully upon him, let him avoid that way of
seeing them. They should each be visited in
quietude, and with ample time to enjoy them.
There is a ferry from the Mull shore to lona,
and in the Sound a stout boat or smack may
usually be obtained for the voyage to Staffa.
I once spent a delightful week in lona,
where a comfortable inn serves as excellent
IONA 245
headquarters for the stay. There was a copy
there of Reeve's edition of Adamnan's Life
of Saint Columba. Reading the volume where
it was written, and amidst the very localities
which it describes, and where the saint lived
and died, one gets so thoroughly into the
spirit of the place, the present seems to fade
so far away, and the past to shine out again
so clearly, that as one traces the faint lines
of the old monastic enclosure, the mill-stream
and the tracks which the monks must have
followed in their errands over the island, one
would hardly be surprised to meet the famous
white horse and even the gentle Columba him-
self. But, apart from its overpowering historic
interest, lona has the charm of most exquisite
beauty and variety in its topography. Its
western coast, rugged and irregular, has been
cut into bays, clefts, and headlands by the
full surge of the open Atlantic. Its eastern
side is flanked by the broad, smooth, calm
Sound, which, where it catches the reflection
of a cloudless sky, rivals the Mediterranean
in the depth of its blue ; while towards the
north, where the water shallows over acres of
white shell-sand, it glistens with the green of
an emerald. Then, as if to form a fitting
background to this blaze of colour, the granite
246 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
of the opposite shores of Mull glows with a
warm pink hue as if it were ever catching
the reflection of a gorgeous sunset. For
wealth and variety of tints, I know of no spot
of the same size to equal this isle of the
saints.
If lona seems to be profaned by a crowd
of gaping tourists (I always crossed to the
west side of the island on steamboat days),
Staffa, on other grounds, no less requires
solitude and leisure. The famous cave is
undoubtedly the most striking, but there are
other caverns well worthy of examination.
The whole coast of the island indeed is full of
interest, from the point of view both of scenery
and of geology. It combines on a small scale
the general type of the cliffs of Mull and
Skye, with this advantage that, as the rocks
shelve down into deep water, they can be
approached quite closely. My first visit was
made in a smack, which I found anchored at
Bunessan, in Mull, and from which I got a
boat and a couple of men, who pulled me
slowly round the whole of the shore, stopping
at every point which interested either myself
or my crew. My eyes were intent on the
forms and structure of the cliffs ; theirs were
directed to the ledges where they saw any
STAFFA 247
young cormorants crowded. They scrambled
up the slippery faces of rock, and seizing
the birds, which were not yet able to fly,
pitched them into the bottom of the boat.
These captures, however, were not made
without some loss of blood to the huntsmen,
for the birds, though they had not gained
the use of their wings, knew how to wield
their beaks with good effect. I was told that
young cormorants make excellent hare-soup,
and for this use the men took them. A less
legitimate cause of stoppage was found in the
desire to pull up the lobster creels, of which
we saw the corks floating on the surface of
the water. Several pots were examined, and
I am sorry to say that, in spite of a mild
protest on my part against this act of piracy
on the open sea, some of the best of their
contents were abstracted. The boatmen could
not understand why I should decline to share
in the spoil. Two or three years ago I
landed on Staffa with the captain and officers
and a few of the crew of the Admiralty survey-
ing vessel, * Research.' Some forty years had
intervened between the two landings. I found
the place to be no longer in its primitive
state of wild nature. Ropes and railings and
steps had been placed for the comfort and
248 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
convenience of the summer crowd a laudable
object, no doubt, but I prefer to remember
these cliffs when they showed no trace of the
presence of the nineteenth century tourist.
From the west side of Skye the chain of the
Outer Hebrides can be seen in one long line of
blue hills rising out of the sea at a distance
of some five and twenty miles. The outlines
of these hills had long been familiar to me
before I had an opportunity of actually visiting
them. In later years, thanks to the hospitality
of my friend Mr. Henry Evans, of Ascog, I
have made many delightful cruises among
them in his steam yacht 'Aster,' of 250 tons,
and have been enabled to sail
Round the moist marge of each cold Hebrid isle.
One of his favourite anchorages has been
Loch Roag, on the west side of Lewis, where
the typical scenery of these islands is well dis-
played a hummocky surface of rounded rocky
knolls, separated by innumerable lakelets and
boggy or peaty hollows, or green crofter-
holdings, the land projecting seawards in many
little promontories, and the sea sprinkled with
islets. On one of the cruises, we landed and
examined with some care the famous stones of
Callernish the most numerous group of stand-
STANDING STONES OF CALLERNISH 249
ing stones in the British Islands. Seen from the
sea on a grey misty day, they look like a com-
pany of stoled carlines met in council. On a
near view, they are found to be disposed in
the figure of a cross and circle, the longer
limb of the cross being directed about ten
degrees east of north. The monoliths consist
of between 40 and 50 slabs of flaggy gneiss,
the largest being 17 to 18 feet in height.
It was interesting to observe that after the
purpose for which they were erected had per-
haps been forgotten, boggy vegetation began to
spread over the ground and form a layer of
peat, which, in the course of centuries, increased
to a depth of six feet or more ; the lower por-
tions of the upright monoliths were thus buried
in the peat. The late proprietor had this vege-
table growth removed, so as to lay bare the
original surface of the ground ; but the upper
limit of the turbary could still be traced in
the bleached aspect of that lower part of the
stones which had been covered by the peat,
the organic acids of the decaying vegetation
having removed much of the colouring material
of the gneiss. How long this accumulation
of peat took to form must be matter for
conjecture.
Loch Roag makes a convenient starting point
250 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
for St. Kilda, to which I have several times
crossed in the 'Aster.' From the higher em-
inences around this loch the top of St. Kilda
may be seen in clear weather, the distance
being not more than about 50 miles. But it is
the open Atlantic which lies between, and the
anchorage of St. Kilda is not good, there being
only one available bay, from which, however, a
vessel had better at once depart if the wind
should shift into the south-east. On one of our
visits we were fortunate in finding the weather
calm and sunny, so that it was possible to pull in
an open boat round the base of the cliffs. And
such cliffs and crests ! It is as if a part of the
mountain group of Skye had been set down in
mid-ocean the same purple-black rocks as in
the Cuillin Hills, split into similar clefts, and
shooting up into the same type of buttresses,
recesses, obelisks, and pinnacles, and in the lofty
hill of Conacher, the conical forms and pale
tints of the Red Hills. But it is the bird life
which most fascinates a visitor. In the nesting
season, the air is alive with wings and with all
the varied cries of northern sea-fowl, while
every ledge and cornice of the precipices has
its feathered occupants. Each species keeps to
its own part of the cliff. The puffins swarm in
the crannies below, while higher up come the
ST. KILDA 251
guillemots, razor-bills, and kittiwakes. The
gannets breed on the smaller islets of the
group. We could watch the sure-footed na-
tives making their way along ledges which,
seen from below, seemed impracticable even
to goats. These men, however, from early
boyhood
Along th' Atlantic rock, undreading, climb,
And of its eggs despoil the solan's nest.
In ascending one of the crags on the west
side of St. Kilda I was fortunate enough to
come, unperceived, within a few yards of some
fulmars, and had a good look at these most
characteristic birds of this island. They yield
a strongly odoriferous musky oil, of which the
natives make much use, and of which every
one of them smells. In passing between
the main island and Boreray, we sailed
under a vast circle of those majestic birds,
the gannets, wheeling and diving into the
sea all around us. After swallowing their
catch they bent their wings upward to rejoin
the circle, and make a fresh swoop into the
deep. While watching this magnificent meteor-
like bird-play, we were surprised by the
appearance of three whales, parents and son,
which slowly made their way underneath the
swarm of gannets. It seemed as if the backs
252 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
of these huge animals could hardly escape
being transfixed by some of the crowd of de-
scending bills, but we could trace their leisurely
and unmolested course by the columns of spray
which they blew out into the air every time
they came up to breathe.
One of the most curious sea-inlets in the
Outer Hebrides is the passage known as the
Sound of Harris a tortuous channel between
the Long Island and North Uist, strewn with
islets and rocks, and giving a passage to
powerful tides. The navigation of this Sound
is extremely intricate, and needs good weather
and daylight. On one of my cruises to St.
Kilda the open sea had been rather rough, but
once inside the archipelago, the water became
rapidly smooth, showing only the swirl and
foam of the tidal currents that sweep to and
fro between the Minch and the Atlantic. At
the eastern end of the Sound stands the nearly
perfect ancient church of Rodil an interesting
relic of the ecclesiastical architecture which
followed that of the Celtic church.
As one moves about among the Western
Highlands and Isles, now so peaceful, and in
many places so sparsely peopled, it is difficult
to realise the conditions of life there two or
three centuries ago, when the population was
WEST HIGHLAND CASTLES 253
not only more numerous, but was subdivided
into clans, often at feud with each other. Of
these unhappy times many strikingly pictur-
esque memorials remain in the castles perched
on crags and knolls all along the shores. Most
of these buildings were obviously meant mainly
for defence, but some suggest that the chiefs
who erected them sought convenient places
from which to attack their neighbours, or to
sally forth against passing vessels. Each of
them, strongly constructed of local stone, and
of lime which must often have been brought
from a distance, might have seemed designed
to be
A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time
And razure of oblivion.
But almost without exception they are now in
ruins. The tourist who would try to picture to
himself what these fortalices meant, should sail
through the Sound of Mull and note the suc-
cession of them on either side, from Duart at
the one end to Mingarry at the other. Dun-
vegan, in Skye, the ancient stronghold of the
Macleods, which still remains in good preserva-
tion and inhabited, affords an idea of the aspect
of the more important of these strengths in old
times. But many of them were little more
than square keeps, strong enough, however, to
254 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
withstand sudden assault, and even to endure a
siege, as long as provisions held out.
Other memorials of ancient strife and blood-
shed, less conspicuous than the castles, but
even more impressive, may here and there be
found, which bring the brutal realities of
savagedom vividly before the eyes. Within
my own recollection, Professor Macpherson,
then proprietor of Eigg, gathered together
the skulls and scattered bones in the cave on
that island where some 200 Macdonalds, men,
women, and children, were smothered alive by
an invading band of Macleods, who kindled
brushwood against the cave-mouth. For nearly
three hundred years these ghastly relics of
humanity had lain unburied where the victims
fell, and might be kicked and crushed by the
careless feet of any inquisitive visitor. Even
now, although every care has been taken to
remove them, stray vestiges of the massacre
may perchance still be found on the rough
dank floor of the dark cavern. From the
mouldering straw and heath 1 picked up,
many years ago, the finger-bone of a child.
The tragic fate of the Macdonalds of
Eigg is a well-known event But here and
there one comes upon relics of unchronicled
slaughters. The most impressive of these
AN UNBURIED SKELETON 255
which I have ever met with is to be found
on the west side of Jura. In a cruise round
this island in the 'Aster' with Mr. Evans,
we were accompanied by Miss Campbell of
Jura, who, in the course of a talk about clan-
battles in the Highlands, referred to the last
raid that had been made on Jura, where,
according to tradition, a party of Macleans had
landed and were opposed by Campbells. She
added that the skeleton of one of the Macleans
who was slain lies on the moor still. On my
expressing some incredulity as to this last
statement, she assured me that it was true, and
that I might verify it with my own eyes. So
the yacht was turned into a little indentation
of the coast, at the head of which stood a
shepherd's cottage. We landed from the long
boat, and the shepherd, recognising the party,
came down to meet us. Miss Campbell asked
him where the skeleton was, and he pointed
to an overhanging piece of rock about a
hundred yards from where we were standing.
On reaching this spot, we found a few rough
stones lying at the foot of the low crag.
These the man, stooping down, gently re-
moved, and below them lay the bleached
bones. We took up the skull, which was
well formed and must have belonged to a
256 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
full-grown man. A piece of bone about the
size of half-a-crown had, evidently by the sweep
of a claymore, been sliced off the top of the
skull, leaving a clean, smooth cut. This
wound, however, had not been considered
enough, for the head had been cleft by a
subsequent stroke of the weapon, and there
was the gash in the bone, as sharply defined
as on the day the deed was done. We gently
replaced the bones, with the stones above
them, and there they remain as a memorial
of 'battles long ago.' 1
The west side of Jura is pierced by many
caves, which were worn by the sea at a remote
period when the land stood somewhat lower
than it does now. At the far end of one of
these caves a human skull is said to lie. This
grim relic has more than once been removed
1 There were probably many descents and slaughters in these
islands of which no historic record remains. It is known,
however, that in 1585 a party of Macdonalds from Skye was
forced by stress of weather to take refuge in the part of Jura
belonging to Maclean of Dowart Two gentlemen of the
Macdonald clan, independently driven at the same time into
a neighbouring inlet, remained concealed from their kinsmen
and secretly carried off by night a number of Maclean's cattle,
which they took with them to sea, intending that the blame
should fall on their chief. The Macleans, on discovering the
robbery, attacked the Macdonalds who remained, and slew sixty
of them, the chief escaping only because he had slept that night
on board his galley.
LEGENDS IN JURA 257
and buried, but always in some mysterious
manner finds its way back again. Nothing
appears to be known of its history, and nobody
likes to say much about it. If it exists at
all, its return to its cavern may be due to a
superstitious feeling on the part of the natives,
some one of whom secretly transfers it back
to what is regarded as its rightful resting-place.
These Jura caves are the scenes of certain
weird legends where a black dog, a phantom
hand, and a company of ghostly women per-
form some wonderful feats. 1
When I first visited the island in 1860, the
proprietor of Jura was a keen deerstalker, and
used to live for a day or two at a time in one
of these caves, when his sport took him over
to that side of the island. On one occasion
a party of ladies from an English yacht, then
at anchor in the inlet, had landed, and in
passing the mouth of the cave had noticed the
laird inside, whom they took to be a hermit,
retired from the vanities of this world. Pitying
his forlorn condition and the necessarily scanty
supply of food which he could scrape together
in so wild a place, they, on their return to
the yacht, very kindly made up a basket of
1 See J. G. Campbell's Superstitions of the Highlands and
Islands of Scotland (1900), pp. 112, 114, 121.
R
258 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
provisions and sent it ashore for his sustenance.
Next morning, before the anchor was weighed,
a boat came alongside with a gamekeeper, who
had brought a haunch of venison for the owners
of the yacht, with the thanks and compliments
of Campbell, of Jura.
I cannot pass from the subject of these
Western Isles and the adjacent part of the
mainland without a reference to their inde-
scribable charm, and an expression of my own
profound indebtedness to them for many of
the happiest hours of my life. To appreciate
that charm one must live for a while amidst
the scenery, and learn to know its infinite di-
versity of aspect under the changing moods of
the sky. The tourist who is conveyed through
this scenery in the swift steamer on a grey,
rainy day, naturally inveighs against the cli-
mate, and carries away with him only a recol-
lection of dank fog through which the blurred
bases of the nearer hills could now and then
be seen. Nor, even if he is favoured with the
finest weather when, under a cloudless heaven,
every island may stand out sharply in the
clear air, and every mountain, corrie, and glen
on the mainland may be traced from the edge
of the crisp blue sea up to the far crests and
peaks, can he realise on such a day how differ-
CHARM OF THE WEST HIGHLANDS 259
ent these same scenes appear when the atmo-
spheric vapour begins to show its kaleidoscopic
transformations. Having sailed along a good
part of the coast of Europe, including Norway
and the Aegean Sea, I am convinced, that for
variety of form, the west coast of Scotland is
unsurpassed on the Continent, while for mani-
fold range and brilliance of colour it has no
equal. One who has passed a long enough
time amidst this scenery, more especially if he
has made his home upon the water, sailing
across firth and sound, threading the narrows
of the kyles, and passing from island to island,
can watch how the very forms of the hills
seem to vary from hour to hour as the atmo-
spheric conditions change. Features that were
unobserved in the full blaze of sunlight come
out one by one, pencilled into prominence by
the radiant glow of their colour, as the cloud-
shadows fall behind them. In the early morn-
ing, when the sun climbs above the Inverness-
shire and Argyleshire mountains and the mists
ascend in white wreaths from the valleys, there
is presented to. the eye a vast and varied
panorama, comprising the highest and most
broken ground in the British Isles, rising
straight out of the Atlantic. In the evening,
when the sun sets behind the islands, and
260 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the hills, transfigured by the mingled magic
of sunlight, vapour, rain and cloud, glow
with such luminous hues as almost to be lost
in the glories of the heaven, one feels that
surely 'earth has not anything to show more
fair.'
Wandering through these scenes, one's mind
comes to be filled with a succession of vivid
pictures printed so indelibly on the memory
that, even after long years,
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude.
Among these mental impressions some stand
out with especial prominence in my own
memory. Such is a sunset seen from the top
of the lighthouse on Cape Wrath when, above
the far ocean-horizon, there rose a mass of
cloud, piled up into the semblance of mountains
and valleys, with sleeping lakes and bosky
woods, castle-crowned crags and one fair
city with its streets and stately buildings,
its steeples and spires. The late Professor
Renard of Ghent, had accompanied me to that
far north-western headland, and we amused
ourselves naming the various parts of the
topography of this gorgeous aerial Atlantis.
Another memorable sunset was seen from the
ORIGIN OF HIGHLAND DEMURENESS 261
Observatory on the top of Ben Nevis, when
the chain of the Outer Hebrides, at a distance
of a hundred miles, stretched like a strip of
sapphire against a pale golden sky. Next
morning a white mist spread all over the lower
hills like a wide sea, with the higher peaks
rising like islets above its level surface.
Through all these memories of landscape there
runs, as a tender undertone, the recollection of
the human interest of the scenes. One's mind
recalls the fading relics of ancient paganism,
the devoted labours of the Celtic saints who
first brought the rudiments of civilisation to
these shores, the coming of the vikings from
the northern seas, the feuds and massacres of
the clans. The landscapes seem to be vocal
with the pathos of Celtic legend and song,
and with the romance of later literature,
In each low wind methinks a spirit calls,
And more than echoes talk along the walls.
The demureness of the Scottish Highlander
appears to have been in large measure de-
veloped during last century, and especially
since the Disruption of the National Church
and the domination of the Free Kirk. At
the time of the Reformation and for many
generations afterwards, he was wont on Sunday
to play games throwing the stone, tossing the
262 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
caber, shinty, foot-races, horse-races, together
with music and dance. It was formerly usual
for him to be able to play on some musical
instrument ; in older times on the harp and in
later days on the pipes, the fiddle, or at least
the Jew's harp. Writing in 1773 Mrs. Grant
of Laggan averred that in the Great Glen
' there is a musician in every house, and a
poet in every hamlet.' In 1811 she could
still say, 'there are few houses in the High-
lands where there is not a violin.' 1 Where-
ever there was a good story-teller, or one
who could recite the old poems, songs, tales,
legends, and histories of former times, the
neighbours would gather round him in the
evenings and listen for hours to his narratives.
These customs continued in practice until the
early part of last century, and some of them
still sparingly survive among the Catholic
islands of the Hebrides. But the Presby-
terian clergy in later times have waged cease-
less war against them. ' The good ministers
and the good elders preached against them
and went among the people and besought
them to forsake their follies and to return to
wisdom. They made the people break and
1 Letters from the Mountains, vol. i., p. 112 ; Essays on the
Superstitions of the Highlanders of Scotland^ vol. ii., p. 202.
CLERICAL RAIDS AGAINST FIDDLES 263
burn their pipes and fiddles. If there was a
foolish man here and there who demurred, the
good ministers and the good elders themselves
broke and burnt their instruments, saying
Better is the small fire that warms on the little day of
peace
Than the big fire that burns on the great day of wrath.
The people have forsaken their follies and
their Sabbath-breaking, and there is no pipe
and no fiddle here now.' 1
The same sympathetic observer from whose
pages these words are taken has given the
following illustrative example of the clerical
methods : ' A famous violin-player died in
the island of Eigg a few years ago. He was
known for his old-style playing and his old-
world airs, which died with him. A preacher
denounced him, saying, " Thou art down there
behind the door, thou miserable man with thy
grey hair, playing thine old fiddle, with the
cold hand without, and the devil's fire within."
His family pressed the man to burn his fiddle
1 A. Carmichael, Carmina Gadelica, 1900, Introduction,
p. xxvi. Dr. Norman Macleod, who had no sympathy with
this bigotry, relates 'A minister in a remote island parish
once informed me that "on religious grounds," he had broken
the only fiddle on the island. His notion of religion, I fear,
is not rare among his brethren in the far west and north.'
Reminiscences of a Highland Parish, p. 35.
264 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
and never to play again. A pedlar came
round and offered ten shillings for the violin.
The instrument had been made by a pupil
of Stradivarius, and was famed for its tone.
"It was not at all the thing that was got for
it," said the old man, "that grieved my heart
so sorely, but the parting with it! the parting
with it! and that I myself gave the best cow
in my father's fold for it when I was young."
The voice of the old man faltered, and the
tear fell. He was never seen to smile again.' 1
Taught to think their ancient tales foolish
and their music and dancing sinful, the people
have gradually lost much of the gaiety which
with other branches of the Celtic race they
once possessed.
One who was familiar with the Highlands in
the middle of last century will be struck with
the further decay or disappearance of various
customs which even then were evidently fading
out of use. Of these vanished characteristics,
one of the most distinctive, whose loss is
most regrettable, was the practice, once uni-
versal, of singing Gaelic songs during opera-
tions that required a number of men or women,
working together, to keep time in their move-
ments. This picturesque usage appears to
1 A. Carmichael, op. cit., p. xxviii.
HIGHLAND SONGS 265
have died out on the mainland, though it
still survives among the Catholic islands of
the Outer Hebrides. There were many such
songs, each having a marked rhythm, to which
it was easy to adjust the motions of the limbs.
I have already referred to the boat-songs that
kept the rowers in time. Besides these,
there were songs for reaping and other labour
in the field. Indoors, too, each kind of work,
wherein two or more persons had to move in
unison, had its music. Thus when two women
grind corn with the quern or handmill, as they
still do in some of the Outer Isles, they move
to the rhythm of a monotonous chant. When
they thicken (wauk) homespun cloth, they
keep themselves in time by singing a prac-
tice which may also still be heard among the
Catholic parts of the Hebrides. I have only
once seen the quern in use, but when I first
visited Skye, the songs still continued to be
sung, though not as accompaniments to con-
certed movement. In some of the Outer
Hebrides milking-songs are still in use, and
the cows are said to be so fond of them that
in places they will not give their milk without
them, nor occasionally without their favourite
airs being sung to them. 1 There are likewise
1 A. Carmichael, op. cit., vol. i., pp. 258, 276.
266 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
herding-songs sung when the flocks are sent
out to the pasture, which, unlike most of the
Gaelic music, are joyous ditties appropriate to
what was once, over all the Highlands, one of
the happiest times of the year.
A notable change among the cottages and
houses in the Highlands during the last fifty
years is to be seen in the disappearance of
some of the old forms of illumination, con-
sequent on the introduction of mineral oil.
Candles of course remain, but in former days
a common source of light was obtained from
the trunks of pine-trees dug out of the peat
mosses. The wood of these trunks, being
highly resinous, burnt with a bright though
smoky flame. Split into long rods it made
good torches, or if broken up into laths and
splinters, it furnished a ready light when kin-
dled among the embers of a peat-fire. If a
bright light was wanted, the piece of wood
was held upright with the lighted end at the
bottom, when the flame rapidly spread up-
ward. If, on the other hand, it was desired
to make a less vivid light last as long as
possible, the position of the wood was re-
versed. Metal stands were made to hold
these pine-splinters, the simplest form con-
sisting merely of a slim upright rod of iron
DISPERSION OF THE CLANS 267
fastened below into a block of stone, and
furnished with a movable arm which slid up
and down, and was furnished at the end
with a clip that would hold the wood at any
angle desired. In Morayshire, these stands
were known as 'puir men.' A few years ago,
Mr. James Linn, of the Geological Survey,
secured from the farms and cots of that dis-
trict an interesting collection of these objects
which had been thrown aside and neglected,
after they were superseded by cheap oil-
lamps. This collection has since found a
place in the Museum of National Antiquities
at Edinburgh.
Another old Highland characteristic which
has been constantly waning since 1745 has
had its rate of diminution greatly accelerated
since railways and steamboats were multi-
plied, the localisation of clansmen in their
own original territories. It is true that the
clan name may still be found predominant
there. In Strathspey, for instance, most
families in the Grantown district are Grants ;
Mackays prevail in the Rae country, Campbells
in Argyleshire, Mackinnons in Strath, and
Macleods in the north of Skye. But in all
these old clan districts there is a yearly in-
creasing intermixture of other Highland
268 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
names, together with many from the low-
lands.
The application of the clan name Macintosh
to a waterproof, has sometimes given rise to
odd mistakes, real or invented, as where an
Englishman, who had got out at one of the
stations on the Callander and Oban railway,
is reported to have come back to the carriage
from which he had descended, and into which
four or five stalwart natives had meanwhile
mounted, whom he asked, ' Did you see a
black Macintosh here ? ' ' Na,' was the answer,
'we're a' red Macgregors.'
But unquestionably the most momentous of
all the changes which have come upon the
people of the Highlands is the gradual, but
inevitable dwindling of their native spoken
language. Ever since the barriers against the
free intercourse of Celt and Saxon were broken
down, Gaelic has been undergoing a slow
process of corruption, more especially in those
districts where that intercourse is most active.
English words, phrases, and idioms are
gradually supplanting their Gaelic equivalents,
until the spoken tongue has become in some
districts a mongrel compound of the two lan-
guages. One may still meet with natives who
know, or at least say that they know, no
GAELIC TOPOGRAPHICAL NAMES 269
English. ' Cha 'n-eil Beurla acom, I have
no English,' is sometimes a convenient cover
for escaping from troublesome questions. But,
unless among the more remote parishes and
outer islands, the younger generation can
generally speak English, at least sufficiently
well for cursory conversation.
It is much to be regretted that the Sassenach
hardly ever takes the trouble to learn even a
smattering of Gaelic. Apart from the pleasure
and usefulness of obtaining a firmer hold on
the good will of the natives, some little know-
ledge of the language provides the traveller
with an endless source of interest in the
meaning and origin of the place-names of the
Highlands, which are eminently descriptive,
and often point to conditions of landscape, of
human occupation, of vegetation and of animal
life very different from those that appear
to-day. The old Gaels were singularly felici-
tous and poetical, as well as wonderfully pro-
fuse, in their application of topographical
names. In my early wanderings over Skye,
I used to be astonished to find that every
little hummock and hollow had a recognised
name, not to be found on any map, yet well
known to the inhabitants, who by means of
these names could indicate precisely the route
2;o SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
to be followed across a trackless moorland
or a rough mountain range. Even if no
attempt may be made to speak the lan-
guage, enough acquaintance with it may
easily be acquired for the purpose of inter-
preting a large number of place-names. The
same descriptive term will be found continu-
ally recurring, with endless varying suffixes
and affixes of local significance.
To speak Gaelic, however, without making
slips in the pronunciation is difficult. Some
of the sounds are hard for Saxon tongues to
accomplish, and unless they are accurately
given, the uneducated peasant has often
too little imagination to divine the word
that is intended. Thus, a lady whom I
knew on the west side of Cantyre, told
me that when she first came to live there,
being a stranger to Highland manners and
customs, she was desirous at every turn,
to increase her knowledge of them. One
day she asked her cook, a thorough High-
lander, ' Kate, what is a philabeg ? ' 'A
what, mam ! ' 'A philabeg ; I know it's a part
of a man's Highland dress.' ' Och, mam, I
wass never hearin' of it at all.' Some time
afterwards, having meanwhile ascertained what
the word signifies, she happened to come into
DIFFICULTIES OF GAELIC 271
the kitchen when a Highlander in full cos-
tume was standing there. ' Oh Kate, I asked
you not long ago to tell me what is a phila-
beg, and you said you had never heard of
it. There's a philabeg,' said she, pointing to
the man's kilt. ' That, mam ! of course, I
know that very well, I'm sure. If you'll said
pheelabeg, I would be knowin' at once what
you wass askin' about. I've knew what is
a pheelabeg ever since I wass born.'
It seems hardly possible for a lowlander, un-
less he begins early in life and has abundant
practice, to lose all ' taste of the English '
in his Gaelic talk. Thus a pre- Disruption
minister with whom I was well acquainted in
Argyleshire, and who was not a native Celt,
but had learnt Gaelic in his youth, made
mistakes in the language up to the end of
his long life. One of his co-presbyters so
highly appreciated humour that some of the
stories he told of my old friend were suspected
to be more or less touched up by the narrator.
And many were the stories thus circulated
through the Synod of Argyle. One of them,
I remember, referred to a Gaelic sermon of
the minister's in which he meant to tell his
hearers that they were all peacach caillte, that
is, lost sinners ; but as pronounced by him
272 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the words sounded like pucach saillte, which
means ' salted cuddies ' or coal-fish. On
another occasion, being in a hurry to start
from a distant inn, he called the waiting-
maid, wishing to desire her to have the
saddle put to his horse. The Gaelic word
for a saddle is Diollaidich, and he got the
first half of it only, which makes a word with
a very different meaning, so that what he did
say was, ' put the devil (diabhol) on the horse.'
Professor Blackie, who threw himself with
all the ardour of his enthusiastic nature into
the study of Gaelic, laid the Highlands and
all Highlanders under a debt of gratitude
to him for his untiring labours on their
behalf. He gained an accurate grammatical
knowledge of the language, and a consider-
able acquaintance with its literature, but he
never properly acquired the pronunciation.
During a visit I once paid to him at his
picturesque home on the hillside near Oban,
we crossed over to Kerrera. After ramb-
ling along the western and southern shores
of that island, the Professor said he would
like to call on a farmer's wife who was
a friend of his. Accordingly we made our
way to the house, where he saluted her in
Gaelic. The conversation proceeded for a
EXPERIENCES IN GAELIC 273
little while in that tongue, but at last the
good lady exclaimed, ' Oh, Professor, if you
would speak English I would understand you.'
In my early rambles over Skye, I found
that 'a little Gaelic is a dangerous thing.'
I had sufficient acquaintance with the language
to be able to ask my way, but had made no
attempt to 'drink deep' at the Celtic spring.
On one occasion when passing a night in a
crofter's cottage, I could make out that the
conversation which the inmates were carrying
on, related to myself and my doings. In a
thoughtless moment I made a remark in
Gaelic. It had no reference to the subject
of their talk, but it had the effect of putting
an end to that talk, and of turning a battery
of Gaelic questions on me. In vain I pro-
tested that I had no Gaelic. This they good
humouredly refused to believe, repeating again
and again, ' Cha Gaelig gu leor, you have
Gaelic enough, but you don't like to speak it.'
CHAPTER X.
THE Orkney Islands. The Shetland Islands. Faroe Islands
contrasted with Western Isles. 'Burning the water.' A
fisher of men. Salmon according to London taste. Trout
and fishing-poles. A wolfs den.
THE Orkney and Shetland Islands present
in many respects a strong contrast to the
Hebrides. Differing fundamentally in their
geological structure, and consequently also in
their scenery, they are inhabited by a totally
distinct race of people, and the topographical
names, instead of being Gaelic, are Norse or
English. The natives, descendants of the old
Norwegian stock that once ruled the north
and west of Scotland, still retain many marks
of their Scandinavian origin. Blue eyes and
fair hair are common among them. They are
strongly built and active, with an energy and
enterprise which strike with surprise one who
has long been familiar with the west High-
land indolence and procrastination. My first
THE ORKNEY ISLANDS 275
descent upon the Orkneys was a brief but
interesting expedition, when after a ramble
along the north coast of Caithness, I had
reached, with my colleague, Mr. B. N. Peach,
the little inn of Huna, near John o' Groat's
House. For geological purposes we were
desirous of visiting the nearest of the Orkney
group, Stroma, ' the island of the stream,' a
name which graphically marks its position in
the midst of the broad tidal current of the
Pentland Firth that sweeps past it like a vast
river, and with a flow fully three times faster
than that of an ordinary navigable river. We
engaged the old ferryman, who used to run the
mail-boat from Caithness to Orkney, and were
warned by him that, as the weather looked
threatening and the tide in the evening would
be against us, he could not give us more than
an hour on the island, and he would not allow
the men to have any whisky on the voyage,
since they might need all their wits about them
before we got back. The sail across was easily
made. Obeying our captain's injunctions to
keep within the prescribed hour, we did
most of our work running, and succeeded in
ascertaining what we wanted to know. On
re-embarking, we soon perceived that his prog-
nostication as to the weather was likely to be
276 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
fulfilled. The sky had become entirely over-
cast, and, though no rain fell, ominous moanings
of wind warned us not to linger. The tide
had turned and was beginning to flow west-
wards against the breeze. As it increased in
its rate of flow the surface of the firth began
to curl and boil, streaks of foam were whirled
round in yeasty eddies, while here and there
the water, as if in agony, would rear itself in
swirling columns that burst into spray, which
was swept along by the wind in clouds of
spindrift. Not far off we could see the
' Merry men of Mey,' a tumultuous group
of breakers above a dangerous reef, surging
up into sheets of foam-crested water that
writhed and tossed themselves far up into
the misty air. Our pilot sat at the helm
watching every advancing billow and cleverly
bringing the boat round in time to meet it.
It was a difficult piece of navigation, skilfully
performed. We could then understand why
the men were to be prohibited from tasting
whisky till they got back to Huna. But
arrived in safety, we cheerfully ordered the
stipulated bottle for them.
Subsequently on crossing over into the
Orkney group, I had soon occasion to note
the difference between the boatmen there and
ORKNEY BOATMEN 277
those with whom I was familiar in the west of
Scotland. More adventurous and skilful than
their Celtic fellow-countrymen, they generally
possess larger and stronger boats, which they
keep in better trim. Some of their smaller
boats are built with sharp sterns, and exactly
resemble the common type one sees in Nor-
way. In the eighteenth century, as Boswell
mentions, the people in the Inner Hebrides
sometimes obtained their boats from Norway.
The Orcadians, among other traces of their
Scandinavian descent, seem to take to the
water as naturally as the seals which they
shoot. On several occasions my Orkney boat-
men piloted me along the base of cliffs and
among rocks against which the heavy Atlantic
swell was breaking, where no Skye boatmen I
ever met with would have ventured. No one
can fully realize the grandeur of the great cliff
of Hoy unless he can look up at it from
below, as well as from the crest above. Its
warm tints of bright yellow and red make it
seem aglow with light even in dull weather,
and from a distance it looks as if it caught
sunbeams which are falling on no other part of
the scene. Viewed from its upper edge, this
cliff presents a wonderful picture of decay. The
horizontal beds of sandstone have been split
278 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
by the weather into long deep vertical chasms,
and etched out into fantastic cusps and cupolas,
alcoves and recesses. From the edge of the
precipice, which rises a thousand feet above
the sea, one looks down on the long Atlantic
rollers, seemingly diminished to mere ripples,
and their heavy breakers to streaks of foam,
while the surge, though it thunders against the
rocks, ' cannot be heard so high.' The Old
Man of Hoy, which has been left standing
as an isolated column in front of this great
cliff, is the grandest natural obelisk in the
British Islands, for it rises to a height of
450 feet above the waves that beat against
its base.
Swept by the salt-laden blasts from the
ocean, Orkney and Shetland cannot boast
of trees. Hedges of elder grow well enough
when under the protection of stone walls, but
are shorn off obliquely when they rise above
them, as if a scythe or bill-hook had cut
them across. A group of low trees, shel-
tered by the houses at Stromness, appears
to be the resort of all the birds within a
compass of many miles. There is a story
of an American traveller who landed at Kirk-
wall in the dark, and, after a stroll before
breakfast next morning, returned to the hotel
THE SHETLAND ISLES 279
amazed at the ' completeness of the clearing '
which he supposed the inhabitants had made
of their forests. To the geologist, the anti-
quary, and the lover of cliff scenery, the
Orkney islands offer much of great interest.
Though it was in the first of these capacities
that I was drawn to the islands, the stand-
ing stones, brochs, and mounds, as well as
the magnificent coast-precipices, were soon
found to have irresistible attractions.
Shetland, lying more remote from the rest
of Britain, has preserved, even more than
Orkney, traces of the Scandinavian occupa-
tion. One comes now and then upon an old
Norse word in the language of the people,
and so foreign are the topographical names
that, in hearing them pronounced, one might
imagine oneself to be among the fjords of
Norway. To this day we may hear a Shet-
lander, who is about to sail for the south,
say that he is going to Scotland, as if he
regarded his own islands as part of another
kingdom. On my first visit to Shetland I
spent some time on the mainland, chiefly on
geological errands bent, but not without a
glance at the scenic and antiquarian interests
of the islands. One of my excursions took
me to Papa Stour a small island lying to
280 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the west, and exposed to the full fury of the
Atlantic storms, which have tunnelled its
cliffs with caverns and gullies. Some of these
perforations have been continued until they
open upward in cauldron-like holes on the
surface of the moorland. During gales from
the west, the sea is driven into these clefts
with a noise like the firing of cannon, and
bursts out in sheets of spray from the
cauldrons on the moor. On this island, as
in so many other parts of Shetland, the
want of fuel is a serious evil. The inhabi-
tants have gradually cut away and burnt
much of the thin coating of turf which
covered the naked rock. Hence over con-
siderable areas there is now no soil, only
sheets of crumbling stone which supports no
vegetation and cannot be made to yield a
crop of any kind.
On the way back from Papa Stour to Ler-
wick, I availed myself of the kindly offered
hospitality of one of the proprietors on the
mainland. The lady of the house was un-
fortunately confined to bed, but her daughter
and the governess did the honours of the
house. This young lady was said to be de-
scended from one of the daughters of the
Shetland worthy whose likeness Scott drew
IN THE SHETLAND ISLES 281
as Magnus Troil in the Pirate. At all
events she was a typical Shetlander, as
much at home on the water as on the land.
Mounted on a strong pony, she used to scour
the country far and near, picking her way
across bog and stream in a region where
roads were few. In her boat, she had made
acquaintance with every creek and cavern for
miles along the coast on either side. Some
time before my visit, a vessel with a cargo
of teak had been wrecked in the neighbour-
hood, and such part of the wood as could
be reached had been removed. But the
young lady, in the true spirit of the wrecker,
knew where every stray log was to be found,
in each little voe and creek into which the
waves had carried it. She had a huge dog
which accompanied her on her rambles, and,
as one of the family, was admitted into the
dining-room at meal-time. During dinner the
animal, instinctively divining that I was fond
of dogs and might be expected to be atten-
tive to him, placed himself at my side, with
his nose resting on the edge of the table
and his eyes directed towards my plate.
Interested beyond measure in the talk of my
young hostess, I forgot my four-footed friend
for a little, and, on turning to continue
282 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
operations with knife and fork, found to my
astonishment that my plate was empty, and
that he was pleasantly looking at me and
licking his lips.
In the course of a cruise in the 'Aster'
round the Shetland Islands I enjoyed ample
opportunities of becoming acquainted with the
whole of the wonderful coast-scenery of this
archipelago. With a steam yacht it is possible
to keep close inshore, and to sail back and
forward along the more interesting parts. In
this way I was enabled to see the great cliffs of
Foula well, and to watch the movements of its
' bonxies ' or Great Skuas. With the view of
protecting these now rare and almost exter-
minated birds, the proprietor of the island many
years ago gave strict orders to the natives not
to molest them nor take their eggs, and on no
account to let any birds'-egg collectors come
and help themselves. He was on the steamer
one day bound for Scotland, when one of the
passengers, entering into conversation with
him, began to talk of Foula, and to complain of
the incivility of the people of the island. The
laird inquired in what way they had been dis-
courteous to him. 'Well, you see,' said the
bird-man, ' I am a dealer in birds' eggs, and I
went to the island to obtain some eggs of the
IN THE SHETLAND ISLES 283
Great Skua. The natives refused to get me
any, and when they saw me preparing to go
and hunt for them myself they gathered round
and threatened to pitch me over the cliff into
the sea.' ' And, by Jove,' exclaimed the laird,
'they would have done it too. They have my
orders ; I am the proprietor of Foula.'
As the yacht steamed round St. Magnus
Bay and past the extraordinary group of fan-
tastic islets that rise out of its waters, we had
the good luck to see a white-tailed eagle
winging its way northward, and pursued by a
flock of large gulls. This bird is now almost
extinct along our coasts. A few pairs are still
left. One of these breeds near the top of a
cliff 500 feet high, in a group of islets which is
a favourite anchorage for the ' Aster.' Last
year (1903), besides the two old birds, a third
was seen.
Rounding the far headland of Unst, the most
northerly point of the British Islands, we ran up
a flag to salute the lighthouse on that lonely
spot. So seldom does any yacht pass there,
and, judging from our experience, so few vessels
of any kind come within saluting distance of
the place, that the keeper, taken aback appar-
ently at our courtesy, and not wishing to delay
his return of it, seized a pair of white trousers
284 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
that were drying on the parapet rail, and waved
them enthusiastically, while his comrade ran to
hoist the flag.
One of the greatest obstacles to yachting in
these northern seas during summer is the pre-
valence of fogs. In two cruises to the Faroe
Islands, the ' Aster ' had to be navigated for
most of the way in a dense white mist, with a
smooth sea below and blue sky above, but
when one end of the vessel was scarcely visible
from the other, and the foghorn had to be kept
constantly going. So excellently, however,
had the course been laid, that after soundings
had shown that land could not be far off, we
heard the barking of a dog and the firing of a
gun. In a few minutes the top of the Lille
Dimon could be seen above the fog, and we
entered the channel for which we had been
steering.
At the time of one of our trips to Faroe,
small-pox had been prevalent in Scotland, and
when we ran into the sheltered inlet of Tran-
gisvaag, the yellow quarantine flag was run up
on the wooden building ashore, and a boat
came off to warn us not to land until we had
been inspected by the medical man of the place.
In a little while he pulled alongside, and after
some preliminary conversation asked that the
THE FAROE ISLES 285
whole human contents of the yacht should be
mustered on the deck before him. So we all
placed ourselves in a row, while he marched
along and inspected us. It was interesting to
notice the amused and half-contemptuous faces
of the crew at this performance, each man feel-
ing himself as strong and well as youth, sea-
air, and good food could make him. My host
thought that the official should not be allowed
to leave without some refreshment, and called
on the steward to bring it. The Doctor
selected a glass of whisky, evidently without
knowing what it was, for before we could
make any explanation, he tossed it off as if it
had been so much water. But not until it
was well down his throat did he realise the
strength of the liquor. He gave a few gasps,
while his eyes filled with water, and he had
to make an effort to compose himself and go
on with the conversation as if nothing had
happened. If he had never tasted Talisker
whisky before, we believed he would not
forget his first experience of it.
So exactly do the Faroe Islands reproduce
the scenery of the Inner Hebrides that it is
difficult at first to believe that we are not
somehow back again under the cliffs of Skye
or Mull. Green declivities descend from the
286 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
interior of these islands to the edge of the
cliffs, which then plunge sheer down into the
sea. The precipices are built up of nearly
level sheets of brown basalt, edged with narrow
strips of grassy herbage, cleft into chasms, and
eaten out into tunnels and caves by the restless
surge. From the horizontal bars of the great
cliffs, the eye ranges upward to the brightly
verdant slopes above, and marks dark-brown
ribs of rock running parallel with these bars
in a series of terraces away up to the crests
of the ridges and hills. Only in the little bays,
which here and there indent the ranges of
formidable precipice, does one catch sight of
evidence of human occupation.
But, while the topography is so similar, the
population presents a singular contrast to that
of the Western Isles of Scotland. Everywhere
it gives proofs of energy, industry, comfort,
cleanliness, and civilisation. Each little com-
munity at the head of its cliff-girt inlet has
built a hamlet of neat wooden houses, which,
with their painted doors, trim windows, and
clean white curtains, show that the inhabitants
are well-to-do, and not without some of the
luxuries of life. Fishing is the main industry,
and all the inhabitants are more or less en-
gaged in it men, women, and children. The
FAROES AND WESTERN ISLES 287
men go to sea and bring back the fish. The
women look after it as it lies drying in the
sun, cover it with tarpaulin if rain comes,
and stack it up ready for export. There is
usually a chief man or merchant who takes
general charge of the trade, and arranges for
the steamboats to come and carry off the
piles of fish.
To return from such a scene to the west
of Skye cannot but fill the heart with sadness
as one passes inlet after inlet, either with no
inhabitants or with only a handful of them,
housed in squalid, miserable, dirty huts, too
poor to provide themselves with good sea-
going boats, too timid or too lazy and unen-
terprising to gather the harvest of the sea, as
the men do in Faroe, but content to live as
their fathers have done, save that now they
have become possessed by a greed for more
land, which, when they get it, they will doubt-
less cultivate in the same unskilful and slovenly
fashion. In the herring fishing, which is the
chief industry among the Western Isles, the
boats come largely from the east side of Scot-
land, and are manned by the stalwart and
active seamen of the shores of the Moray
Firth and other parts of the coast.
The subject of fish and fishing recalls some
288 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
recollections of angling experiences on the
mainland. In boyhood I used sometimes to
assist at a ' burning o' the water/ when all
the shepherds, poachers, and idlers of the
district assembled to take part in the fun and
excitement of spearing salmon or grilse.
The Gala Water on these nights presented a
singularly picturesque sight the lurid glare
and smoke of the torches, the cautious
movements of the men in the river, the shouts
of those on the bank as a successful 'leister,'
that had transfixed a fish, was handed over
to them, and the chorus of shepherds' dogs
that were among the most active and excited
of the spectators. The account of the night
exploits at Charlie's Hope in Guy Mannering
is as truthful as it is graphic.
Among the lakes of Sutherland there is
one not far from Beinn Griam which, an
enthusiastic angler assured me, consists of
1 three parts of fish and one water.' Another
sporting friend, not to be outdone, lauded the
extraordinary abundance of game in his native
island. 'There is a stream there/ he would
say, 'once so stocked with trout that I never
failed to fill a big basket. But now the
feathered game has become so abundant that
though the fish are as plentiful as ever, I can
A FISHER OF MEN 289
hardly get any, for almost every time I cast
my line I hook a grouse in the air.'
A former well-known witty editor of an
Edinburgh newspaper was fond of escaping to
the banks of the Yarrow or the Ettrick for a
few days' fishing. One Monday morning he
was accosted by the clergyman who had been
preaching the day before, and who, though a
stranger to him, asked a number of questions
about his sport. The editor replied civilly to
the battery of queries, and at last began to
catechise in his turn.
4 And are you too a fisher ? ' he asked.
1 Oh no, I have no time for angling. You
see I am a fisher of men.'
1 And have you had much success in your
line?'
' Not nearly as much as I could wish.'
'Ay, I can believe that. I looked into
your creel [the church] yesterday and there
were very few fish in it.' 1
There is a story told of an amateur angler
who with an attendant was fishing, from the
English side, the Carham Burn, which at one
part of the border separates the two kingdoms.
His hook had caught under the opposite bank,
1 This anecdote has been variously related ; but the version
given here is probably the true one
T
290 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
and he was under the impression that it had
been taken by a large fish which had run up
from the Tweed. His old companion, how-
ever, disabused him by drily remarking, ' Ay,
ye hae got a big fish, nae doot ; ye hae
heukit auld Scotland.'
Those who are accustomed to salmon which
has been carried in ice a long distance, and
kept for some days before being eaten, do not
always appreciate the newly-killed fish as it
is given in Scotland, with its firm, flaky con-
sistence and fresh curd. A Londoner, who
had taken a house for the summer in Forfar-
shire, had made the acquaintance of the lessee
of one of the salmon fisheries on the coast of
that county, and asked him one day to be
so good as allow him to have a fish for a
dinner party which he was about to give. A
fine fresh salmon was accordingly sent to the
house. A few weeks afterwards the English-
man came down to the coast again, and after
expressing his thanks for the fish, ventured to
remark that somehow it was harder and more
flaky than what he was accustomed to in
London. He was about to give another
dinner, he said, and would like another salmon.
The lessee, promising that he should have
one quite to his taste, went down to one of
TROUT AND FISHING-RODS 291
his men and gave the following order :
' Sandy, you'll take that fish and hang it up
in the sun all day. Then after breakfast to-
morrow you'll lay it on a stone and thump it
hard all over with a heavy stick, then hang
it up in the sun again till the afternoon, and
after that send it up to Mr. .' The
Londoner in a few days appeared to express
his thanks for the fish which he pronounced
to be exactly what he liked, and what he
was used to in the south.
Trouting streams in this country and in
Western America have distinct peculiarities.
Some years ago I was rambling up Glen
Spean, and along the heathery and rocky
banks of the River Treig with an American
friend, who had spent much of his life in sur-
veying the Western Territories of the United
States. 'What a fine stream,' he remarked,
' not to have trout in it ! ' I assured him
there were plenty of trout in all the streams
of the district. ' But how can that be ? ' he
enquired, 'there are no poles growing along
the banks.' He explained that in the Far
West, Providence appeared to have so ar-
ranged that fish need not be sought for in
streams on the margins of which no wood
grew, such as would supply a fishing-rod.
292 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
The mention of sport in the Highlands
brings to recollection another illustration of the
curious vitality of some stones, and the sin-
gular transformations which they may undergo
as they are passed on from mouth to mouth
through successive generations. An old legend
in the north-west Highlands tells how two
men set out to kill a wolf that was destroying
the sheep of the crofters of Kintail. One of
them entered the animal's den, while the other
stood on guard at the entrance. Soon after-
wards the wolf returned and made for its cave,
when the man at the entrance seized it by the
tail as it got inside, and held it fast. His
companion within then called out
One-eyed Gilchrist
Who closed the hole?
The other answered
If the rump-tail should break
Thy skull shall know that. 1
Probably this tale was carried to Canada by
some of the Highland emigrants and became
naturalised and localised there, for it has come
back in the following guise : Two Scotsmen in
a mountainous part of the colony, climbed up
1 Translated from the Gaelic by A. Carmichael, Carmina
Gadelica, voL ii., p. 235.
A BEAR'S DEN 293
a rocky slope to the mouth of a narrow cave,
into which one of them crawled to discover
what might be inside. The other contented
himself by lighting his pipe and sitting down
outside, but had not been there above a
minute or two when a huge she-bear came
rushing up the declivity and made straight
for the cave. Seeing the danger to his friend
he had presence of mind enough to seize the
tail of the bear just as the animal had got
within the entrance, and to plant his feet
firmly against the rock on each side. Pre-
sently a voice from the inner recesses shouted
out, ' Donald, Donald, fat be darkenin' the
hole ? ' To which Donald replied, ' My faith,
Angus, gin the tail break ye'll fin' fat be
darkenin' the hole.' 1
1 In another version the predatory animal has become a
wild sowl
CHAPTER XI.
SCOTTISH shepherds and their dogs. A snow-storm among the
Southern Uplands. Scottish inns of an old type. Reminis-
cences of some Highland inns. Revival of roadside inns by
cyclists. Scottish drink. Drinking customs now obsolete.
THE shepherds in the pastoral uplands of the
south of Scotland are a strong, active, and
intelligent race. I have spent many a happy
day among them, living in their little shiel-
ings, on the friendliest footing with them, their
families, and their dogs. The household at
Talla Linnfoot, in Peeblesshire, was a typical
sample of one of these families. Wattie Dal-
gleish, the shepherd there when I first went
into the district, was becoming an elderly man,
no longer able for the stiff climbs and long
walks that were needed to look after the whole
of his wide charge. His young and vigorous
son was able to relieve him of the more distant
ground, which was shared with another man,
not of the family, who slept in one of the
PAPER-HANGING ON TWEEDSIDE 295
outhouses. Wattie's active wife and daughter
looked well after the domestic concerns of the
household. His laugh had the clear, hearty
ring of a frank, honest, and kindly nature. He
delighted to recount his experiences of field
and fell, and his Doric was pure and racy.
One evening I had come up from Tweedsmuir
and described to him a man whom I had seen
at work there, planing a shutter which he
had placed on tressels in the very middle of
the road. This worthy wore large round-eyed
spectacles, a tattered apron in front of him,
and a red-tasselled blue bonnet on his head.
The shepherd recognised the man from my
description, and at once asked, ' And did he
speir (enquire) the inside out o' ye?' He had
certainly put a good many questions. He
turned out to be a kind of factotum down the
valley of the Tweed 'barber, cook, uphol-
sterer, what you please ' of whom I afterwards
heard much. As among his avocations was
that of paper-hanging, he was once employed
by a proprietor in B rough ton parish to paper a
bedroom. In the afternoon, when the master
of the house came to see how the work was
getting on, he found that the paper had been
stuck on the walls just as it came, without the
selvages being cut off. ' Tammas, Tammas/
296 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
exclaimed the laird, 'what is the meaning of
this ? Why have you not cut off these ugly
borders?' Tammas looked at the laird for a
moment through his great goggles, and then
with a toss of his head remarked, 'That
may be your taste, sir, but on Tweedside we
like it best this way,' and went on with his
pasting.
Wattie Dalgleish had a collie which, like
himself, was getting somewhat aged, and no
longer fit for the severer work of the hill.
The dog would accompany him in his short
rounds and return early in the afternoon to the
cottage. Some hours later I would come back
from my rambles, and as I descended the steep
slope opposite, and came within old ' Tweed's '
sight and hearing, he would signify his recog-
nition of me by a loud barking, which I could
always distinguish from other canine perform-
ances, for it showed neither surprise nor anger,
but had an element of kindly welcome in it
As I drew nearer, the barking underwent a
curious change into a sort of short intermittent
howl of delight, and as I came up to the en-
closure, the dear old creature would burst into
a loud guffaw. He was the only dog I ever
knew that had what one might fairly call a
true honest laugh. And how his tail would
SHEPHERDS' DOGS 297
wag, as if it would surely be twisted off, while
he marched in front of me to announce in his
own way that the guest of the family had come
back.
There were so many dogs in the household
that one could study the idiosyncrasies of canine
nature on a basis of some breadth. It struck
me then that perhaps there might be more
truth than one had been inclined to suppose in
Butler's facetious remark :
As some philosophers
Have well observ'd, beasts that converse
With man, take after him.
Certainly there did appear to be in that shep-
herd's shieling a curious similarity of disposition
between the dogs and their respective masters.
My old friend ' Tweed ' was a kind of four-
footed duplicate of the honest Wattie, down
even to the hearty laugh. On the other hand,
the stranger shepherd had a collie that closely
reproduced his own characteristics. The man
was sullen and taciturn, did not mingle with the
family, but sat apart, and retired soon to his
own quarters. The dog usually lay below his
master's chair, refused to fraternise with the
other dogs, receiving them with a snarl or growl
when they came too near, and marching off
298 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
with the shepherd when he retired for the
night. I tried hard to be on cordial terms with
the man, and still harder to ingratiate myself
with the dog, but was equally unsuccessful in
both directions.
The Talla valley is narrow and deep, the
hills rising steeply from 1000 to 1400 feet above
the flat alluvial haugh at the bottom, which is
about 900 feet above the sea. It must be sadly
changed now, when it has become the site of
one of the great Edinburgh water-reservoirs.
But in the days of which I am speaking it was
a lonely sequestered glen, silent save for the
bleat of the sheep or the bark of the dogs.
In wet weather the wind drove up or down
the defile, separating the rain into long vertical
shafts, which chased each other like pale
spectres. In the narrower tributary gorge of
the Gameshope, these ghost-like forms are
even more marked, hence they are known in
the district as the ' White Men of Gameshope.'
Above Talla Linnfoot, the ground rises steeply
up into the heights around Loch Skene and
the weird hollows of the White Coomb. With
my early school-fellow and colleague in the
Geological Survey, the late Professor John
Young, of Glasgow University, I have wan-
dered into every recess and over every summit
TIBBIE SHIELS 299
of that fascinating ground. On one occasion
we extended our ramble to the Yarrow valley,
with the intention of spending the night under
the hospitable roof of Tibbie Shiels, who was
then in still vigorous old age. Next morning
we found the ground buried under some six
inches of snow, which still continued to fall.
As a return over the trackless hills was then
impossible, we were shut up for several days,
during which we shared in various domestic
employments, among the rest in learning to
churn butter. Tibbie encouraged us in our
labours by various recollections of Wilson,
Hogg, and other personages of the Nodes
Ambrosianae.
When the storm ceased and the sun shone
out again, the whole landscape was white up to
the crests of the hills, save St. Mary's Loch
and the Loch of the Lowes, between which the
little hostelry stands. These waters were still
unfrozen, and wore a look of inky blackness by
contrast with the surrounding ground. One
unlooked-for effect of the wintry covering was
to reveal the surface features of the hills with a
clearness never before realised. These uplands
in their ordinary guise are so rich in colour,
and the distribution of the varying tints has
so little relation to the forms of the ground, that
300 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
most of the minor details of the topography are
lost to the eye. But now that colour was
wholly eliminated, every little dimple and ridge
stood out marked by its delicate violet shadows
in the pure white snow.
One of the notabilities of this district was the
widow of another shepherd who occupied the
little cottage of Birkhill at the head of Moffat-
dale. She had not only lost her husband, but
her son had been smothered in a snow-drift not
many yards from her door. Yet she remained
cheerful and contented, with a kindly welcome
and a warm fireside for wayfarers who sought
her hospitality. Many a time have I slept in
the little box-bed in her 'ben/ and partaken of
her ' scones ' and other good cheer. One of
my colleagues in the Survey, who made her
house his station for weeks at a time, discovered
that grouse take some time to get accustomed
to the dangers of a wire- fence. Such a line of
division between two sheep-farms had been run
up the hillside near Birkhill, and the grouse
when flying low would strike against the wires
and be killed on the spot. Coming down in
the evening he used sometimes to bring with
him several brace of dead birds, decapitated or
otherwise mangled, but none the less a welcome
addition to his commissariat.
THE SOUTHERN UPLANDS 301
After my marriage I had occasion to revisit
Birkhill, and brought my wife with me. Jenny
gave her a kindly greeting, and in parting
offered her this piece of friendly advice : ' Noo,
my leddy, ye'll mind never to anger him, and
ye'll see that he ay has a pair o' dry stockins to
put on when he comes hame at nicht.' Poor
old soul ! She had had some experience of
stormy scenes under her own roof, and life in
these uplands had taught her that wet boots
are the common lot of humanity and the be-
ginning of many ailments.
No one who has sojourned for weeks and
months among these pastoral hills can fail to
have come more or less under their spell.
They show none of the grandeur and rugged-
ness of the Highlands. The hills, on the
whole, have smooth, rounded outlines, save
here and there, where some crag of grey
rock protrudes from the pervading mantle
of green bent and purple heath. Yet the
topography is sufficiently varied not to be-
come monotonous, while the slopes in every
season of the year glow with colour,
spread over them like a delicate sheet of
enamel. There is beauty enough in the
landscape of itself to please, and even here
and there to fascinate. Its attractions, how-
302 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
ever, are infinitely increased by the human
associations which cling to every part of
the surface, with a halo of legend, romance,
and poetry.
Meek loveliness is round it spread,
A softness still and holy ;
The grace of forest charms decayed
And pastoral melancholy.
The houses of Tibbie Shiels and Jenny of
Birkhill showed the simplest and most rudi-
mentary form of inns. They varied little from
the ordinary shepherds' cottages, the most
notable difference being that they sold excis-
able liquors. They were at least clean, with
homely comfort, and simple but wholesome
fare.
The want of cleanliness in the Scottish hos-
telries, even those of the chief towns, in the
previous century, is continually referred to by
English travellers in the country. Sydney
Smith, while praising Scotland and its na-
tives, among whom he made his home near
the close of the eighteenth century, confessed
that they ' certainly do not understand cleanli-
ness.'
The inns or change-houses in country dis-
tricts remained still in a state of grievous
untidiness and squalor. To many a village
SCOTCH DRINK 303
and little town Scott's lines might have been
applied :
Baron o' Bucklyvie,
The muckle deevil drive ye,
And a' to pieces rive ye
For biggin' sic a town,
Where there's neither man's meat, nor
horse meat,
Nor a chair to sit down.
Nevertheless, already before railways had
spread their network across the kingdom,
when the country roads were more frequented
than now by stage-coaches, post- carriages, and
pedestrians, many modest and comfortable little
inns had come into existence, and were to
be met with by the roadside. These have
now unhappily in great measure disappeared,
or have sunk into mere public-houses, kept
open only for the sake of selling drink. My
impression is that proportionately much more
whisky is now consumed by the artizan and
labouring classes than in those days when
various kinds of light or heavy ale were in
demand. The ' tippeny ' of Burns' time, his
'reaming swats that drank divinely,' the ale
that 'richly brown, reams ower the brink in
glorious faem/ were still familiar forms of
'Scotch drink.' But nowadays the labourer
no longer ' sighs for cheerful ale ' ; when he
304 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
enters the public-house, it is usually whisky
that he calls for.
In my boyhood a custom still prevailed,
which I think must now be obsolete that of
placing a 'spelding,' or dried salt haddock,
beside the glass of ale ordered by a caller at a
public-house or roadside inn. Bitter beer had
not yet come into vogue in Scotland. Instead
of it, all the liquors supplied were of native
brewing, from the light ' tippeny,' which was a
refreshing and innocent drink, up to the strong-
est Edinburgh ale a liquor which required to
be quaffed with great moderation. When a
few drops of it ran down the glass they glued
it so firmly to the table that some force was
needed to pull it off. The salt fish was, of
course, served that it might provoke thirst
enough to require more liquid.
Another recollection of these old days
brings back the excise-officers who used to
be on the watch at the English frontier to
examine the luggage of passengers from the
north. One of the surviving relics of Scottish
independence was to be found in the inland
revenue duties, which, as they differed on the
two sides of the border until they were equal-
ised in 1855, led to a good deal of smuggling.
Whisky was then contraband, and liable to
WHISKY AND GOLF 305
extra duty when taken into England. At
that time, this liquor was hardly known south
of the Tweed, save to the Scots who imported
it from their native country. But now it has
made its way everywhere, and has almost
completely supplanted the gin that had pre-
viously filled its place. It is prescribed by
the medical faculty as, on the whole, a safer
drink than much of the wine that comes from
abroad. The quantity of it made every year
is enormously larger than it was fifty years
ago. Not only is it to be found everywhere
in this country, but on the continent, and in-
deed wherever English-speaking people travel.
If one were asked to name the two most con-
spicuous gifts which Scotland has made in
recent times to the United Kingdom, one
could hardly go wrong in answering Whisky
and Golf.
There used to be, and probably still are,
many quiet, unpretending, but remarkably com-
fortable little inns in Galloway. The inn-
keepers were also farmers, and probably in
many cases their farms formed the chief and
most profitable part of their avocations. Fresh
farm produce was supplied to their guests with
the amplest liberality excellent beef and mut-
ton, fowls, eggs, butter, milk, and such cream
306 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
as one seldom met with in other parts of the
country.
A notable reform of the last half century in
the Highlands has been seen in the improve-
ment of the inns. I can remember the primitive
condition of some of them which have been
enlarged into what are now pompously called
hotels. Many years ago I had occasion to
spend a night or two in one of these antique
and uncomfortable houses in Skye One Sun-
day morning I was in bed and awake, when the
bedroom door was quietly opened, and by
degrees a half-dressed female figure stealthily
entered. She looked at the bed to see if I
were still asleep, and as I kept my eyes half
closed, she thought herself unobserved. Step-
ping gently across to the dressing-table, she
opened my razor-case, and having possessed
herself of one of the razors, as quietly re-
treated. I lay conjecturing what use the land-
lady (for it was she) would make of the
implement. Visions of murder floated through
my mind, but after a time the door once more
opened, and my hostess, as quietly as before,
stalked across the room and replaced the razor
in the case. She seemed too calm for a mur-
deress, and there had been no noise in the
house, but the razor had evidently served some
INNS IN SKYE 307
definite purpose. I got up, dressed, and came
down to breakfast. My host met me at the
foot of the staircase with a smile on his face,
which on the previous evening had been ' rough
and razorable,' but had now lost its stubbly
beard of a week's growth. I then saw one use
at least to which my razor had probably been
put Whether the old lady had any further
private manipulations of her own in which the
implement played a part, I never found out.
One of the defects of the old Skye inns was
the absence of any weights to the window-
sashes, and commonly also the want of any
means of keeping the windows open. The
glass was seldom cleaned, though the outside
surface was washed more or less clean by the
battering of the rain. The doors, too, could not
always be fastened, and the visitor who wished
to secure privacy might have to barricade the
entrance by getting some chairs and his port-
manteau piled up against the door. Even
these precautions, however, were sometimes of
no effect. I was once in an inn at Portree
where one of the guests, on awaking in the
morning, found another head reposing on the
pillow near him. His first impulse was to
kick out the intruder, who was sound asleep,
but on second thoughts he jumped out of
308 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
bed and rapidly dressed. Before leaving the
room he recognised that the head in question
was that of the waiter, who had evidently
pushed the door open during the night and
got into bed. After taking a walk for an
hour the tourist returned to the inn, which
he found in great commotion. On enquiring
of the landlord, he was told that their waiter,
a most respectable and trustworthy man,
had disappeared ; he had left his clothes in his
own room, and must have gone out and
drowned himself in the loch, for they had
been searching for him everywhere, and he
could not be found either in the house or any-
where else ; if it were not the Sabbath they
would have the loch dragged for his body, but
they would do that next morning. The visitor,
after expressing due sympathy with the distress
of the household, asked whether they had
looked into his bedroom. ' Your bedroom ! '
exclaimed the host somewhat angrily, as if he
thought fun were being made of him, on such
a solemn occasion, ' Your bedroom ! No, of
course we haven't. What should make us look
there ? ' ' Well,' said his guest, ' you might at
least try.' And there sure enough was the
somnolent waiter, still asleep, and happily un-
conscious of all the stir he had caused. It
OLD HIGHLAND INNS 309
then turned out that, unknown to the family at
the inn, who had recently engaged him, he
was liable to occasional fits of sleep-walking.
All's well that ends well ; but the only con-
solation the injured visitor ever received from
the landlord was the remark, ' What a blessing
it was your room ; it might else have ruined
my business.'
There is a small inn on one of the north-
western sea-lochs, where in the year 1860 I
spent a night with my old chief, Sir Roderick
Murchison. It was in a shocking state of
neglect and dirt, with little more in the way of
provisions than oatcakes, potatoes, and whisky.
It boasted of only one bedroom, which had two
beds that did not appear to have been slept
in for many a day. Twenty years later I came
back to the same inn, hoping that the general
improvement would have reached that place
too, but Ij found that as nothing in the way
of repair had been done to it in the interval,
it was more dilapidated and untidy than ever.
I had as a travelling companion a well-known
man of science, who, never having been up in
that part of Scotland, was glad of the oppor-
tunity of seeing it. We occupied the same
double-bedded room as I had formerly known.
Awaking betimes in the morning, I lay for a
310 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
while contemplating the ceiling and the undula-
tions and cracks in its plaster. There was a
large downward bulge, like a full-bellied sail,
right above my friend's head. As I was look-
ing at it, this piece of the plaster suddenly
gave way and fell in a mass upon him, with
a shower of dust all over the bed. Of course
he started up in great alarm, but fortunately he
had received no serious injury. It was his first
experience of a Highland inn of the old type.
A distinct revival of the roadside inn can
be traced to the wide spread of bicycle-
riding. Wheelmen appear to be 'drouthy
cronies/ who are not sorry to halt for a
few minutes at an inviting change -house ;
but many of them take up their quarters for
a night at such places, and this demand for
sleeping-room has led to the resuscitation of
little inns that had almost gone to decay. It
is to be hoped that this revival will continue
to spread, and that not only will the old inns
come to life again, but that new and better
houses of entertainment will be erected in
parts of the country where the attractions are
many, while the accommodation is but scant.
From inns one naturally turns to drink,
which forms the theme of so large a propor-
tion of Scottish stories. It must be admitted
AN IRISH PUBLICAN IN SCOTLAND 311
that this prominence is a sad indication of the
extent to which for generations past alcoholic
liquors of all kinds have been consumed in the
country. I used to imagine that the ' trade,'
that is, the calling of publican, was in the hands
of Scotsmen, who were themselves entirely to
blame not only for the drinking, but for the
selling of whisky. On a visit to Antrim, how-
ever, I learned that others besides natives of
Scotland have a share in the traffic. In driving
out from Ballymena on an Irish car, my talka-
tive 'jarvie' noticed me looking at a new villa
that was in course of erection not far from the
town.
'That'll be a foin place, sorr,' said he.
'That's Mr. O'Donnel's, sorr.'
'Who is Mr. O'Donnel?' I asked.
' Oh, he was born in Ballymena, and left it
when he was a boy. He went abroad and
made mVfortune, and now he's come back and
he's bought the tinnant roight of the land
and he's puttin' up that house and them
greenhouses, and plantin' them trees and layin'
out the garden. Oh, it'll be a foin place, that it
will, sorr.'
' You say he went abroad ; where did he go
to?'
'To Scotland, sorr.'
312 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
' To Scotland ! And how did he come to
make his fortune there ? '
4 Keepin' public-houses, sorr. 1
The question is often asked why so much
whisky should be consumed in Scotland. One
explanation assigns as the reason the moist,
chilly climate of the country, and this cause
may perhaps be allowed to have some con-
siderable share in producing the national habit.
No small proportion of the spirit, especially
in the Highlands, is drunk by men who are
certainly not at all drunkards, and who can
toss off their glass without being any the worse
of it, if, indeed, they are not, as they them-
selves maintain, a good deal the better. But
it must be confessed that, especially among
the working classes in the Lowlands, tipsiness
is a state of pleasure to be looked forward to
with avidity, to be gained as rapidly and main-
tained as long as possible. To many wretched
beings it offers a transient escape from the
miseries of life, and brings the only moments
of comparative happiness which they ever
enjoy. They live a double life one part in
the gloom and hardship of the workaday world,
and the other in the dreamland into which
whisky introduces them. The blacksmith ex-
pressed this view of life who, when remon-
SCOTTISH DRUNKENNESS 313
strated with by his clergyman for drunkenness,
asked if his reverend monitor had himself ever
been overcome with drink, and, on receiving
a negative reply, remarked : ' Ah, sir, if ye
was ance richt drunk, ye wadna want ever to
be sober again.'
The desire of getting quickly intoxicated is
perhaps best illustrated among the miners in
the great coal-fields. Thus an Ayrshire collier
was heard discoursing to his comrades about a
novel way he had found out of getting more
rapidly drunk : ' Jist ye putt in thretty draps o'
lowdamer (laudanum) into your glass and ye're
fine an' fou' in ten minutes.' In the same
county a publican advertised the potent quality
of the liquor he sold by placing in his window
a paper with this announcement : ' Drunk for
three bawbees, and mortal for threepence.'
The quality of the whisky is often bad, since
much of what is sold is raw-grain spirit,
sometimes adulterated with water and then
strengthened with some cheap liquid that
will give it pungency. There was some truth
in the reply of the Highlander to the
minister who was warning him against excess,
and assuring him that whisky was a very
bad thing: ''Deed an' it is, sir, specially
baad whusky.' The mere addition of water
314 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
would do no harm, rather the reverse ; but it
would be detected at once by the experienced
toper. ' This is no' a godly place at all, at
all,' said a discontented labourer in the Perth-
shire Highlands. 'They dinna preach the
gospel here and they wahtter the whusky.'
Strangers are often astonished at the extent
of the draughts of undiluted whisky which
Highlanders can swallow, without any apparent
ill effects. Burt tells us that in his time, that
is in the third decade of the eighteenth century,
Highland gentlemen could take 'even three or
four quarts at a sitting, and that in general the
people that can pay the purchase, drink it with-
out moderation.' In the year 1860, in a walk
from Kinlochewe through the mountains to
Ullapool, I took with me as a guide an old
shepherd who had lived there all his life. The
distance, as I wished to go, amounted to thirty
miles, mostly of rough, trackless ground, and
among the refreshments for the journey a
bottle of whisky was included. Not being used
to the liquor, I hardly tasted it all day, but
when we reached the ferry opposite Ullapool,
Simon pitched the empty bottle into the loch.
He had practically drunk the whole of its con-
tents, and was as cool and collected as when we
started in the morning.
ASSUMED RELUCTANCE TO DRINK 315
All over the Highlands 'a glass' serves as
ready-money payment for any small service
rendered, such as when a driver has brought
a guest to a farm or country-house from some
distance, when a workman has completed his
repairs and has some miles to walk back to his
home, or when a messenger has come from a
neighbour and waits to take back your answer.
A piper who has marched round behind the
chairs of a dinner party at a great Highland
laird's, blowing his pipes till it seems as if the
windows should be broken, ends his perform-
ance by halting at the side of the lady of the
house, to whom is brought and from whom he
receives a full glass of the native beverage.
It is a characteristic feature of the Scot that,
although usually ready for a glass of whisky, he
feigns an unwillingness that it should be poured
out for him, or at least deprecates that the glass
should be filled up to the top. As an illustra-
tion of this national habit, the story may be
quoted of two Highlanders who were discussing
the merits of a gentleman well known to them
both. ' Weel, Sandy, ye may say what ye like,
but I think he canna be a nice man, whatefer.'
' But what ails ye at him, Donald ? ' ' Weel,
then, I'll just tell ye. I wass in his hoose last
week, and he wad be pourin' me out a glass o'
316 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
whusky ; and of course I cried out " Stop,
stop ! " and wad ye believe it ? he stoppit ! '
To prevent any such unwelcome arrest of
the liquor, and at the same time to 'save the
face ' of the would-be participant, he has been
known to arrange beforehand with the host
or hostess that, while he is to protest as usual
against the glass being poured out for him,
his scruples are to be peremptorily overcome
' ye maun gar me tak' it ! '
Should any untoward incident deprive a
man of a glass plainly intended for him, his
annoyance may find loud vent. Among curling
circles there is a current anecdote of a well-
known adept at the ' roaring play,' who used
to be distinguished by a remarkable fur cap
which covered not only his head, but his ears.
Appearing one day without this conspicuous
headgear, he was at once questioned by his
friends as to the cause of its disappearance.
'Ay,' said he sadly, 'ye'll never see that cap
again ; it's been the cause o' a dreadfu' acci-
dent' 'Accident!' exclaimed they; 'where?
how? have you been hurt?' 'Weel, I'll no'
just say I've been hurtit. But, ye see, the
laird o' Dumbreck, they tell me, was ahint me,
and he was offerin' me a glass of whisky
and I never heard him 1 '
EFFECTS OF WHISKY 317
Many stories have been told of the efforts of
mistresses of households to avoid the bestowal
of strong drink on those employed by them.
One of these ladies had supplied a workman
with a liberal dinner, but without any whisky
or alcoholic liquor. Coming back she found
that he had proved a much less efficient trencher-
man than she supposed he would be, and she
rallied him on his bad appetite. His reply was :
' Weel, mem, I canna eat mair, but it wad
dae your heart guid to see me drink/
A whole volume might be filled with the
published anecdotes recording in more or less
ludicrous form the effects of whisky. I will
only give one or two, which I have never seen
in print. A man who was wending his way
homeward very unsteadily from a lengthened
carouse was heard to address the whisky inside
of him, ' I could ha' carry it ye easier in a jar.'
The quantity of liquor he had consumed may
be imagined from the size of the vessel he
required to contain it.
Sir Charles Lyell used to tell with great
glee a story from his own county of Forfar,
belonging to the days of deep potations, when
it was the belief that ' drinking largely sobers
us again.' A party had met at a country-
house, and continued their debauch so long
3i 8 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
that the laird, Powrie by name, had fallen
below the table, while most of the other guests
had gone to sleep. Two or three of them,
however, who had managed to evade the
deepest potations, resolved to play off a trick
on the laird. One accordingly climbed up to
the roof of the old mansion and, at the risk of
his neck, reached the chimney of the dining-
room, down which he roared in his loudest
voice, ' Powrie, Powrie, it's the Day o' Judg-
ment ' ; whereupon the laird was heard, by
those outside the door, to raise himself on his
elbow and hiccup out, ' Eh, Lord forgie me,
and me fou'.'
A drunken fellow was found lying at the
side of the road by a policeman, who asked
him for his name. The answer was, ' " My
name is Norval, on the Grampian Hills,"
but Hicks is on the door.'
With the heavy drinking of those days
various connected customs have nearly or
wholly disappeared. One still meets with old-
fashioned gentlemen, especially at public din-
ners, who 'take wine with you.' But the
rounds of toasts and sentiments, that must
have been such an insufferable burden to our
grandfathers and grandmothers, have happily
vanished. One of the oddest survivals of these
AN OLD SCOTTISH TOAST 319
toasts was one I heard proposed by the old
landlady of a little inn not far from the scene
of the Battle of Drumclog. Belonging to the
type of landlord
Who takes his chirping pint and cracks his jokes,
she welcomed her chance guests into her roomy
and clean kitchen, with its bright coal-fire
flanked on either side by an empty arm-chair.
Having to spend a night in her house, I was
invited to one of these chairs, while she took
that on the opposite side of the hearth, and
her family attended to the household work.
Honoured thus far, I knew my duty would be
to call for something ' for the good of the
house,' and soon found that my worthy hos-
tess was not unwilling to partake of my ' brew.'
Accordingly I made her a glass of toddy of
the strength and sweetness she preferred,
which she accepted, with the following pre-
face : ' Here's to a' your fouk an' a' oor fouk,
an' a' the fouk that's been kind to your fouk
an' oor fouk ; an' if a' fouk had aye been as
kind to fouk as your fouk's been to oor fouk,
there wad aye hae been guid fouk i' the warld,
sin' fouk's been fouk.'
The change of dinner customs, however,
has led to whimsical incidents of another kind
320 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
from those of the old days of hard drinking.
A story is told in Forfarshire of an inex-
perienced lad who was improvised to do
duty at a dinner party, and was instructed
by the lady of the house as to what he was
to do with the different wines, particularly as
to the claret, of which one kind was to be
served with the dinner, and the other, of better
quality, with the dessert. When the dessert
came, she was dismayed to hear him begin
at the far end of the table and ask each
guest in a loud voice : ' Port, sherry, or
inferior claaret.'
CHAPTER XII.
SCOTTISH humour in relation to death and the grave. Re-
surrectionists. Tombstone inscriptions. ' Naturals ' in
Scotland. Confused thoughts of second childhood. Belief
in witchcraft Miners and their superstitions. Colliers and
Salters in Scotland were slaves until the end of the eigh-
teenth century. Metal-mining in Scotland.
A NOTABLE feature in Scottish humour is the
frequency with which it deals with death and
the grave. The allusions are sometimes un-
intentionally ludicrous, not infrequently grim
and ghastly. The subject seems to have a
kind of fascination which has affected people
in every walk of life, more especially the lower
ranks. But like most of the national charac-
teristics, this too appears to be on the wane,
and one has to go back for a generation or
two to find the most pregnant illustrations of
it. Dr. Sloan of Ayr, about forty years ago,
told me that a friend of his had gone not long
before to see the parish minister of Craigie,
322 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
near Kilmarnock, and finding him for the
moment engaged, had turned into the church-
yard, where he sauntered past the sexton, who
was at work in digging a grave. As the
clergyman was detained some time, the visitor
walked to and fro along the path, and at length
noticed that the sexton's eyes were pretty con-
stantly fixed on him, to the detriment of the
excavation on which the man should have
been engaged. At last he stopped, and
addressing the gravedigger asked, ' What
the deil are you staring at me for ? You
needna tak' the measure o' me, if that's what
ye're ettlin' at, for we bury at Riccarton.'
Mr. Thomas Stevenson, father of the nove-
list, told me that when the gravedigger of
Monkton was dying his minister came to see
him, and after speaking comfortable words to
him for a while, asked if there was anything
on his mind that he would like to speak out.
The man looked up wistfully and answered,
'Weel, minister, I've put 285 corps in that
kirkyard, and I wuss it had been the Lord's
wull to let me mak up the 300.' l
When Chang, the Chinese giant, was ex-
hibited in Glasgow, an elderly country couple
1 This story is told with variations in the name of the
parish and number of interments.
THE RESURRECTIONISTS 323
went to see him. After gazing long at him,
they retired without making any observation.
At last, as they were going downstairs, the
wife first broke silence with the remark : 'Eh,
Duncan, whatna coffin he wull tak.'
All over Scotland, and more especially in
the lowlands, memorials remain of the time
when graves were opened and coffins were
rifled of their dead, to supply the needs of the
dissecting rooms of the medical schools. In
the middle of the eighteenth century, Shen-
stone, in protesting against this sacrilege,
contended that the bodies of convicted male-
factors should suffice for the needs of the
medical profession
If Paean's sons these horrid rites require,
If Health's fair science be by these refined,
Let guilty convicts, for their use, expire;
And let their breathless corse avail mankind.
But though the bodies of executed murderers
had for two centuries been handed over to
surgeons for dissection, the supply of evil-
doers must have been still too scanty, even
at a time when theft and robbery were capi-
tally punished. The growing success of the
medical schools in Scotland increased the de-
mand for human bodies to such a degree as
to offer strong temptation to the enterprise of
324 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
bold and reckless men. So frequent did viola-
tions of the tomb become as to lead to extra-
ordinary precautions to prevent them. The
graves were protected with heavy iron gratings
securely riveted above them, many of which
may still be seen in the churchyards of Fife
and the Lothians. Watch-houses were like-
wise erected in the burial-grounds to serve as
shelters for the men who in turn every night
took their stations there, with guns loaded, on
the outlook for any midnight marauders. In a
commanding position in the graveyard around
the parish church of Crail, one of these
houses may still be seen, bearing the sugges-
tive record
ERECTED for securing the DEAD
Ann. Dom. MDCCCXXVI.
The trade of the ' resurrection-men ' was
finally destroyed by an Act of Parliament
passed in the year 1832, in consequence of the
murders committed by Burke and Hare in
Edinburgh, and Bishop and Williams in Lon-
don. This measure, by permitting the unclaimed
bodies of paupers, dying in poor-houses, to be
taken for dissection to the medical schools, pro-
vided a supply of subjects which, if not abun-
dant, at least prevented any further violations
of the grave.
TOMBSTONE INSCRIPTIONS 325
Of the monumental inscriptions in Scottish
graveyards various collections have been pub-
lished, and to these many more might be
added. They have seldom any literary excel-
lence, and their chief interest arises from their
oddities of spelling and grammar, and their
conceptions of a future state. As an illustra-
tive example of them, I may cite one from the
kirkyard of Sweetheart Abbey, in the Stewartry
of Kirkcudbright.
Here lyes The body of Alex
ander Houston son of Matthe w
Houston and Jean Milligan in
Parish of New Abbay born
August y e 12 th 1731 died July y e 15 th 1763
Non est mortale quid opto
Farew e ll my obedient Son
of Neighbours well belov'd
and an Exempler Christian
near thirty two remov'd
Farewell a while my parents bot h
Brothers and Sisters all
I'll at the Resurrection day
obey the Trumpets call.
The insertion of a few words of bad Latin
(probably unintelligible to the grieving family),
the farewell to the departed, his farewell in
response, and the sacrifice of grammar to the
exigencies of verse, are characteristic features
326 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
on the gravestones earlier than the beginning
of the last century. Some of these peculiarities
are further illustrated by a more ambitious
piece of versification which I copied from a
tombstone in the churchyard of Berwick-on-
Tweed. Though not strictly within the bounds
of Scotland, the stone lies at least on the north
side of the Tweed, and in its defiance of gram-
matical niceties is not unworthy of the pen of a
northern elegist
1. The peaceful mansions of the dead
Are scattered far and near
But by the stones o'er this yard spread
Seem numerously here
2. A relative far from his home
Mindful of men so just
Reveres this spot inscribes this tomb
And in his God doth trust
3. That he shall pass a righteous life
Leve long for sake of seven
Return in safety to his wife
And meet them both in heaven
4. God bless the souls departed hence
This church without a steeple
' The king the clergy and the good sense
Of all the Berwick people
In connexion with tombstones, I may refer
to the frequently rapid decay of the materials
RAPID DECAY OF TOMBSTONES 327
of which they are made, in such a climate
as that of Scotland. Nearly five-and- twenty
years ago I investigated this subject among
the old graveyards of Edinburgh and other
parts of the country, and found that while
some varieties of hard siliceous sandstone
retain their inscriptions quite sharp at the end
of two centuries, as in the case of Alexander
Henderson's tombstone in Greyfriars Church-
yard, no marble monument, freely exposed to
the elements in a town, will survive in a
legible condition for a single century. As an
example of this disintegration I cited the
handsome monument erected, in that same
churchyard, to the memory of the illustrious
Joseph Black, who died in 1799. It consisted
of a large slab of white marble, let into a
massive framework of sandstone. Less than
eighty years had sufficed to render the in-
scription partly illegible, and the stone, bulging
out in the centre and rent by numerous
cracks, was evidently doomed to early destruc-
tion. Three years ago I returned to see the
condition of the tomb, and then found that
the marble had disappeared entirely, its place
being now taken by a sandstone slab, on
which the authorities had with pious care
copied the original inscription. Here the
328 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
marble, though partially protected by the over-
hanging masonry of the monument and by a
high wall that screened it in some measure
from the western rains, had fallen into irrepar-
able ruin in less than a hundred years.
A curious attitude of mind towards one
who has died, but is still unburied, is shown
by the use of the word 'corp,' which is
popularly supposed to be the singular of
'corpse.' This usage may be illustrated by
an incident told me by the late Henry
Drummond as having occurred in his own
experience. While attending the funeral of a
man with whom he had had no acquaintance,
he enquired of one of the company what em-
ployment the deceased had followed. The
person questioned did not know, but at once
asked his next neighbour, ' I'm sayin', Tarn,
what was the corp to trade ? '
An old couple were exceedingly annoyed
that they had not been invited to the funeral
of one of their friends. At last the good
wife consoled her husband thus : ' Aweel,
never you mind, Tammas, maybe we'll be
haein' a corp o' our ain before lang, and
we'll no ask them.'
A gentleman came to a railway station
where he found a mourning party. Wishing
FUNERALS 329
to be sympathetic, he enquired of one of the
company whether it was a funeral, and re-
ceived the reply : ' We canna exactly ca' it
a funeral, for the corp has missed the railway
connection.'
At a funeral in Glasgow, a stranger who
had taken his seat in one of the mourning
coaches excited the curiosity of the other three
occupants, one of whom at last addressed him,
'Yell be a brither o' the corp?' 'No, I'm
no a brither o' the corp,' was the prompt
reply. ' Weel, then, ye'll be his cousin ? '
'No, I'm no that.' ' No ! then ye'll be at
least a frien' o' the corp ? ' ' No that either.
To tell the truth, I've no been that weel my-
sel', and as my doctor has ordered me some
carriage exercise, I thocht this wad be the
cheapest way to tak' it.'
It has often been remarked how great an
attraction funerals have for some half-witted
people. There used to be one of these poor
creatures in an Ayrshire village, who, when
any one was seriously ill, would from time to
time knock at the door and enquire, ' Is she
ony waur (worse) ? ' his hopes rising at any
relapse, and the consequent prospect of another
interment.
A great change for the better has come
330 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
over the usages connected with burials in
Scotland. In old days, as already mentioned,
the ' lyke-wakes ' were often scenes of shock-
ing licence and debauchery. By degrees these
painful exhibitions have become less and less
objectionable until now, except that there is
still sometimes too liberal a dispensing of
whisky, there is little that can be found fault
with. In country places, where the mourners
have often to come from long distances to
attend a funeral, refreshments of some kind
are perhaps necessary, but it is unfortunate
that the average Scot would think such
refreshments decidedly ' wairsh ' (tasteless) if
they did not include an adequate provision of
the national drink. Accordingly, it is still too
common to think first of seeing that whisky
enough has been obtained, even where the
claims of pedestrians from a distance have not
to be considered. Thus one of the family of
an old dying woman was asked, ' Is your
Auntie still livin' ? ' ' Ay,' was the answer,
'she's no just deid yet; but we've gotten in
the whusky for the funeral.'
I remember the first funeral I saw fifty
years ago in the Highlands. It was in the
old graveyard of Kilchrist, Skye, where a
large company of crofters had gathered from
VILLAGE NATURALS 331
all parts of the parish of Strath. There was
a confused undertone of conversation audible
at a little distance as I passed along the
public road ; and as soon as I came in sight
two or three of the mourners at once made
for me, carrying bottle, glasses, and a plate
of bits of cake. Though I was an entire
stranger to them and to the deceased, I knew
enough of Highland customs and feelings to
be assured that on no account could I be
excused from at least tasting the refreshments.
The halt of a few minutes showed me that
much whisky was being consumed around the
ruined kirk.
In former days most parishes in the country
possessed one or more 'naturals,' whose lives
were embittered by the persecution of the
children, though they might be kindly enough
treated by the elders, whom they amused by
the oddities of their ways and the quaintness of
their expressions. Since the establishment of
the Lunacy Board, however, they have been
mostly drafted into asylums, much to the
increase of the decency of the communities,
though a little of the picturesqueness of village
life has thereby been lost. One of these 'fules'
was seen marching along quickly with a gun
over his shoulder. Its owner knew it not to be
332 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
loaded, but he called out, 'Archie, where are
you going wi' the gun ? You are no' wantin'
to shoot yoursell ? ' ' No,' said he, ' I'm no' jist
gaun to shoot mysell, but I'm gaun to gie my-
sell a deevil o' a fleg (fright).'
Many years ago a half-witted but pawky
attendant, perhaps as much knave as fool, was
a well-known figure at the old inn of Brodick,
in Arran. He was employed in miscellaneous
errands and simple bits of work about the inn
or the farm, such as suited his capacity, and he
was noted for having a specially pronounced
love of brandy. One day he was seen by
two visitors at the hotel, pushing a boat down
the beach and getting the oars ready. They
accosted him and asked where he was bound
for. He answered that he was going across the
bay to Corriegills for a bag or two of potatoes.
Their request to be allowed to accompany
him was all the more willingly complied with,
inasmuch as they at once proposed that they
should pull the oars if he would steer. Sandy
had not much English, but he employed it to
the best of his ability in the hope that it might
be the means of gaining him some of his
favourite liquor. Having crossed the bay, the
boat was pulled towards the large granite
boulder that forms so notable a landmark on
AN ARRAN NATURAL 333
that part of the shore. He directed the atten-
tion of his crew to it, and said :
' D'ye see that muckle stane ? Weel, may-
be ye'll no' be believin' me, but it's the truth
I'm tellin' ye. If onybody wad be climmin'
to the tap o' that stane and wad be roarin'
as loud as he likes, there's naebody can hear
him.'
' Nonsense ; we don't believe a word of it.'
' But I wad wager ye onythin' ye like it's
true. I wad be wagerin' ye a bottle o' brandy,
if ye like.'
' Very well, we'll try. You jump ashore and
get on the stone and roar.'
Sandy with great alacrity sprang out of the
boat, and was speedily on the great grey
boulder. He opened his mouth and swung
his body, as if he were roaring with the strength
of ten bulls of Bashan, until he grew purple in
the face with his apparent efforts to make a
noise. But though he stooped and gesticulated,
he took care that never a sound should escape
from him.
1 Wass you hearin' me ? ' he asked with a
triumphant face when he had come down to
the boat again.
1 You rascal, you never gave a sound.'
4 Ochan, ochan, wass you not seein' that I
334 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
was screamin' till I couldna scream ony more,
whatefer ? '
1 Very extraordinary, to be sure Well, we'll
try ourselves.'
So saying they jumped upon the beach, and,
with rather less agility than Sandy had shown,
clambered up the stone, while he stood beside
the boat When they were both on the top,
they proceeded to shout with such vehemence
that they might have been heard on the other
side of the bay. Sandy, however, as if intent
on hearing the faintest sound, put his hand be-
hind each ear in turn, and bent his head now
to one side, now to the other. When the two
strangers had had enough of this performance,
they came down, and indignantly demanded :
'Well, Sandy, do you mean to tell us that
you did not hear ? '
' Hear ye ! ' said he. ' Wass you roarin' at
all. I was never hearin' wan bit.'
He had a remarkable power of expressing
astonishment by his mere looks, and put on a
face of child-like innocence when he protested
that no sound at all had been heard by him.
Feeling that they had been ' sold ' by this
apparent 'natural,' they left him to fetch his
potatoes and pull the boat back himself. But
he had his brandy that evening.
AYRSHIRE WITCHES 335
Removed into asylums, the village idiots
lose the opportunity of giving expression to
the memorable sayings which free contact with
their kinsfolk and the irritation caused by their
young persecutors used to produce. But even
there their oddity of phrase comes occasionally
forward. My old companion, John Young,
already referred to, used to tell how, when he
was one of the assistant physicians in the
Morningside Asylum at Edinburgh, he was
one morning reading prayers. The weather
being raw and chilly, he had a cough, which
interrupted him at the end of the petition,
' Give us this day our daily bread.' During
the pause, one of the patients, sitting in front
of him, added in an audible voice, ' and butter, ,'
The second childhood of old age among
people who have been sane all their lives some-
times gives rise to confusion of thought and
language such as no half-witted creature can
rival. I knew an old Scottish lady who used
to make curious lapses of this kind. Her
nephew met me one day and said, ' I must give
you auntie's last. She was in bed, and, calling
her maid, said to her : " Jenny, if I'm spared to
be taken away soon, I hope my nephew Thomas
will get the doctor to open my head, and see if
anything canna be done for my hearin'." '
336 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
The belief in witchcraft, though it still main-
tains its hold in the remote districts of the
Highlands and Islands, may be regarded as
practically extinct in the non-Celtic parts of the
country. Yet it flares out now and then in the
lowlands, as if it were still smouldering under-
neath the surface, ready to be awakened once
more when the occasion arises to revive it
Forty years ago, in the valley of the Girvan
Water, there were some old colliers whose
grandmothers had been reputed witches, and
who, though they professed to disbelieve the
report, had evidently a deep-grounded respect
for it One of these men described to me some
of his own experiences in the matter. When
still a lad, he was walking one Sunday evening
along the road near Kilgrammie with a com-
panion and a fox-terrier. The dog had jumped
over a low wall into a field, and they were
attracted by its loud barking. Looking over
the wall they saw that it was chasing a hare,
which, instead of making its escape, seemed to
be enjoying the game, and was racing to and
fro across the field. The two lads soon leapt
over the wall to join in the sport. At last the
hare, tired apparently of the exercise, made for
a low part of the far wall and scrambled over it.
When they got up to the place they were just
A WITCH'S FUNERAL 337
in time to see the animal lie down on the door-
step of his grandmother's cottage, pass both its
paws across its nose, and disappear into the
house. It then flashed upon him that as his
grandmother was believed to be able to take
the shape of a hare, he might really have been
chasing her all the while. He added that he
went home as fast as he could.
Another old woman in the neighbouring
village of Dailly, who had been long bed-ridden,
was at last near her end. On the afternoon of
the day she died, the boys of the place were
busy with their games in the street, when a
hare appeared from the country and tried to
pass them. They at once gave chase, and the
animal retreated along the road by which it had
come. Again, a little later, it returned, and
once more attempted to get into the village,
but was again chased away. A third time,
however, when their game had carried the
boys further along the street, puss was suc-
cessful, and before her enemies could reach
her, gained the outside stair that led up to the
old woman's garret, and disappeared inside the
doorway. The invalid died that evening, and
the hare was believed to be either herself or
one of her accomplices who had come to be
with her at the last.
338 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
Let me try to repeat in the vernacular of
the district the tale told by the grandson
of one of these helpless and harmless old
women. ' My grannie was weel kent to be
no' canny. She had ways of doin' things and
kennin things that naebody could mak oot
At last she deeit, and she behoved to be
buryit i' the Barr, that's a village on the ither
side o' the hills, laigh doon by the Stinchar.
When the funeral day cam', we carry it the
coffin up the steep road, and when we were
gettin' near the tap, and hadna muckle breath
left, for the coffin was nae licht wecht, a fine-
lookin' gentleman, ridin' a fine black horse,
made up to us. Nane o' us kennt him or had
seen him afore. But he rade alangside o' us,
and cracked awa' maist croosely, and cheered us
sae that we gaed scrievin' doon the brae on the
ither side. Weel, you may jalouse we were a
wee bit forfeuchen when we cam' to the kirk-
yard, and some o' us thocht we wadna be the
waur o' bit drappie afore we gaed on wi' the
buryin'. Sae we steppit into the public-hoose.
Weel, ye mauna think we bydeit lang there, but
losh me ! when we cam' oot the coffin wi' my
grannie in't was awa', and sae was the man an'
the black horse. And to this day I canna tell
what cam' ower them.'
COLLIER SUPERSTITIONS 339
Miners are generally a superstitious race.
Their subterranean occupation, with its dark-
ness and its dangers, fosters the inborn human
instinct to credit the supernatural. Hence old
beliefs that have died out in the general com-
munity may still be found lingering among
them. A miner who meets a woman, when he
starts for his work in the morning, will turn
back again, as the day has become unlucky
for him. Any unexpected event in the mine
is sure to awaken all his old-world 'freits.'
If any of his comrades should, by the falling
of part of the roof of the mine, be crushed
to death, he dreads to continue his ordinary
work so long as a corpse remains in the pit,
and will spare himself no labour until he has
tunnelled through the fallen roof. A memor-
able instance of this devotion has been already
alluded to as having taken place in the little
coal-field of Dailly, where one of the miners
was shut off from all communication with man-
kind by the crushing down of the roof between
him and his fellow-workmen. They toiled day
and night to cut a passage through the material,
with the view of reaching and removing his
body, and they found him actually alive, after
being shut up for twenty-three days without
food. He died, however, three days after his
340 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
rescue. 1 Such an incident could not fail to
awaken to life all the dormant superstitions and
fears of the collier mind. For a long time after,
strange sounds and sights were imagined in the
mine.
A more ludicrous recollection of that time
was narrated to me by a survivor of the
tragedy. One of his comrades had returned
unexpectedly from work in the forenoon, and,
to the surprise of his wife, appeared in front
of their cottage. She was in the habit, un-
known to him, of solacing herself in the early
part of the day with a bottle of porter. On
the occasion in question the bottle stood
toasting pleasantly before the fire when the
form of the 'gudeman' came in sight. In a
moment she drove in the cork and thrust the
bottle underneath the blankets of the box-bed,
when he entered, and, seating himself by the fire,
began to light his pipe. In a little while the
warmed porter managed to expel the cork, and
to escape in a series of very ominous gurgles
from underneath the clothes. The poor fellow
ran outside at once, crying 'Anither warning,
Meg! Rin, rin, the house is fa'ing.' But Meg
' kenn'd what was what fu' brawly,' and made
1 The story of this entombment alive is told in my Geological
Sketches at Home and Abroad^ p. 71.
COLLIERS AS SLAVES 341
for the bed, in time to save only the last dregs
of her intended potation.
It is strange to reflect that many people
now alive have known natives of Scotland who
were born slaves. The colliers and salters had,
from time immemorial, been attached for life to
the works in which they were engaged. They
could not legally remove from them, and if they
escaped, could be lawfully pursued, arrested, and
brought back to their proprietors. Their chil-
dren, too, if once employed in any part of their
work, became from that very fact bondsmen
for life. In my own boyhood I have seen old
men and women who were born in such servi-
tude, and worked in the mines of Midlothian.
The women were employed in the pits to carry
up heavy baskets of coals on their backs from
underground to the surface a laborious and
degrading occupation from which they dared
not try to escape.
It is related by Robert Chambers that Bald,
the mining engineer, about the year 1820, came
upon an old miner near Glasgow who had been
actually bartered by his master for a pony.
When the famous decision was made by the
Court of King's Bench in June, 1772, that
slavery could not exist in Great Britain, the
Court hardly realised that at that very moment
342 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
there were hundreds of slaves in Scotland who
were bought and sold as part of the works on
which they and their forbears were employed.
By an act of Parliament of the United King-
dom passed in 1775 (15 George III. cap. 28)
the villainage of colliers and salters was meant
to be finally abolished. The act, which took
effect from ist July of that year, decreed that
all colliers under 2 1 years of age were to be free
in seven years from that date. Those between
21 and 35 were to be released after a further
service of ten years from the date of the act,
and those between 35 and 45 after a service
of seven years, provided that these two classes,
if required, should find and sufficiently instruct
'in the art and mystery of coal-hewing or
making of salt,' an apprentice of at least 18
years, and on the perfection of such instruction,
should then be free from further bondage. All
persons above 45 years of age were to be
discharged in three years.
Nothing could apparently have been more
precise than these stipulations. Unfortunately,
however, they were saddled with a provision
that before any collier or salter could claim the
benefit of the act and gain his freedom, he was
compelled to obtain 'a decree of the Sheriff
Court of the county in which he resides, finding
COLLIER WOMEN UNDERGROUND 343
and declaring that he is entitled unto his free-
dom under the authority of this act.' It may
readily be understood that only a small propor-
tion of the workmen had the means of defraying
the cost of such an action at law. As narrated
in the subsequent act of 1799, there was 'a
general practice among the coal-owners and
lessees of coal, of advancing considerable sums
to their colliers, or for their behoof, much
beyond what the colliers are able to repay ;
which sums are advanced for the purpose of
tempting them to enter into or continue their
engagements, notwithstanding the sums so
advanced are kept up as debts against the
colliers.' Hence, in spite of the legislation,
the provision for emancipation remained a dead
letter in regard to the great majority of the
colliers, who continued to be slaves until their
death. It was not until the act of I3th June,
1799 (39 Geo. III. cap. 56) was passed that
the shackles were finally broken, and the colliers
of Scotland were 'declared to be free from
their servitude.'
But though no longer legally bound to these
collieries, women continued to be employed in
the same laborious and degrading occupation
within the coal mines. Quarter of a century
after the act of emancipation was passed, Hugh
344 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
Miller, when working as a stone-mason at
Niddry, in Midlothian, found the women-toilers
still at their task, and he has left the following
account of them : ' The collier women of the
village, poor over-toiled creatures, who carried
up all the coal from underground on their backs
by a long turnpike stair inserted in one of the
shafts, continued to bear more of the marks of
serfdom than even the men. How these poor
women did labour, and how thoroughly, even at
this time, were they characterised by the slave
nature ! It has been estimated that one of their
ordinary day's work was equal to the carrying
of a hundredweight from the level of the sea to
the top of Ben Lomond. They were marked
by a peculiar type of mouth. It was wide,
open, thick-lipped, projecting equally above and
below. ... I have seen these collier-women
crying like children, when toiling under their
load along the upper rounds of the wooden
stair, and then returning, scarce a minute after,
with the empty creel, singing with glee.' Some
of these women were still at work when, as a
child, I first visited the district. It was not
indeed until loth August, 1842, that the act (5
and 6 Vic. cap. 99) was passed which declared it
to be 'unfit that women and girls should be em-
ployed in any mine or colliery,' and absolutely
COLLIER HUMOUR 345
prohibited any mine-owner from employing or
permitting to be employed underground any
female person whatsoever.
Their mole-like operations underground do
not wholly eradicate a sense of humour in the
colliers. When engaged in a study of the
Borrowstouness coal-field, I had occasion to
see some of the miners at Kinneil House.
One of them remarked to me that they had
lately found ' Mother Eve ' in one of their
pits. I was thereupon shown a large con-
cretionary mass of sandstone, having a rude
resemblance to a human head and bust.
Seeing that this counterfeit presentment of
our first parent did not greatly interest me,
a younger member of the band, with a sly
twinkle in his eye, whispered that besides Eve,
they had found the Serpent, and that he was
sure I should wish to see that. I was then
taken to the back of the house where the
'serpent' lay extended for a length of some
ten or twelve feet. The specimen proved to
be one of the long tree-roots known as Stig-
maria, and common among the fossil vegetation
of the Coal-measures. Not content with having
found the tempter of the Garden of Eden,
the miners had resolved to beautify and pre-
serve his remains, and had accordingly procured
346 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
some black lead with which they had burnished
him up like a well-polished grate. Of greater
interest to me at the time was the remembrance
that this same Kinneil House had been the
retreat of the illustrious Dugald Stewart during
the later years of his life, whence he gave to
the world those essays and dissertations which
mark so notable an epoch in the history of
Scottish philosophy.
Metal-mining, save that of iron, has on the
whole, been unsuccessful in Scotland. The
experience of Lord Breadalbane in this direc-
tion has been that of most proprietors who
have sought to discover 'what earth's low
entrails hold.' The mines of Leadhills and
Wanlockhead are the only examples that have
long been worked, and can still be carried on.
The history of the metal-mining industry in
Scotland is well illustrated by the story told by
Chambers of one of the old lairds of Alva, on
the flanks of the Ochil Hills. Walking one
day with a friend, he pointed to a hole on
the hillside, and said he had taken fifty thou-
sand pounds out of it. A little further on
he came to another excavation, and added,
' I put it all into that hole again.'
CHAPTER XIII.
TOWN-LIFE in old times. Dirtiness of the streets. Clubs.
Hutton and Black in Edinburgh. A feast of snails. Royal
Society Club. Bailies 'gang lowse.' Rothesay fifty years
ago. James Smith of Jordanhill. Fisher-folk of the Forth.
Decay of the Scots language. Receipt for pronouncing
English.
TOWN-LIFE a hundred years ago presented
many contrasts to what it is now in Scotland.
Means of locomotion being comparatively
scanty and also expensive, communication with
England was too serious a matter to be
undertaken by any but those who had plenty
of money or urgent business. And the num-
ber of Englishmen who found their way
north of the Tweed was correspondingly
small. The Scottish towns, too, though con-
nected by lines of road and stage coaches,
were far more cut off from each other than
they have now become, since they have been
linked together by railways. They still to
348 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
some extent continued to be centres, to which
the landed gentry betook themselves for part
of the winter. Hence they retained some
old-world ways and local peculiarities, which
modern intercourse has more or less com-
pletely effaced. They were much smaller in
size and more compact, for the vast acres of
suburban villadom, now surrounding our cities
and larger towns, had hardly begun to come
into existence. They were likewise so much
less populous, that each of them rather
resembled an overgrown family, where every-
body of special note was known more or
less familiarly to the whole community.
There can be little doubt that Scottish
towns were once almost incredibly dirty.
Drainage, in the modern sense of the word,
was unknown. Edinburgh, especially at night,
must have been one of the most evil-smelling
towns in Europe, when with shouts of
' Gardyloo ' the foul water and garbage of each
house were pitched out of the windows. The
streets were thus never decently clean, save
immediately after a heavy rain had swept the
refuse into the central gutter, which then
became the channel of a rapid torrent Laws
had indeed been framed against throwing foul
water from the windows, and Boswell tells us
DIRTINESS OF THE STREETS 349
that in his time the magistrates had taken to
enforce them, but that owing to the want of
covered drains the odour still continued.
When he walked up the Canongate with
Johnson, who had just arrived, he could have
wished his companion 'to be without one of
his five senses on this occasion ; ' for he could
not keep the lexicographer from grumbling,
' I smell you in the dark.' In Byron's youth
the same state of things continued, and he
could still say tauntingly to Jeffrey,
For thee Edina culls her evening sweets,
And showers their odours on thy candid sheets.
The state of the Edinburgh streets in a
snowy winter must have been deplorable.
Sydney Smith, writing from the town in 1799,
after a thaw, remarked that ' except the morn-
ing after the Flood was over, I should doubt
if Edinburgh had ever been dirtier.' By the
time that proper sanitary arrangements came
into practice, the well-to-do citizens had for-
saken their abodes in the high tenements of
the Old Town, and the houses came to be
tenanted by a poorer class. Although the noc-
turnal cascades were prohibited, the refuse was
carried down and deposited in the streets. I
can remember when these thoroughfares were
350 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
still disgustingly odoriferous and unsightly,
until the dustman had been round with his
cart and a perfunctory brush, which seemed
never to find its way into the narrow closes.
The domestic habits of the townsmen were
in many respects less luxurious and more
homely than they are now-a-days, and people
saw more of each other in a friendly unosten-
tatious way. Instead of the modern stiff,
ceremonious dinner party, receding further and
further into the late hours of the evening,
there was the simple and often frugal supper,
the praises of which have been so enthusi-
astically recorded by Cockburn. It was
customary to ask friends, especially strangers,
to breakfast, a usage which still survived in
my youth, especially among the University
Professors. As already mentioned, long after
I had left college, I used to enjoy the break-
fasts given by Pillans, and the company he
gathered round his table for that meal.
The people of an older generation gave
themselves to social intercourse much more
freely and simply than we do now. One
feature of town-life, formerly conspicuous in
Scotland, is now almost gone the multiplica-
tion of convivial clubs. During the seven-
teenth and the early part of the eighteenth
CONVIVIAL CLUBS 351
century, every town in the country had its
clubs, to which the male inhabitants would
adjourn once a week, or even every evening.
In the larger towns these gatherings included
the most intellectual and well-born members
of the community, who met for the discussion
of literary, philosophical or scientific topics, as
well as for free social companionship. But
no doubt in these towns and in the smaller
centres of population throughout the country,
there were many associations which had no
such laudable aims, but fully deserved Butler's
description of them:
The jolly members of a toping club,
Like pipe staves, are but hooped into a tub;
And in a close confederacy link
For nothing else but only to hold drink.
The clubs, whatever might be their object,
did not then number in each case hundreds
of members, most of them unknown to one
another, and frequenting a luxuriously fur-
nished mansion, such as the word club suggests
now, but consisted of mere handfuls of men,
all knowing each other, and meeting in a
tavern. These associations often boasted of
jocular names, which referred to their origin or
customs. Thus, in Edinburgh, the Ante-
manum Club was so named from its members
352 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
declaring their hands of cards before beginning
play, or as has been suggested, because they
'paid their lawing' before they began to con-
sume the liquor. The Pious Club was so
named because it met every night in a pie-
house. The Spendthrift Club received its
title from its members disbursing as much as
fourpence-halfpenny each night. Then there
were the Oyster Club, the Dirty Club, the
Mirror Club, the Friday Club (so called
because they met on Sunday), and many
others. Robert Chambers, in his Traditions
of Edinburgh, has preserved some interesting
reminiscences of these institutions.
Lord Cockburn has left a graphic picture
of a scene in his boyhood when he saw the
Duke of Buccleuch, with a dozen more of
the aristocracy of Midlothian, assembled in the
low-roofed room of a wretched ale-house in
the country, and spending the evening in roar-
ing, laughing, and rapidly pushing round the
claret. As an illustration of the way in which
even the most intellectual members of society
would forsake their own homes for convivial
intercourse in a tavern, the following anecdote
may be given. Among the citizens of Edin-
burgh none were more illustrious than Joseph
Black, the discoverer of carbonic acid, and
AN EDINBURGH CLUB 353
James Hutton, the author of the Theory of
the Earth. These two men, who were inti-
mate friends, and took a keen interest in their
social meetings, were once deputed by a
number of their literary acquaintances to look
out for a suitable meeting-place in which they
might all assemble once a week. The two
philosophers accordingly * sallied out for this
purpose, and seeing on the South Bridge a
sign with the words, " Stewart, Vintner down
stairs," they immediately went into the house
and demanded a sight of their best room,
which was accordingly shown to them, and
which pleased them much. Without further
enquiry the meetings were fixed by them to
be held in this house, and the club assembled
there during the greater part of the winter,
till one evening Dr. Hutton, being rather
late, was surprised, when going in, to see a
whole bevy of well-dressed but somewhat
brazen-faced young ladies brush past him, and
take refuge in an adjoining apartment. He
then for the first time began to think that all
was not right, and communicated his suspicions
to the rest of the company. Next morning the
notable discovery was made, that our amiable
philosophers had introduced their friends to one
of the most disreputable houses in the city.'
354 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
The record of another incident in the close
intercourse of Black and Hutton has been
preserved, and may be inserted here. ' These
attached friends agreed in their opposition to
the usual vulgar prejudices, and frequently
discoursed together upon the absurdity of
many generally received opinions, especially in
regard to diet. On one occasion they had a
disquisition upon the inconveniency of abstain-
ing from feeding on the testaceous creatures of
the land, while those of the sea were considered
as delicacies. Snails, for instance why not
use them as articles of food ? They were well
known to be nutritious and wholesome even
sanative in some cases. The epicures, in olden
time, esteemed as a most delicate treat the
snails fed in the marble quarries of Lucca.
The Italians still hold them in esteem. The
two philosophers, perfectly satisfied that their
countrymen were acting most absurdly in not
making snails an ordinary article of food,
resolved themselves to set an example ; and
accordingly, having procured a number, caused
them to be stewed for dinner. No guests were
invited to the banquet. The snails were in
due season served up ; but, alas ! great is the
difference between theory and practice. So
far from exciting the appetite, the smoking
A DISH OF SNAILS 355
dish acted in a diametrically opposite manner,
and neither party felt much inclination to
partake of its contents. Nevertheless, if they
looked on the snails with disgust, they retained
their awe for each other ; so that each, conceiv-
ing the symptoms of internal revolt to be
peculiar to himself, began with infinite exertion
to swallow, in very small quantities, the mess
which he internally loathed. Dr. Black at
length broke the ice, but in a delicate manner,
as if to sound the opinion of his messmate :
" Doctor," he said in his precise and quiet
manner, " Doctor, do you not think that they
taste a little a very little queer ? " " D
queer ! d queer, indeed ! tak' them awa',
tak' them awa ! " vociferated Dr. Hutton, start-
ing up from the table, and giving full vent to
his feelings of abhorrence.' 1
The most noted survivor of these old social
gatherings in Edinburgh is the ' Royal Society
Club,' to which allusion has already been made.
This association was founded to promote good
fellowship among the fellows of the Royal
Society and to ensure a nucleus for the
evening meetings. The club has from the
beginning been limited in numbers, but has
always included the most distinguished and
1 Kay's Edinburgh Portraits \ vol. i. p. 57.
356 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
'clubbable' of the fellows. It meets in some
hotel on the evenings on which the Society's
meetings are held, and after a pleasant dinner,
with talk and songs, its members adjourn in
time to take their places in the Society's hall.
When N eaves, Maclagan, Blackie, Christison,
and Macnee were present, it will be understood
how joyous such gatherings were. Many a
good song was written for these occasions, and
many an excellent story was told. A favourite
ditty by Maclagan, sung by him with great
effect, ended with the following verse, which
illustrates the delightful mixture of science and
fun with which the professor was wont to
regale us :
Lyon Playfair last winter took up a whole hour
To prove so much mutton is just so much power;
He might have done all that he did twice as well
By an hour of good feeding in Slaney's Hotel ;
And instead of the tables he hung on the wall,
Have referred to the table in this festive hall;
And as for his facts have more clearly got at 'em
From us than from Sappers and Miners at Chatham;
Whilst like jolly good souls
We emptied our bowls,
And so washed down our grub
In a style worth the name,
Wealth, honour, and fame
Of the Royal Society Club.
DISAPPEARANCE OF CONVIVIAL CLUBS 357
Dr. Terrot, Bishop of Edinburgh, and Pro-
fessor Pillans were members of this club. The
bishop used to be a pretty constant attendant
both at the dinners and at the Society's meet-
ings afterwards. Pillans, on the other hand,
while he came to the dinner, shirked the
meeting, the subjects discussed being usually
scientific and not especially intelligible or
interesting to him. He would say to those
who rallied him for his absence, ' I enjoy
the play [meaning the dinner] very much ;
but I can't stand the farce [F.R.S.] that
comes after it.'
The change to modern domestic habits, more
especially the increasing lateness of the dinner
hour, has gradually extinguished most of the
social clubs that used to make so prominent
a feature in the society of the larger towns of
Scotland. An effort was made in Edinburgh
some thirty years ago to start a new club at
which the literary, artistic, and scientific workers
in the city might informally meet and enjoy
each other's company and conversation over a
glass of whisky and water, with a pipe, cigar
or cigarette. Its meetings were fixed for
Saturday evening, so as to avoid, as far as
might be, dinner engagements, which were
less frequently fixed for that than for the
358 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
other evenings of the week. It began with
considerable success, and continued for a
number of years to be a chief centre of culti-
vated intercourse. But it too has now gone
the way of its predecessors.
The proverbial patriotism of a Scot shows
itself not merely in his love of his country.
His attachment binds him still more closely to
his shire, to his town, or even to his parish.
This intense devotion to the natal district could
not be more forcibly illustrated than by the
remark of an Aberdonian who, in a company of
his fellow townsmen met together in Edin-
burgh, appealed to them by asking, ' Tak" awa'
Aberdeen and twal mile round about, an' faure
are ye? 1 There are times and places, how-
ever, where even the most perfervid Scot,
Aberdonian or other, is compelled to be candid.
Another native of the granite city, in his first
visit to London, was taken into St. Paul's
Cathedral. He gazed around for a few
moments in silent astonishment, and at last
exclaimed to the friend who accompanied him,
1 My certy, but this makes a perfect feel (fool)
o' the Kirk o' Foot Dee.'
Local patriotism was fostered by the multi-
plication of clubs, even in small towns. But
in these places also the advance of the modern
PROVOSTS AND BAILIES 359
spirit seems to have destroyed the old club-
life. There remain, however, the trade cor-
porations, or guilds, and the magistracy, which
in the old burghs still form centres round
which much of the life and human interests
of these communities cluster. To be a bailie,
still more to attain to the dignity of provost,
has long been an object of ambition, even in
the most insignificant place, and much schem-
ing and string-pulling continue to be carried on
in order to obtain the coveted position :
For never title yet so mean could prove
But there was eke a mind which did that title love.
The old proverb expresses a truth which
has been time-out-of-mind exemplified in every
burgh in the country : ' Ance a bailie, aye a
bailie ; ance a provost, aye My Lord.' Many
anecdotes have been related of the consequen-
tial airs assumed by local magnates, who have
been as fair game for the caustic remarks
of outsiders as even ministers themselves.
An English traveller on board of a Clyde
steamer, sailing down the firth, got into talk
with a native on deck, who good-naturedly
pointed out the various places of interest along
the coast. When they were passing Largs, the
stranger asked some questions about the town.
360 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
' It seems a nice large place. Have they
magistrates there ? ' ' Ow ay ; they have a
provost and bailies at the Lairgs.' 'And do
these magistrates when they meet wear chains
of office, as they do with us in England ? '
' Chains ! no, no, bless your sowl, they aye
gang lowse.' 1
During the last forty years the steamboat
traffic down the Clyde has so enormously
increased, locomotion is so much easier,
cheaper, and more rapid, that the temptation
to escape from Glasgow to the pleasant shores
of the Firth has grown strong in all classes
of society. Villages on the coast have ac-
cordingly grown into towns, until an almost
continuous row of villas and cottages has
grown up on both sides of the estuary.
Hence, as the older towns have been in-
vaded and increased by a population from
the outside, they have lost most of their
former peculiarities. Rothesay furnishes a
good illustration of this growth and transfor-
mation. I can remember it as a place with an
individuality of its own, when everybody might
be said to know everybody else. But it has
1 There are various versions of this story ; and different
towns are assigned as that to which it refers. I heard it
more than forty years ago in the form given above.
A ROTHESAY WORTHY 361
now become almost a kind of marine suburb of
Glasgow. When I first came to it, one of its
conspicuous inhabitants was known familiarly
as 'the Bishop,' not from any ecclesiastical
office which he filled, but on account of his
somewhat pompous and consequential man-
ner. He was in many respects a worthy man,
glad to take his share in any useful work, and
to be on friendly terms with everybody. One
of his peculiarities consisted in the misuse of
words, and as he had no hesitation about
speaking in public, his mistakes often gave
great amusement. His daughter had been ship-
wrecked, and in referring to her experiences
he declared her to be a 'perfect heron, for
she was the last man to leave the ship.' The
Free Church congregation at Ascog had been
for some time without a pastor. When at last
one was chosen, a soiree was held to celebrate
the event, and the ' Bishop ' was invited to it.
In the speech which he made on the occasion
he congratulated the meeting, and expressed
the hope that ' now that they had got a new
incumbrance, they would have a long time of
prosperity and peace.'
When the parliamentary representation of
Bute was contested by Mr. Boyle, afterwards
Earl of Glasgow, and Mr. Lamont of Knock-
362 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
dhu, the ' Bishop ' acted as one of Mr. Lamont's
committee in Rothesay. The ballot had not
then come into use, and as the result of the
polling in Rothesay, Mr. Lamont at the end of
the day obtained a majority of votes. On the
other hand, Mr. Boyle had an excess of sup-
porters in Cumbrae. All depended on the
result of the voting in Arran, and the arrival of
the steamer from that island was anxiously
awaited. Mr. Lamont's committee were sitting
in their room when at last the news arrived.
The majority in Arran for Mr. Boyle proved to
be so large as to turn the scale, and decide
the election in his favour. The silence of
disappointment hung for a few moments over
the committee. The first man to break it was
the ' Bishop,' who consoled his colleagues with
these words, ' Well, well, what can we say ?
what can we say? but that God always overdoes
everything.' He probably meant 'overrules.'
One of the most familiar objects on the Clyde
and in Rothesay Bay fifty years ago was the
little sailing yacht of James Smith, of Jordan-
hill. During the summer he lived on the water,
and took a share in all that was going on
around him there. As far back as 1839 he was
the first to detect, in the clays along the shores
of the Kyles of Bute, remains of Arctic shells
FISHER HAMLETS 363
which no longer live in our seas, but still
flourish in the north of Norway, and in the
Arctic ocean. When I made his acquaint-
ance, he had long ceased to carry on original
scientific researches, or at least to publish
anything new, but he retained his interest in
the subjects which had early engaged his
attention. In his little cabin he had a shelf
of geological and other scientific books as his
travelling companions, and kept himself in
touch with the progress of enquiry in his own
department. But it was in yachting all round
the Firth of Clyde and its islands that he
found the chief employment and solace of his
old age. I shall treasure as long as I live
the recollection of him in his yacht, attired as
a genuine old seaman, his face ruddy with sun
and sea-air, and beaming with the heartiest
good nature.
On the east side of the kingdom it has long
been noted how tenaciously the fisher folk cling
to their old habits and customs. Red-tiled,
corby-stepped houses, thrusting their gables
into the street, climbing one above another up
the steep slope that rises from the beach, and
crowned by the picturesque old church or town
hall with its quaint spire, give a picturesqueness
to the shores of the Forth such as no other
364 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
part of the coast-line can boast. Then the
little harbours with their fleets of strong fishing
boats, rich brown sails, ' hard coils of cordage,
swarthy fishing nets,' and piles of barrels and
baskets, bear witness to the staple industry of
the inhabitants. The men are square, strongly
built, and bronzed with exposure to sea-air.
The women may be seen sitting in groups at
their doors, mending nets or baiting the lines
for next night's fishing. Such places as St.
Monans, Pittenweem, Anstruther, Crail, and
St. Andrews, afford endless subjects for the
artist, whether he selects the buildings or their
inhabitants. These places lie outside the main
lines of traffic through the country ; they have
only in recent years been connected together by
a line of railway, and have thus been brought
into direct touch with the outer world. Thanks
to this seclusion, they have preserved their
antique character, and their natives are among
the most old-fashioned Scots in the lowlands.
An anecdote told by Dr. Hanna serves to
illustrate the state of backwardness in some
of these coast villages. A clergyman, in the
course of a marriage ceremony at Buckhaven,
repeated several times to the bridegroom the
question whether he would promise to be a
faithful, loving, and indulgent husband, but got
FORTH FISHER-FOLK 365
no response from the man, who remained all
the while stiff and erect. At last a neighbour,
who had learnt a little more of the ways of the
world, was so provoked by the clownishness of
his friend that he came forward, and giving him
a vigorous thump on the back, indignantly ex-
claimed, ' Ye brute, can ye no boo to the mini-
ster ? ' Dr. Chalmers' comment on this scene
was ' the heavings of incipient civilisation ! ' l
On the south side of the Forth the fish-
wives of Newhaven, Fisherrow, and Mussel-
burgh have long been famous for their conser-
vatism in the matter of the picturesque costume
which they wear. Dunbar, once a busy port,
and the centre of an important herring fishery,
used to boast a number of queer oddities
among its sea-faring population. One of these
men would now and then indulge in a prolonged
carouse at the public-house. After perhaps a
day or two thus spent, he would return to his
home, and, standing at the door, would take
off one of his large fisherman's boots, which he
would pitch into the house, with the exclama-
tion, ' Peace or war, Meg ? ' If the good wife
still ' nursed her wrath to keep it warm,' she
would summarily eject the boot into the street.
Whereupon the husband, knowing that this was
1 Life of Chalmers^ iv. p. 462.
366 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
Meg's signal of war, returned to his cronies.
If, on the contrary, the boot was allowed to
remain, he might hope for forgiveness, and
crept quietly into the house.
Another of these Dunbar worthies had
arranged with old Mr. Jeffray, the parish
minister, to have his infant baptised at the
manse. On the evening fixed he duly made his
appearance, but not until after he had fortified
himself for the occasion by sundry applications
to the whisky bottle. When he stood with the
child in his arms, he seemed so unsteady that
the minister solemnly addressed him, 'John, you
are not fit to hold up that child.' The stalwart
sailor, thinking his personal prowess called
in question, indignantly answered, ' Haud up
the bairn, I could fling't ower the kirk,' the
church being the loftiest building and most
prominent landmark in the burgh.
A fisherman from another hamlet in the
same district had found a set of bladders at
sea which he claimed as his property. The
owner of them, however, sued him for restitu-
tion of the property, which bore, in large letters,
P.S.M., the initials of his name and seaport,
as proof of his assertion. The East Lothian
man, nothing daunted, exclaimed loudly to
the presiding bailie, ' Naething o' the kind,
GOLFING HUMOUR 367
sir, P.S. stands for Willie Miller, and M. for
for the Cove.'
These lowland regions of the Lothians and
Fife, with their strips of sand-hills and links
along the shore, have for centuries been the
headquarters of Golf a game which has now
naturalised itself over the whole civilised
globe. Golfing anecdotes are innumerable
and form a group by themselves, of which
only one or two samples may be culled here.
A landed proprietor and his son were
playing at North Berwick when the young
man drove a ball close to his father's head.
The observant caddie remarked quietly to
him, ' Ye maunna kill Pa ! ' and then after a
pause added, ' Maybe ye'll be the eldest son ? '
Strong language appears to be a natural
accompaniment of the game. A laird in try-
ing to get his ball out of a 'bunker' swore
so dreadfully that his caddie threw down the
bundle of clubs on the ground exclaiming,
' Damn it, sir, I wunna carry clubs for a man
that swears like you.'
An English caddie on a links in Kent, who
was listening to a discussion among the players
as to the proper way of spelling the word
'golf,' broke into the conversation with the
remark, 'Surely there's no h'/ in it' (aspirating
368 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the letter in Cockney fashion). ' Is there not ?'
exclaimed a young Scotswoman, ' You should
just hear my father on the St. Andrews links.'
A marked and regrettable change has passed
and is passing over lowland Scotland the
decay of the old national language the Doric
of Burns and Scott. The local accents, indeed,
still remain fairly well-marked. The Aber-
donian is probably as distinguishable as ever
from a Paisley 'body,' and the citizen of Edin-
burgh from his neighbour of Glasgow. But
the old national words have almost all dropped
out of the current vocabulary of the towns.
Even in the country districts, though a good
many remain, they are fast becoming obsolete
and unintelligible to the younger generation.
It is sad to find how small a proportion of the
sons and daughters of middle aged parents in
Scotland can read Burns without constant
reference to the glossary. A similar inevit-
able change was in progress for many centuries
on the south side of the Tweed, though it
has become extremely slow now :
Our sons their fathers' failing language see,
And such as Chaucer is, shall Dryden be.
I can remember men and women in good
society, who if they did not ordinarily speak
pure Scots, at least habitually introduced
HOW TO SPEAK ENGLISH 369
Scots words and phrases, laying emphasis on
them as telling expressions, for which they
knew no English equivalents. I have watched
the gradual vanishing of these national ele-
ments from ordinary conversation, until now
one hardly ever hears them. Lord Cockburn
used to lament the decay of the old speech in
his day ; it has made huge strides since then.
Not only have the old words and phrases
disappeared, but there has arisen an affectation
of what is supposed to be English pronuncia-
tion, which is sometimes irresistibly ludicrous.
The broad, open vowels, the rolling r's and
the strongly aspirated gutturals, so character-
istic of the old tongue, are softened down to a
milk and water lingo, which is only a vulgarised
and debased English. There was unconscious
satire in the answer given by a housemaid to
her mistress who was puzzled to conjecture
how far the girl could be intelligible in London
whence she had returned to Scotland.
'You speak such broad Scotch, Kate, that
I wonder how they could understand you in
London.'
' O but, mam, I aye spak' English there.'
' Did you? And how did you manage that ?'
' O, mam, there's naethin' easier. Ye maun
spit oot a' the r's and gi'e the words a bit
chow in the middle.'
2 A
CHAPTER XIV.
THE Scottish School of Geology. Neptunist and Vulcanist
Controversy. J. D. Forbes. Charles Maclaren. Hugh
Miller. Robert Chambers. W. Haidinger. H. von Dechen.
Ami Boue". The life of a field-geologist. Experiences of
a geologist in the West Highlands. A crofter home in
Skye. The Spar Cave and Coruisk. Night in Loch
Scavaig.
As it has been in pursuit of geological investi-
gation that I have been enabled to see so
much of Scotland, I hope the reader will not
think it inappropriate that a few of the pages
of this volume of reminiscences should be
devoted to some recollections of Scottish
geologists, more especially of those with whom
I have been personally acquainted, and to
some illustrations of my own experiences of
the life of a field-geologist in Scotland. Let
me preface this chapter with a brief refer-
ence to the rise of the Scottish School of
Geology.
THE SCOTTISH SCHOOL OF GEOLOGY 371
The intellectual society for which Edinburgh
was distinguished in the later decades of the
eighteenth and the early years of the nine-
teenth century, besides its brilliant company of
literary men, included also some of the founders
of modern science. To three of these men
reference has already been made Joseph
Black, one of the pioneers of modern chem-
istry; James Hutton, the father of modern
physical geology ; and John Play fair, who first
revealed to the general public the far-reaching
scope of Hutton's philosophy. With these
illustrious men there was likewise associated
Sir James Hall of Dunglass, who introduced
experimental research as a potent method of
testing geological speculation. A striking
characteristic of this group of men was
shown in their indifference to the opinion of
the world outside, and to the making of con-
verts to their views. It was not until some
years after Hutton's death in 1797 that his
teaching was recognised as the initiation of a
new school of thought, which bade fair to
rival or even to supersede that of Werner
at Freiberg, who was then attracting pupils
from all parts of the world. This Scottish
school, inasmuch as it laid great stress on
the importance taken by the internal heat of
372 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the earth in geological history, came to be
known as the Vulcanist.
While these men were at work in Scotland,
by a curious irony of fate one of Werner's
most distinguished pupils returned to Edin-
burgh, and in 1804 was appointed to the Chair
of Natural History in the University there.
Robert Jameson, like the other disciples of
the Saxon teacher, was fired with zeal to
spread the doctrines of his master, and as
these doctrines were diametrically opposed to
those of Hutton, there began a lively contro-
versy which for a number of years had its chief
battlefield in the Scottish metropolis. Werner
claimed that by far the most important part in
the history of the earth had been taken by
water. His system was accordingly known as
the Neptunist It is difficult now to realise
the fierceness of this warfare. The rocks round
Edinburgh were appealed to with equal con-
fidence by both sides, and many a lively
discussion arose upon them. After a good
many years, however, Jameson came to see
that his master's theory offered but a partial
explanation of the phenomena of nature, and
that essentially the Vulcanists were right
He publicly recanted his early opinions, and
the defection of their leading protagonist led
THE SCOTTISH SCHOOL OF GEOLOGY 373
to the extinction of the Scottish Neptunists.
With the dying out of the fires of controversy,
a kind of languor seems to have settled down
upon the progress of geological science in
Scotland. There was no longer an active
resident school of geologists, and though many
Scotsmen had acquired renown as geologists,
it was mainly by work in other countries, rather
than in their own. In an address which he
gave to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in
1862, James David Forbes expressed himself
as follows : ' It is a fact which admits of no
doubt, that the Scottish Geological School,
which once made Edinburgh famous, espe-
cially when the Vulcanist and Neptunian war
raged simultaneously in the hall of this Society
and in the class-rooms of the University,
may almost be said to have been transported
bodily to Burlington House [London]. Rode-
rick Murchison, Charles Lyell, Leonard Horner,
are Scottish names, and the bearers of them
are Scottish in everything save residence. . . .
Our younger men are drafted off as soon as
their acquirements become known. . . . Of all
the changes which have befallen Scottish
science during the last half-century, that which
I most deeply deplore, and at the same time
wonder at, is the progressive decay of our once
374 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
illustrious Geological School. Centralisation
may account for it in part, but not entirely.' 1
Notwithstanding this somewhat gloomy re-
trospect, there were still a few able men in
Scotland, who continued to hold aloft the
torch of geological progress. The illustrious
Principal Forbes himself was widely known to
the geological world for his researches on the
glaciers of the Alps and of Norway, and on
Earth-temperature. As one saw him in the
street or in the class-room, he looked singu-
larly fragile, and it was not easy to realise how
such a seemingly frail body could have under-
gone the physical exertion required for his
notable Alpine ascents. His tall spare figure
might be seen striding from the University
to the rooms of the Royal Society, of which
for many years he was the active Secretary.
His clear brown eyes wore a wistful expres-
sion, and his pale face and sunken cheeks
1 Opening Address to Royal Society of Edinburgh, ist
December, 1862. The distinguished author expresses regret
that a certain feeling of patriotism did not still keep a portion
of the labours of the Scottish geologists for the Transactions of
the Scottish Royal Society, and he makes a kindly and half
prophetic allusion to my own probable removal to London. I
may here say that I never forgot his words> and that I have
considered it a duty as well as a pleasure, even when no longer
resident in Scotland, to send some of the results of my researches
to the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
SCOTTISH GEOLOGISTS 375
showed how his well-chiselled features had
been preyed on by serious illness. Round his
long neck he always wore one of the large
neckcloths then in vogue, and above this, when
out of doors, he carried a thick muffler, from
under which, as one passed him, one might
hear now and then the cough that told of
the malady from which he was suffering. In
his own house, especially when showing some
of the beautifully artistic water-colour draw-
ings which he had made in the course of his
wanderings, the thin, white, almost transparent,
hands told the same tale of suffering. And
yet, in spite of all these visible signs of increas-
ing bodily feebleness, his mind remained to
the last clear and bright, his memory, even
for minute details, perfect, his interest in men
and things, more particularly in scientific pro-
gress, as keen as ever, and his kindly help-
fulness to those whom he could assist as
prompt and effective as of old. He was one
of the most beautiful and interesting person-
alities whom I have ever known.
Two of the ablest resident Scottish geologists
were editors of leading Edinburgh newspapers
Charles Maclaren and Hugh Miller and to
both of them science was the recreation of
such leisure hours as they could snatch from
376 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
literary labour and political controversy.
Maclaren was the founder, and for a quarter
of a century, editor of the Scotsman, from
which, as far back as 1845, he had retired
to spend his later years in a delightful retreat
on the southern outskirts of Edinburgh. His
editorial task had been relieved by many a
pleasant geological excursion among the rocks
around that city, and he had worked out the
volcanic history of the district with a minute-
ness, accuracy, and breadth of view which no
one had attempted before him. After passing
the results of his researches through the
columns of his newspaper, he collected them
into a small volume entitled Geology of Fife
and the Lotkians, which, though little known
to the general reader, has long ago taken its
place among the classics of Scottish geology.
Maclaren had acquired a command of clear,
forcible English, and was a great admirer
of good style in literature. I remember a
conversation with him, in which he enlarged
on the tendency of the age to pile up intensi-
tives in description, both in ordinary conversa-
tion and in writing. The words ' awful ' and
' awfully ' were then beginning to come into
vogue in the familiar slang. He strongly ob-
jected to such tasteless misuse of terms,
HUGH MILLER 377
holding with Pope that expletives give but
a feeble aid in composition. ' Take my ad-
vice,' he said, 'after the experience of a long
life, and be careful to strike out the word
" very " in almost every place where you find
it in your manuscript. You will discover that
this excision will really strengthen your style,
in the same proportion that the frequent
repetition of the word would weaken it.'
Hugh Miller, as editor of the Witness
newspaper, the accredited organ of the Free
Church, was one of the living forces of
Scotland during the last sixteen years of his
life He threw himself with great ardour into
all the controversies, political and ecclesiastical,
of the time, and his articles were read with
eager interest from one end of the country
to the other. His establishment in the edi-
torial chair, however, and the consciousness
of the influence which his pen enabled him
to wield over the minds of his fellow-country-
men, never led him to put into the back-
ground the fact that he had been a journey-
man mason. His appearance on the streets
was certainly most uneditorial. Above the
middle height, strongly built, with broad
shoulders, a shock of sandy hair, large bushy
whiskers, and dressed in rough tweeds, with
378 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
a shepherd's plaid across his shoulder, he
might have been taken for one of the hill-
farmers who, on market days, come to Edin-
burgh from the uplands of the Lothians. He
had the true ' Highlandman's ling' the elastic,
springy and swift step of the mountaineer,
accustomed to traverse shaking bog and rough
moor. As he swung down the North Bridge,
wielding a stout walking stick, looking straight
before him, his eyes apparently fixed on
vacancy and his lips compressed, one could
hardly help turning to look after him and to
wonder what manner of man he could be.
His, however, was a familiar figure on the
line of streets and roads that led from the
Witness office to his home in Portobello. His
fellow citizens were proud of him as one of
their literary lions, who had also made for
himself in science a name which was known
all over the English-speaking world.
To Hugh Miller I owe much, and am glad
of every opportunity of acknowledging my in-
debtedness. His Old Red Sandstone kindled
in me, as it has done in so many others, an
enthusiasm for the science to which he devoted
his leisure hours, and an admiration for the
well of English undefiled to be found in every
page of his writing. He personally encouraged
HUGH MILLER 379
me in my earliest efforts at original observation.
He introduced me to Murchison, and thus
opened the way for my entry into the Geo-
logical Survey.
At the end of each summer we met at his
house to talk over the results of our geological
wanderings. The last note I had from him,
written on gth October, 1856, only a few weeks
before his sudden and tragic end, asked me to
* drop in upon him on the evening of Saturday
first, and have a quiet cup of tea.' He added,
' my explorations this season have been chiefly
in the Pleistocene and the Old Red. I have
now got boreal shells in the very middle of
Scotland, about equally removed from the
eastern and western seas. But the details of
our respective explorations we shall discuss at
our meeting.' That discussion duly took place,
and full of interest it was to me. He displayed
on the table the shells he had gathered, and he
looked forward with keen pleasure to the task
of describing them, and showing the important
bearing they had on the geological history of
the country. It proved to be his last excursion,
as that evening was also the last of our inter-
course, for before the end of the year I followed
him to his resting place, near to his great hero
Chalmers, in the Grange Cemetery.
380 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
Another literary man in Edinburgh who had
also made some interesting contributions to
geology was Robert Chambers. He especially
concerned himself with the later phases of geo-
logical history, more particularly the proofs that
Britain had been overspread with ice, and that
important changes of level had taken place
along the coasts of Scotland and northern
Norway. He was also generally believed to
be the author of the famous Vestiges of
Creation a belief which was fully confirmed
after his death. When he heard that I pur-
posed to become a member of the Geological
Survey he gave me, I remember, an account of
a recent excursion which he had made with a
party of the Survey in North Wales. ' Being
the oldest member of the company,' he said, ' I
was voted into the chair, and had to carve. A
leg of Welsh mutton was placed before me,
from which I was kept supplying the demands
of the geologists, until there was nothing left on
the dish but a bare bone. So if you join the
Survey, my young friend, you must be prepared
for the Development of a portentous appetite.'
The "house of Robert Chambers in Edin-
burgh was one of the chief centres at which
literary and scientific strangers met the intellec-
tual society of the town. He was an excellent
CHAMBERS, FLEMING, NICOL 381
host. His fund of anecdote and reminiscence
went back to near the beginning of the century.
When no more than twenty years of age he
had published a volume illustrative of the
Waverley novels, followed next year by two
volumes of Traditions of Edinburgh, which
astonished Scott, who wondered where the boy
could have picked up all the information.
Besides the geologists here enumerated there
were others contemporary with them who did
good service, but with whom my acquaintance
was too slight to furnish me now with any per-
sonal reminiscences of them. Dr. John Fleming,
author of the well-known Philosophy of Zoology,
was trained as a Wernerian, and never quite
adopted the views of modern geologists. I
remember him as a tall rather grim figure, full
of personal kindness, and gifted with keen
critical power. He seemed never to be happier
than when he had an opportunity of exercising
that power in sarcastically demolishing the
arguments of those to whom he was opposed.
James Nicol, after he became Professor in
Aberdeen in 1853, devoted himself with much
enthusiasm and success to the study of the
Highland rocks, and I only met him occasion-
ally at the meetings of the British Association,
where his tall figure, his abundant sandy-
382 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
coloured hair, and pronounced south-country
accent, made him a prominent personage.
In the early decades of last century a few
students from foreign countries were attracted
to Scotland for the purpose of examining the
rocks, which since the days of the Huttonian
and Wernerian controversy had become famous
on the Continent. In my journeys abroad I
met three of these veterans, each of whom
retained a vivid recollection of his stay in this
country.
W. Haidinger, who was long at the head of
the Austrian Geological Survey and Museum
in Vienna, had established his reputation as an
able mineralogist, and came to Scotland to
study the various cabinets of minerals, public
and private, to be found in the country. When
I saw him in Vienna in 1869, he had retired
from all official duties, and as he sat in his
study, surrounded with his books and papers,
presented a singularly picturesque appearance,
not unlike that in which Faust is usually
represented on the stage before transformation
into youth by Mephistopheles. Enveloped in
a long dressing gown, he sat in an easy chair,
his white beard flowing down his breast, and
his head covered with an equal exuberance of
snowy hair (which, however, was said to be a
HAIDINGER, VON DECHEN, BOUE 383
wig), while his feet were encased in large
warm slippers. He remembered well the
various mineral collections he had studied in
Scotland, and was interested in hearing about
the places he had seen, and the survivors of
the acquaintances he had made.
H. von Dechen came to Scotland in 1827,
and travelled over a good deal of the country,
of which he subsequently gave an account in
one of the German scientific journals. I first
met him in Bonn, where he had a large house
commanding fine views up to the Siebenge-
birge, which he had studied so minutely and
described so carefully. His age, the number
and excellence of his geological writings, and
his friendly interest in the career of younger
men made him the popular Nestor of Prussian
geologists. The last time I met him was in
Berlin on the occasion of the meeting of the
International Geological Congress in 1885, of
which he was president. There was one lady
member present at his address, and the
audience was amused by the formal courtesy
with which he began ' Lady and Gentlemen.'
Ami Boue had an interesting history. He
was descended from a French family which
could trace its pedigree back for some 400
years. In the reign of Louis XIV, his ancestor,
384 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
being Protestant, had to escape from Bordeaux
in a barrel. Bou6 himself was born in Hamburg.
His mother had been educated in Geneva, and
French was the language she used in her
family circle. His early education was also
given in Geneva, but as the French armies had
overrun Europe, and the family property in
Hamburg consisted largely of houses, which
might at any moment be destroyed in the
political convulsions, it was considered desir-
able that Ami should have a profession to fall
back upon, in case of any such catastrophe.
He was accordingly sent to Edinburgh to
study medicine. As he long after remarked
to me, ' I really went to Scotland to escape
from Napoleon.' But although, when Napoleon
was finally crushed at Waterloo, the Hamburg
property was saved, Boue determined to con-
tinue his medical studies and to take his
degree, which he gained in 1817.
During his residence in Scotland he became
greatly interested in geological pursuits, and
travelled over a good deal of the country,
examining its rocks. When he returned to the
Continent, he settled for a time in Paris, where
he wrote his Esquisse Geologique sur C Ecosse
a most valuable treatise which in many respects
was far in advance of its time. Subsequently,
AMI BOUE 385
after wandering over much of Europe, he finally
fixed his home in Austria.
Having occasion in some of my own early
writings to refer appreciatively to Boue's work,
I one day received a letter written in broken
English and in a minute, cramped calligraphy,
the lines slanting obliquely across the page.
To my astonishment the letter bore the signa-
ture Ami Boue. This was the beginning of a
correspondence which lasted up to the time of
his death. I paid him a visit in 1869, and
spent some time with him at his pleasant
country-house on the last spurs of the Alps
near Voslau, where he had planted quinces,
almond-trees, peaches, apples, and vines, and
where I found his recollections of Edinburgh
and Scotland as vivid as if he had only
returned from that region a few years before.
Boue was singular in this respect, that he
never thoroughly mastered any language.
Although French was the tongue that in
early life came most naturally to him, his
French sometimes betrayed his German con-
nections. In German he only acquired fluency
after middle life, when he had settled in
Vienna, and it was in German that all his later
contributions to science were written. English
he never learned to speak or write correctly.
2 6
386 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
But he was rather proud of what he thought
to be his facility in that language, and all his
letters to me, extending over a period of
thirteen years, were written in broken English.
As a specimen of the way in which he ex-
pressed himself, I may quote a sentence from
a letter written by him on 2ist November,
1870, during the calamitous Franco-German
war. ' The dreadful war-pre-occupations did
take me all time for thinking at scientific
matter, and now perhaps that distress will
approach till nearer our abode ! When you
will know that I have very good and near
parents in both armies and you perceive the
possibility of parents killing themselves without
recognizing themselves, nor having the oppor-
tunity to do so, you will understand that I
have often headach when I ride the news-
papers or hear from the quite useless slaughters,
which have been provocated only by those
men at the head of the human society.'
The life of a field-geologist, being spent
to a large extent in the open air, brings him
into contact with various classes of the
people, to whom his occupation is exceedingly
mysterious. They see him marching up and
down the face of a rocky declivity, chipping
the rock here and there, putting the chips
A FIELD-GEOLOGIST 387
up to his eye, scrutinising them narrowly
through his lens, which is popularly supposed
to be an eye-glass for extremely short sight,
then perhaps wrapping them up in paper and
putting them in his pocket, or in a bag slung
across his shoulder. They watch him taking
out a map and marking down something upon
it, or whipping out a note-book and writing
in it, perhaps for so long a time that the
patience of the watchers behind a neighbour-
ing wall or hedge is nearly exhausted, when
off he marches again, or comes back to the
place he started from, as if he had left some-
thing behind him, or had hopelessly lost his
way.
A member of the Geological Survey, whose
daily avocation consists in such pursuits, is
of course specially liable to become the victim
of curiosity and suspicion. He carries his
accoutrements about his person in such a
manner that they do not attract notice, so
that his object and actions become extremely
puzzling to the country people among whom
he has taken quarters for a time. He finds
himself set down now for a postman, now for
a doctor, for a farmer, a cattle dealer, a
travelling showman, a country gentleman, a
gamekeeper, a poacher, an itinerant lecturer,
388 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
a gauger, a clergyman, a playactor, and often
as a generally suspicious character. A member
of the Survey, who afterwards became a
University Professor, received and posted
many a letter entrusted to him in the belief
that he was the authorised bearer of Her
Majesty's mails. Another member, also sub-
sequently Professor, was taken for a policeman
in plain clothes, and could not for some time
make out why a poor woman poured into his
ears a long story about her son, who had
been taken up for something that he had
not done, and did quite unintentionally, and
was quite justified in doing. 1
Gamekeepers are sometimes sorely at a
loss what to make of the Geological Survey
trespasser : afraid to challenge him lest he
prove to be a friend of their master, and yet
afraid to let him go his way for fear he be
on poaching thoughts intent, though the
absence of a visible gun piques their curiosity.
One member of the staff, who had taken up
his quarters in a coast town in Fife, was
watched by the police on suspicion of having
been concerned in a recent burglary. Another
was stalked as a suspect who had been setting
1 This and the next paragraph are taken with some altera-
tions from my Life of A. C. Ramsay.
EXPERIENCES OF GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 389
fire to farm buildings. A third was watched
hammering by himself in the bed of a stream
near Girvan, and as he gave vent to some
strong expression when the obstinate boulder
refused to part with a splinter, the onlooker
on the other side of an adjoining hedge fled
in terror to the village and reported that this
strange man who had come among them was
stark mad, and should not be left to go by
himself. Sometimes the laugh goes distinctly
against the geologist, as in the case of one of
the most distinguished of the staff who, poking
about to see the rocks exposed on the out-
skirts of a village in Cumberland, was greeted
by an old woman as the ' sanitary 'spector.'
He modestly disclaimed the honour, but notic-
ing that the place was very filthy, ventured
to hint that such an official would find some-
thing to do there. And he thereupon began
to enlarge on the evils of accumulating filth,
resulting, among other things, in an unhealthy
and stunted population. His auditor heard
him out, and then, calmly surveying him from
head to foot, remarked : ' Well, young man,
all I have to tell ye is, that the men o' this
place are a deal bigger and stronger and
handsomer nor you.' She bore no malice, for
she offered him a cup of tea, but, like Falstaff,
390 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
he was 'as crestfallen as a dried pear,' and
could not face her any longer.
Professor James Geikie supplies me with the
following record of his experience when he was
on the staff of the Survey : ' One warm sum-
mer day I was laboriously forcing my way up
a narrow ravine or "cleugh" in the hills south
of Colmonel, in Ayrshire. The geology being
somewhat complicated, it was necessary to use
my hammer at almost every step, and for this
purpose I had to keep the bed of the burn
where the rocks were best seen. The cleugh
was not only narrow and steep, but choked in
places with blackthorn, so that progress was
both slow and painful. Being far from the
madding crowd, there was no reason why,
under a broiling sun, I should affect a philo-
sophical coolness which I was far from feeling,
and it is probable, therefore, that from time to
time I may have sought relief by addressing
the obnoxious thorns in vehement language.
At the head of the cleugh I came upon a tall
farmer-looking man, who told me he had been
watching my movements, and wondering who
and what I was. When he heard I was trying
to find out how the world was made, he ex-
pressed no astonishment, but showed keen
interest as I pointed out the evidence of
EXPERIENCES OF GEOLOGISTS 391
glacial work striated rocks, morainic debris,
and large erratics all of which happened to
be well displayed on the hill-side where we
stood. As he seemed really anxious to know
the meaning of the evidence, I explained it
as well as I could, and then we parted A
few weeks afterwards I was dining with an
old friend the late Mr. Cathcart of Knock-
dolian who told me he was quite sure I must
have been recently in his neighbourhood.
" Only yesterday," he said, " I met the old
farmer of G ," who had a strange tale to
tell me. " Dod ! Mr. Caithcart," he began, " I
ran across the queerest body the ither day.
As I was comin' by the head o' the cleugh I
thocht I heard a wheen tinkers quarrellin', but
whan I lookit doon there was jist ae wee stoot
man. Whiles he was chappin' the rocks wi' a
hammer : whiles he was writin' in a book,
whiles fechtin' wi' the thorns, and miscain'
them for a' that was bad. When he cam up
frae the burn, him and me had a long confab.
Dod ! he tell't me a' aboot the stanes, and hoo
they showed that Scotland was ance like
Greenland, smoored in ice. A vary enterteenin'
body, Mr. Caithcart, but an awfu' leear." '
Among my own geological experiences
in Scotland I may mention that on one of
392 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
my excursions, when, with a large party of
my students, I was passing along the sea-
front of a fishing village in Fife, I heard
a stalwart matron ask her gossip at the next
door, ' Whae's audit them ? ' that is, who
owns them, or has charge of them ? She
evidently believed the company to be lunatic
patients, but could not see any one among
their number who seemed to her sane enough
to be probably their keeper.
On another occasion in the same district
I had been engaged for some days in geo-
logical exploration with a colleague, and had
several times come upon a travelling show,
which was slowly making its way through
the country. On entering one of the little
coast-towns we found that we were imme-
diately behind this show, which, with its
cavalcade of waggons, had preceded us by
only a few minutes. The women were still
standing at their doors, making remarks on
the new arrival, when my companion and I
came up. As we passed a couple of them,
we heard the one remark to the other, ' Na
noo, arena thae twa daicent-lookin' chiels to
be play-actin' blackguards ! '
If, fifty years ago, the ongoings of a field-
geologist gave rise to much curiosity and
GEOLOGISTS IN THE HIGHLANDS 393
speculation in the lowlands, it may be imagined
how strange his occupation would seem to the
natives of the Highlands, especially among
the Western Isles, and in districts where little
English was spoken, and where, consequently,
he might be the subject of audible remarks
that he did not understand or could not reply
to. When I first set foot in Skye, most of my
rambles there had geological pursuits as their
aim. The general character and succession of
the rocks of the island had been made known
by Macculloch in his classic Description of
the Western Islands of Scotland. I found
that he was still remembered by some of
the older inhabitants, but less as a geologist
than as a writer who had maligned them.
In his four volumes of letters to Sir Walter
Scott on The Highlands and Western Isles
of Scotland on the whole a somewhat tedious
work, though often amusing and occasionally
even brilliant he had given an account of his
experiences as a traveller and geologist in the
Highlands. This account was angrily resented
by the natives as exaggerated, and even un-
truthful. They had entertained him in their
houses, furnished him with boats, carriages,
men, and other assistance, and he repaid them
by satirising their households and holding their
394 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
manners and customs up to public ridicule.
Old Mackinnon of Corriehatachan was so
indignant that the next time he went to
Glasgow after the publication of the book, he
took the engraved portrait of its author to
a crockery-dealer and commissioned a set of
earthenware with Macculloch's likeness on
each. These articles were distributed over
Skye, and I have been told that some of them
are still to be seen.
Subsequently Skye was visited in 1827 by
Murchison and Sedgwick, who came to Strath.
The familiar anecdote of the geologist who
entrusted his bag of specimens to a lad to
be carried some miles to his inn, and who
found that the bag had been emptied and
refilled with stones picked up near the door,
is told of Hugh Miller, of Sedgwick and of
Murchison. I was assured in Skye that the
trick was played on Macculloch. But to con-
trive to escape from the apparently unneces-
sary fatigue of carrying a heavy bag a long
distance is so natural that we can believe it may
have been carried out with all these worthies.
I heard the anecdote in Skye, from the late
Dr. Donald Mackinnon. But the most circum-
stantial account of it I have met with is that
of Dr. Norman Macleod. ' A shepherd, while
GEOLOGISTS IN THE HIGHLANDS 395
smoking his cutty-pipe at a small Highland
inn, was communicating to another in Gaelic
his experiences of "mad Englishmen," as he
called them. " There was one," said he, " who
once gave me his bag to carry to the inn by a
short cut across the hills, while he walked by
another road. I was wondering myself why it
was so dreadfully heavy, and when I got out
of his sight I was determined to see what was
in it. I opened it, and what do you think it
was ? But I need not ask you to guess, for
you would never find out. It was stones ! "
" Stones ! " exclaimed his companion, opening
his eyes, " Stones ! well, well, that beats all I
ever knew or heard of them ! and did you carry
it ? " " Carry it ! Do you think I was as mad
as himself? No! I emptied them all out, but
I filled the bag again from the cairn near the
house, and gave him good measure for his
money " ! '
Another well-known story to the detriment
of a geologist, is also claimed for Skye. I
was assured that it was Sedgwick, who, when
chipping a rock by the roadside as he went
along on a Sunday, was stopped by a Strath
man with the query, ' Do you know what
you are doing ? ' and, on answering that he
was breaking a stone, was told, 'Ay, you are
396 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
doing mair than that ; you are breakin' the
Sabbath.' But here, again, the remark is so
obvious in a Sabbatarian country that it may
have been made by independent censors on
more occasions than one.
The memory of the visits of these early geo-
logical pioneers had faded away when I came
to Skye. It seemed that no geologist since
their day had been seen in Strath, so that
the appearance of a lad wandering about alone
and, as it looked, aimlessly, with a hammer
in his hand and a bag over his shoulder,
gave rise to much wonderment and conjecture
among the crofters. They knew me by the
name of Gille na Clack, or the ' Lad of the
Stones,' and came in the end to see that I
was harmless. But now and then they would
express their convictions or their pity. Once,
when passing some huts on the shore of Loch
Slapin, I stopped to break off a fragment
from a projecting rock in front of them. As
usual, I looked at the chip with my lens, and,
having satisfied myself as to the nature of the
rock, was resuming my walk, when I heard
two old crones at their doors speaking of me.
I knew very little Gaelic, but I caught up
the emphatic remark that closed the conversa-
tion 'As a cheill.' When I returned to
LIFE ON PABBA 397
Kilbride I asked the tutor of the family the
meaning of the expression, and learnt that
it was, ' He's wrong in the head.'
One of my earliest excursions from Kil-
bride led me to the island of Pabba, which
lies like a flat green meadow in front of
Broadford Bay. Hugh Miller had described
to me its richly fossiliferous Liassic shales,
and I went with the determination to spend
some time on the island, and make a good
collection of its fossils. The only habitation
in the place was one small hut, tenanted by
Charles Mackinnon and his family, who looked
after the cattle sent across from the farm of
Corrie. Coming with the recommendation of
their master, I was cordially welcomed. But
the resources of the island were slender. My
sleeping quarters were a heap of heather in
a corner of the upper floor of a barn, while
for my dining-room I had the use of the
' ben ' or inner room in Charles' hut. The
food consisted chiefly of potatoes, oat-cakes,
milk, and tea, with an occasional herring or an
egg. After a day's work along the shore, I
would spend the evening in the hut, labelling and
wrapping up my specimens, while Mackinnon,
who knew a little English, sat by the side of the
peat fire, and gave me his company. We had
398 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
been engaged in this way for some time the
first evening, when the door opened, and his
wife looked in. After watching me for a few
moments arranging my bits of stone, she made
a remark in Gaelic which drew an angry
reproof from her 'goodman,' who ordered her
to go away. With some difficulty I drew from
him the admission that the poor woman had
only said ' if she wassna kennin' ye had sense,
she wad be thinking ye wass a terrible eediot.'
When it was time to retire for the night,
my hostess would take a live peat between
the tongs in one hand and a candle in the
other, and sally out into the night, then up
an outside stair, without any rail, to my barn,
where she lit the candle, and left me. I shall
never forget the moaning of the wind through
the open louver-boards that served for windows,
the gusts that swept through the place and
nearly blew out the candle, and the shrieking
of the sea-fowl, like the agonised cries of
drowning seamen. But the heather was soft,
the blankets warm, and with youth on one's
side one slept soundly till the morning.
At my departure I pressed my kind host
and hostess to accept remuneration for their
services, but they rejected the notion almost
with indignation. At last Charles was per-
A GEOLOGIST IN SKYE 399
suaded to let me send him some remem-
brance when I got back to the south country.
He said he would prefer a book, and when
asked to choose his book, he timidly enquired
whether he might have l Josaiphus.' Al-
though his knowledge of English was scanty,
he used to read English books aloud to his
children, but I am afraid that much of what
he read must have been unintelligible both to
him and to them. However, I procured and
sent him an illustrated copy of Josefikus,
which, I was told, he used to show with
pride as the largest book on his shelf.
A more distant excursion took me to the
extreme north-eastern part of Skye. After
spending some time on the shore of Loch
Staffin and making a collection of the well-pre-
served fossils to be obtained there, I started
late one afternoon for the hamlet of Lonfern,
in which my friends at the Manse of Snizort,
told me I would get a warm welcome at Mrs.
Nicolson's, if I mentioned that I came from
them. The distance was only a few miles,
but there was much to interest me by the
way, so that the gloaming had set in, and still
no sign could be seen of the hamlet. At last
I came upon a man returning from the hill
with a creel of peats on his back, and asked
400 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
him the path to Lonfern, when a. conversation
ensued, which may here be given as an illus-
tration of crofter inquisitiveness.
' Lonfern ! Are you gaun to Lonfern ? And
where hae ye come frae?'
' I have come this evening from Loch
Staffin.'
' Frae Loch Staffin ! and ye'll be a mar-
chant ? '
'No, I'm not a merchant'
' Not a marchant ! and what is't that ye'll be
carryin' in your bag?'
' My bag is full of stones.'
' Full of stones I Ochan, ochan ! d'ye tell me
that? STONES in your bag. And what wull
ye be doin' wi' the stones ? '
1 Well, I mean to take them south and look
at them all very carefully.'
1 Lookin' at stones ! Well, well ! And have
ye no stones in your ain countrie?'
' O yes, plenty of them ; but they are not
the same as you have in Skye. But will you
not tell me how I am to go to reach Lonfern.'
1 To Lonfern ! Ow ay, to be sure, the way
to Lonfern. But what use are the stones to
you ? '
' Well, I told you, I wished to have samples
of the Skye stones beside me.'
CROFTER INQUISITIVENESS 401
' To think o' a man keepin' stones to look at
them ! But are they worth onythin' ? Can
you make onythin' oot o' them?'
' Yes to me they are worth a great deal, for
they show me what Skye was like long, long
ago. But it is getting dark now, and I really
must push on to Lonfern, if you will point
out the track.'
1 Ay, ay ; well, well, that's queer enough.
To think that ye wud be comin' all the way
frae the south country to pick up a wheen
stanes at Loch Staffin. And I'll warrant the
bag's heavy too. So it is, whatever ' (gently
lifting it from my back).
' Well, my friend, I must say good night, if
you won't help me to find Lonfern.'
' Ow ay, but I wull that. D'ye see thae twa
peat-stacks. Weel then, ye'll be keepin' round
by them to the burn, and ye'll be coming to
the wood plank across the burn, and ye'll cross
over there, and then ye'll be keepin' straught
on by the side o' the dyke, and in a wee while
you will be seein' Lonfern forenenst you.'
' Thank you, thank you, and good night.'
' Gude nicht, and I'm wussin' ye safe hame
wi' that bag.'
I had been told by my Snizort friends that
Jessie Nicolson's cottage could easily be
2C
402 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
found, for it was the largest of the row that
formed the hamlet. But by the time I arrived
there, the darkness had settled down, so that
only by stooping, in order to get the outline
of the roofs against the western sky, could one
judge of the relative size of the huts. At last
I selected what seemed to be the right one,
and knocked at the door. There was no
answer for a time, and while waiting I could
hear, to the left hand, under the same roof,
the heavy breathing and crunching noises of
the cows. After a second knock, the door was
eventually opened, and the figure of an elderly
woman appeared against the faint light of a
candle in the room to the right hand. I asked
if this was Mrs. Nicolson's. Instead of answer-
ing, she began to pass her hand over my
face, neck, and shoulders. Not knowing
whether she might be deaf and dumb, I shouted
out that I had come from the Manse of Snizort
At the sound of these words, she took me by
the arm and almost dragged me into the room
with the light. ' Frae the Manse o' Snizort,
are ye ?' she exclaimed. ' And very welcome
here.' Planting me down by the side of the
peat fire, which she raked together and stacked
up with more fuel, she plied me with ques-
tions as to how they all were at the manse,
A CROFTER HOME IN SKYE 403
and at every additional detail of news, her joy
seemed to increase. By degrees her family of
well-grown sons and daughters began to as-
semble, and to every one I was introduced
afresh as from the Manse of Snizort, and had
to answer a similar round of questions. Mean-
while the old lady, from a handsome brass-
bound chest of drawers (perhaps a marriage
gift from her friends at Snizort) which stood
on one side of the room, took out a tablecloth
of beautiful snow-white linen, and spread it on
the table. One of the sons had come in from
the bay with a fresh salmon, which, cut up
into steaks, formed part of an excellent supper,
enlivened with much talk, wherein the Manse
of Snizort and its inmates played a large part.
In this same room there were two beds, one
of which was spread afresh for me, while the
other was occupied by one of the sons. My
experience among the crofters had accustomed
me to peat-reek, but its pungency this evening
surpassed anything I had previously under-
gone. After the family had retired, and I had
lain down between the soft white sheets, it was
some time before the smarting of the closed
eyelids would allow of sleep.
The architecture of one of these houses is of
the simplest kind. On one side of the door is
404 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the division reserved for the cattle. On the other
is the part occupied by the human inmates,
which in the smallest huts may consist of a
single room. Where there are more rooms
than one, they are joined on to each other, with
only a thin wattled or blanket partition between
them. There is no separate passage, so that
from the innermost room it is necessary to pass
through the others to reach the outside. The
doors between the rooms often consist only of
a blanket hung across the opening, and pushed
aside when one wishes to enter or to leave.
On the morning following my arrival I was
awakened by the footsteps of some one passing
through my room, and noticed a female skirt
disappearing beyond the blanket. In a few
moments the eldest daughter of the house
entered bearing a tray laden with bottles and
glasses, which she brought up to my bedside,
in order that, as she said, I might ' taste some-
thing before I got up.' Not being used to such
a matutinal habit, I declined her offer with my
best thanks. But she grew quite serious over
my refusal, assuring me that my tasting would
give me an appetite. In vain I maintained
that at breakfast time she would see that I
stood in no need of any help of that kind. She
only the more ran over the choice of good
A HIGHLAND BREAKFAST 405
appetising things she had brought me. ' Some
whusky nate? some whusky and wahtter? some
whusky and milk ? some acetates ? ' This last
I conjectured to be a decoction of bitter roots
in whisky, often to be found on Highland
sideboards in the morning. Seeing that a
persistent refusal would have displeased her,
I consented at last to have some milk and
whisky, but I did not discover that the draught
in any way improved my breakfast.
There are few meals in the world more en-
joyable than a true Highland breakfast. It
presupposes, however, good health, a good
digestion, and freedom from the daily visits of
the penny post. The porridge and cream at
the beginning provide a sensible substratum on
which the later viands can be built up. Even
if you confine your efforts to only one or two of
these viands, the variety of the whole table,
redolent of the hillside and the moor, and so
unlike the typical morning repast of ordi-
nary southerners, imparts a sense of plenty
and freedom, and renews the longing to be
out once more in the glen or on the moun-
tain. Christopher North, who more than most
men appreciated the merits of this repast,
used to say, after having made a good meal,
' now is the time to pitch in a few eggs.'
406 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
Johnson, too, who liked good living, admitted
that the Scots, both Lowland and Highland,
excel the English in breakfast. ' If an epi-
cure,' he says, 'could remove by a wish, in
quest of sensual gratification, wherever he had
supped, he would breakfast in Scotland.' 1
The breakfast at Lonfern was worthy of the
supper of the evening before. When I had to
address myself to my journey to Portree those
kindly folk gathered round me with expressions
of the most affectionate interest, as if I had
been an old friend instead of an unknown
stranger. They would not hear of my starting
off by myself. It was a walk of eighteen miles,
they said, and the track was rough, and in
many places not easy to find. Besides, there
was a high cliff on the left hand, and if mist
came on I might fall over into the sea, several
hundred feet below, and there were deep slacks
(ravines) to cross, and many burns which might
be swollen, together with other dangers which
were duly detailed. So one of the sons must
accompany me all the way, and carry my bag.
To refuse the escort would have given offence ;
so we parted with the heartiest good wishes on
both sides, and I had unlocked for companion-
ship through the moors and boggy tracts that
1 Journey of a Tour to the Western Islands ^ 1757, p. 124.
THE SPAR-CAVE 407
lie between the edge of the sea-washed preci-
pices and the steep hillsides of Trotternish.
During my earlier visits to Skye, the Admir-
alty survey of the surrounding seas and coasts
was in progress, under the direction of Captain
Wood, R.N. He used to be a welcome guest
at Kilbride, and he sometimes took the house
party on board his gunboat for a sail down
Loch Slapin. On one of these occasions we
visited the Spar Cave, and, with the help
of the sailors and Bengal lights, we saw
that famous cavern more completely than per-
haps it had ever been seen before. But its
glory was gone. A couple of generations of
Sassenach tourists, aided by the hammers,
candles, and torches of ignorant Celts, had
defaced the place beyond belief, shorn it of
the beauty of its white crystalline pillars, and
left it mangled and smoke-streaked. In the
course of centuries, if left undisturbed, ' Nature,
softening and concealing, and busy with a
hand of healing,' would doubtless repair the
damage. But the ruthless iconoclast should
in the meantime be debarred access to the
grotto, until the ' sweet benefit of time ' has
renewed the former glories of the place.
We went on to Loch Scavaig, landed at
the head of that gloomy fjord, and walked
408 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
over to Coruisk. I have often been there
since, but have never a second time witnessed
a sight which was provided for us by the tars
of the gunboat. As everybody knows, who
has been to this most sombre of Scottish
lakes, the declivities around the water are
dotted over with boulders of all sizes, left
there by the glacier which once filled the
basin of Loch Coruisk and passed down Loch
Scavaig out to sea. Some of these blocks
of stone stand perched in the most perilous
positions, on steep slopes and on the edge
of cliffs, whence from a little distance it seems
as if a mere touch would suffice to send them
bounding into the lake below. Their number
and situation evidently interested the sailors,
who, as a change from their usual boating
and sounding for the marine survey, dashed
off for the nearest hill, along the profile of
which the boulders lay in especial abundance.
We had not noticed at first in which direction
the men moved, when our attention was
attracted by a thundering noise from the hill
in question, followed by a loud splash in the
lake below. The tars had found some of the
perched blocks capable of being moved, and
no doubt they dislodged as many as they
could. But, fortunately for the sake of geolo-
NIGHT AT LOCH SCAVAIG 409
gists, they could not succeed with the larger
and finer boulders, which still remain where
the melting ice allowed them to rest.
In recent years, while the ' Aster ' has been
cruising along these coasts, it has several times
anchored for the night at the head of Loch
Scavaig, and a more impressive anchorage can
hardly be imagined. The precipices on either
side plunge almost perpendicularly into the
water, and mount upwards, crag over crag,
into the far black, splintered crests and pin-
nacles that surround Coruisk. The tints of
sunset flame along these peaks, while the
evening shadows creep slowly upwards, and
deepen into such darkness below that one
cannot tell where land and water meet. The
sea, though tidal, may be motionless as the
calmest lake. The stillness is only broken
by the hoarse roar of the torrents that tumble
in white cascades through rifts in the black
rocks. In the long summer nights the northern
sky remains full of light, and even at mid-
night the striking outlines of the surrounding
mountains stand out sharp and clear against
it. Now and then a sea-gull may circle
slowly past and disappear in the gloom, but
for the most part there is little sign of life
at these hours.
CHAPTER XV.
INFLUENCE of Topography on the people of Scotland. Distri-
bution and ancient antagonism of Celt and Saxon. Caithness
and its grin. Legends and place-names. Popular explana-
tion of boulders. Cliff-portraits. Fairy-stones and supposed
human footprints. Imitative forms of flint. Scottish climate
and its influence on the people. Indifference of the High-
lander to rain. ' Dry rain.' Wind in Scotland. Shakespeare
on the climate of Morayland. Influence of environment on
the Highlander.
IT is impossible to wander with attentive eyes
over Scotland without recognising how power-
fully the topography of the country has con-
trolled the distribution of the races that have
successively peopled it, and how seriously the
combined influences of topography and climate
have come to affect the national temperament
and imagination. As I have elsewhere dis-
cussed this subject, I will only refer briefly to
it here as an appropriate ending to these
chapters of a geologist's reminiscences.
I. First as regards the Topography. Confin-
INFLUENCE OF TOPOGRAPHY 411
ing our attention to the Saxon and Celtic
elements of the population, we can readily see
from the mere form of the ground why the
two races have been distributed as we now
find them. On the west side of the country
the Norse sea-rovers seized upon the islands
and the narrow strips of cultivable land along
the coasts of the mainland. They were
' vikings ' or baysmen, at home on the sea
and unwilling to wander far from its margin.
They had no inducement to quit their har-
bours and surrounding farms in order to
penetrate into the bleak mountainous fast-
nesses of the interior which they left in
possession of the older Celtic people. When
the Norwegian sway came to an end, and
the invaders returned to the cradle of their
race in the north, they left behind them some
of their own stock who had intermarried
with the Gaels, and as a still more enduring
memorial of their presence, abundant Norse
names, which still cling to hamlet, island, pro-
montory, bay, and hill. But the selvage of
coast-line which they had occupied was so
narrow, and the chain of islands lay so near,
that the mountaineers would have little difficulty
in moving down from the high grounds, over-
spreading the Norse settlements, and mingling
412 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
with their inhabitants. The spoken language
of the vikings disappeared, and Gaelic once
more became the native tongue of the whole
district.
On the east side of the country, however,
the conditions were somewhat different. In
that region the mountains here and there retire
so far from the sea as to leave wide stretches
of lowland. On these spaces of comparatively
fertile land the early Teutonic invaders found
more ample room for their settlements. They
accordingly possessed themselves of these tracts
from Caithness southward, along the shores of
the Moray Firth to Aberdeen, and thence
round the eastern end of the Grampian range
into the broad valley of central Scotland.
They seem to have in large measure driven
out the earlier Celtic people who, on this
side of the island also, were left to live as
best they could among the mountains. The
topography which enabled the invaders to
possess themselves of this territory has sufficed
ever since to keep the races apart. Gradually,
indeed, along their mutual boundaries, though
apparently less distinctly than on the West
Coast, they came to intermingle with each
other. But the ancient antagonism between
Celt and Saxon lasted down through the
ANTAGONISM OF CELT AND SAXON 413
centuries, and in an attenuated form almost to
our own day. The Highlander, when he used
to raid the cattle and burn the farms of the
Lowlander, was avenging the wrongs which his
remote ancestors had suffered at the hands of
the hated Sassenach. The Lowlander, on the
other hand, who found himself often powerless
to ward off or revenge these outrages, and had
to pay blackmail to prevent their repetition,
solaced himself by losing no opportunity of ex-
pressing his contempt for his Celtic neighbour.
The word 'Highland' actually came to have an
opprobrious meaning, summing up, as it did,
all the bad qualities of the race to which it
was applied. More particularly, the imperfect
knowledge of English on the part of the
mountaineers, and their slowness or inability
to understand what was said to them in that
language, led their Saxon fellow-countrymen
to the foolish conclusion that this apparent
dullness arose from innate stupidity. The poor
Celts, in their efforts to express themselves in
the language of the Lowlands, naturally made
use of the words they heard there, so that a
Highlander who was warned against doing
what would have been a foolish action, could
innocently exclaim, ' She's no sae tarn Heelan'
to do that.' I can remember in my boyhood,
414 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
being much struck by coming across some sur-
vivals of this use of the word, and of the
feelings of contempt with which it was em-
ployed. There were then many stories current
illustrative of what was thought to be the dense
stolidity and ignorance of the Celts. The type
of conceited Lowlander, so well represented
in Bailie Nicol Jarvie, never realised his own
vulgarity, or recognised the innate gentleman-
liness of even the poorest and least educated
Highlander who had escaped Sassenach con-
tamination. But these misunderstandings have
been buried and forgotten.
Probably the best district of the country for
the purpose of marking the topographical con-
ditions that determined the limits within which
the two races are confined, is to be found on
the east side of Sutherland and Ross, and in
the county of Caithness. To this day these
limits remain fairly well marked. The low
ground forms but a narrow strip along the
coast from the Moray Firth to the Ord. On
that strip, and through the Black Isle to Tar-
bat Ness, the people are Teutonic, but as we
penetrate into the hills, the squalid cabins,
poor crofts, peat reek, and sounds of the Gaelic
tongue, tell unmistakeably that we have entered
upon the domain of the Celt. Caithness offers
THE FLAT OF CAITHNESS 415
one of the most singular pieces of topography
in Scotland. Looking at the map, one would
naturally regard it as a continuation of the
highlands of Sutherland, and expect its popu-
lation to be also Gaelic. But in actual fact,
it belongs not to the mountains, but to the
lowlands, and has been for many centuries in
possession of the Scandinavian stock. It con-
sists of a flat platform or tableland, in places
not more than 100 feet above the sea, into
which it descends in an almost continuous line
of abrupt precipices. The contrast between the
varied and picturesque coast-line and the tame
monotony of the featureless interior is singu-
larly striking, and again, that between the
wide, moory, peat-covered plain, and the bold
Sutherland mountains that spring up from its
border. The names of places over this plain
and along the shore bear witness to the long
occupation of the territory by the descendants
of the Norsemen. But as soon as we enter
the hills, Gaelic names appear, and we find
ourselves among a population that still speaks
Gaelic.
As a consequence of the flatness of the
interior of Caithness, the few roads which cross
the county run for miles in straight lines.
Their rectilinear direction is said to have had
416 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
a curious effect on the physiognomy of the
inhabitants. Two men coming from opposite
quarters recognise each other long before they
can come within speaking distance. A smile
of recognition, however, begins to form itself
on their faces, and this lasts so long, before
they actually meet, that it becomes stereotyped
into a kind of grin, which is alleged to be
characteristic of the most typical natives of
Caithness.
That the topographical features of Scot-
land have influenced the national imagination
is well indicated by the legends and place-
names that have been attached to them. A
deep cleft on a mountain-crest, a bowl-shaped
hollow scooped out of a hillside, a profound
ravine, a conical mound or a group of such
mounds, rising conspicuously above a bare
moorland, a solitary boulder of gigantic size, or
a line of large boulders these and many other
prominent elements in the scenery, alike of the
Lowlands and the Highlands, have arrested
attention from the earliest times. As they
appear so exceptional in the general topo-
graphy, exceptional causes have been sought
to explain them, and they have given rise to
legendary beliefs that have been gradually
interwoven in the mythology and superstition
LEGENDS AND TOPOGRAPHY 417
of the races that have dwelt among them.
That these apparently abnormal features owed
their origin to some form of direct supernatural
agency has been tacitly assumed as their only
possible explanation. Now and then they are
referred to the immediate action of the Deity.
Thus all over the hills and valleys of the south
of Ayrshire, an incredible number of boulders
of grey granite have been scattered. So
abundant are they in some places as, when
seen from a distance, to look like flocks of
sheep, and so distinct are they in form, colour,
and composition from any of the rocks round
about them, that they could not fail to excite
the imagination in trying to account for them.
A stonebreaker who was asked how he sup-
posed they had come to lie where they are,
after a pause gave the following picturesque
explanation, ' Weel ye see, when the Almichtie
flang the warld out, He maun hae putten thae
stanes upon her to keep her steady.'
More usually the popular fancy has fixed
on the Devil, with his copartnery of wizards,
warlocks, witches and carlines, as the authors
of the more singular parts of a landscape. I
have already referred to this aspect of diabolic
agency, and by way of further illustration may
cite here an example of the kind of legend
2D
4i 8 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
which has grown up in all parts of the country.
I was once directed to a shoemaker in the
village of Carnwath as possessing more local
knowledge of his district than anyone else.
By a piece of bad luck for himself, but of good
fortune for me, on the day of my call upon him
the man had so injured a finger that he could
not at the moment continue to ply ;his trade.
He was accordingly delighted to accompany
me over the ground, and point out some of
the changes which it had undergone within his
own memory. A conspicuous feature in the
district was furnished by a number of boul-
ders of dark stone scattered over the surface
between the River Clyde and the Yelping
Craig, about two miles to the east Before
farming operations had reached their present
development there, the number of these blocks
was so much greater than at present that one
place was known familiarly as 'Hell Stanes
Gate ' (road), and another as 'Hell Stanes
Loan.' The tradition runs that Michael Scott,
the famous wizard, had entered into a compact
with the Devil and a band of witches to dam
back the Clyde with masses of stone to be
carried from the Yelping Craig. It was one
of the conditions of such pacts that the name
of the Supreme Being should never on any
WITCHES' CANTRIPS 419
account be mentioned from the beginning to
the end of the transaction. All went well for
a while, some of the stronger carlines having
brought their burden of boulders to within a
few yards from the river, when one of the
younger members of the company, staggering
under the weight of a huge block of green-
stone, exclaimed, ' O Lord ! but I'm tired.'
Instantly every boulder tumbled to the ground,
nor could witch, warlock, or devil move a
single stone one yard further. And there the
blocks had lain for many a long century,
until the modern farmers blasted some of
them with gunpowder to furnish material for
dykes and road-metal, and got rid of others
by tumbling them into holes dug to receive
them.
The shoemaker, however, though he enjoyed
the popular explanation, had got far beyond
the thraldom of old superstition, and had
made some acquaintance with modern science.
When I asked him how he would himself
account for the scattering of these blocks of
stone over the district, he replied at once,
'O, ye ken, they cam on the backs o' the
icebairges,' and he proceeded to give me a
graphic picture of what he supposed must
have been the condition of Clydesdale when
420 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
it lay below an icy sea, across which the
stones were transported and were left where
they now lie.
In many cases the origin of striking local
features is referred to the doings of powerful
witches alone, as in the case of Ailsa Craig,
which is said to be the work of
A witch so strong
That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs.
The legend relates that for some purpose she
designed to carry over a hill to Ireland, and
selected one near Colmonell. Having lifted
it up in her apron, she set off on her broom-
stick through the air, but unfortunately, when
some miles out over the firth, her apron-strings
broke, and the huge mass fell into the water,
where its upper part has projected ever since
as the well-known 'craggy ocean-pyramid.'
In proof of the truth of this tale, the hollow
is pointed out from which the rock was re-
moved.
Even among the minor topographical feat-
ures of the country, the natural play of the
imagination may be seen where the instinctive
feeling for the detection of resemblances has
led to the recognition of so many likenesses to
men and to animals, sometimes obvious, some-
times far-fetched, among the outlines of hills
CLIFF-PORTRAITS 42 1
and crags. This tendency may be seen at
work in every country. Anyone can perceive
the strikingly lion-like aspect of Arthur's Seat,
which seems to sit watching over Edinburgh,
ready to spring at a foe. The profile of Samuel
Johnson's (some say Lord Brougham's) face
and his portly body have long been familiar
on the southern front of Salisbury Crags,
though it seems to me that the mouth is
wider open and the chin hangs a little more
than when I used to admire it as a boy.
The ' tooth of time ' is incessantly gnawing
at all such cliffs, and while some fancied
resemblances are gradually effaced, others are
brought into existence. Travellers up Loch
Carron see in front of them on the summit
of the mountain Fuar Thol a gigantic recum-
bent profile, which from generation to genera-
tion is likened to that of some contemporary
personage. At present it is spoken of as the
face of a well-known politician whose features
are familiar in the pages of Punch. Our
grandchildren will find a likeness in it to some
one of their own time. In the little anchor-
age of the Shiant Isles, the face of one of
the surrounding cliffs presents the outline of
a man in the attitude so often depicted in
the background of Teniers' pictures.
422 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
Further illustration of this universal habit
of mind may be gathered from even the
smaller objects in nature. Children delight to
recognise resemblances in things ; the grown
man learns to detect differences. Yet in re-
gard to things that are unfamiliar, the man's
first instincts are those of the child. He seizes
on the likeness which the newly observed
objects bear to some already known to him,
and he may even go so far as to mistake
similarity for identity. Perhaps in no depart-
ment of nature does this habit of mind manifest
itself more flagrantly than in the mineral
kingdom. People who know little or nothing
of minerals or rocks, readily enough perceive
a resemblance between some pieces of stone
and certain plants, animals or inanimate objects,
with which they at once compare or even
identify them. In the vast majority of cases,
there is no real connection between the stone
and the object which it resembles. The like-
ness is merely accidental and external. Among
the multitudinous shapes which concretions
of mineral matter have assumed, a curious
collection might be made of imitative forms.
The ' fairy stones ' of Scotland, found as
concretions among deposits of clay, present
endless rude figures of manikins, or portions
SUPPOSED ANIMAL FOOTPRINTS 423
of the human body, of fishes, birds, plants,
cannon-balls, snuff-boxes, shoes, and innumer-
able familiar objects. Similar concretions occur
all over the world, and have long attracted
popular notice.
An Orkney laird once wrote to me that
his people, while removing flagstones from
the shore of his island, had made an extra-
ordinary discovery, no less than ' the footprints
of men, women, children and animals/ all
impressed on the solid stone and in excellent
preservation, and he courteously offered to
send me some specimens of these interesting
remains. The identification of the impres-
sions as human relics was of course out of
the question, for the rock that contained them
belonged to the Old Red Sandstone, which
was deposited long before any trace of man
appeared upon the earth. Nevertheless, as
there was just a possibility that among the
specimens, there might be some new fossils,
which might add to our knowledge of the
flora or fauna of that ancient formation, I
asked the proprietor to be good enough to
send a few examples of the * find.' In due
course one or two large boxes arrived con-
taining several hundredweight of stone. But
every one of the specimens was merely the
424 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
cast of a mineral concretion. Yet they were
curiously like footprints. One looked as if a
young man, in going out to a ball, had stepped
with his dress-boot upon soft mud, into
which he had sunk about an inch. Another
seemed as if it might have been made by a
rough-shod farmer, springing from his dog-
cart upon the surface of a muddy pool. There
were prints resembling misshapen female feet,
and one or two might, with a little imagina-
tion, have been taken for prints of infants,
whose fond mothers were trying to make
them stand on a soft clay floor. But not a
single one of them had anything to do with
a human being, or with any fossil plant or
animal.
The flints which lie dispersed through the
chalk, and which are distributed in such pro-
fusion over the surface of parts of the north-
east of Scotland, present many curiously
imitative shapes, either belonging to them
originally, or brought about by the irregular
fracturing and rolling which the stones have
undergone under the sea or on the beds of
rivers. The following letter, written to me
by a workman in the south of England, where
chalk-flints are immensely abundant, and are
largely used for road making and other pur-
IMITATIVE SHAPES IN FLINT 425
poses, may be taken as an illustration of the
popular view of these objects. It is given
verbatim et literatim.
I have a collection of flints In fantistic Shapes of a
human Race such as leg with foot also feet harms legs
Hand with finger also finger skul and other Parts of
Human frame about 50 Pieces weight nearley One hundred
I have also Kelt harrow heds speer heds and set. My
Collection of the Human Race is a splended one and I
dont think they Can be beeten they look as natrel as
the boddy they or far sale and honestly worth a thousand
Pounds I will take a Reasonable Offer for them they are
on View at my House and I should like to find a Home
for them. Faithfully yours, Gravel Thrower.
II. Not less important than the topography
of a country, as a factor in the bodily and
mental development of a people, is the
Climate. Alike in prose and verse the
climates of northern countries have been
abundantly maligned, though it has been
generally allowed that they produce men of
mark both in body and mind. We are told
that the sun ' ripens spirits in cold northern
climes,' and that courage, strength, and endur-
ance may be looked for in people inured to
exertion in these regions. In English litera-
ture the climate of Scotland has naturally
offered a convenient butt for sarcasm and
abuse, coupled occasionally with an admission
426 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
that, at all events, it has fostered a sturdy
race. Waller, in order to enhance his praise
of the doings of Cromwell in Scotland, speaks
of his successes over
A race unconquered, by their clime made bold,
The Caledonians, arm'd with want and cold.
There can be no doubt that most of this
dispraise of the climate has been based on
mere hear-say report, and that where it has
been grounded on actual personal observation
in Scotland, it has generally been the result
of exceedingly brief experience, during short
excursions into the country. It has in large
measure arisen from the confounding of
climate with weather. A man who comes
into a country for a few weeks, and is unlucky
enough to meet with a spell of bad weather
which lasts most of the time of his visit, may
be pardoned if he abuses what he has himself
suffered from, but he has no right to pass
any judgment on the climate of the country.
Climate is the average of all the variations
of weather during a long succession of years,
and cannot be tested by any mere summer
tour. A Scot may fairly claim that his country
can boast of two or three climates, tolerably
well marked off from each other, but all of
SCOTTISH CLIMATES 427
them healthy, and on the whole, not dis-
agreeable. There is the oceanic climate of
the western isles and firths, under which in
sheltered places many flowering shrubs and
evergreens flourish luxuriantly, which can
scarcely be grown elsewhere in the country
save under glass. The eastern climate, being
further removed from the warm Atlantic
waters, and more directly exposed to the chilly
east-wind, is less genial. The central climate
of the mountains is one of greater extremes,
the summer temperature in the valleys being
sometimes high, while the frosts in winter are
often severe, and the snow-rifts remain un-
melted in the shaded corries all the summer.
To these might perhaps be added the Shet-
land climate, characterised by the prevalence
of winds and sea-fogs. The winds are there
fierce, and always more or less laden with
salt from the spindrift of the surrounding
ocean, so that shrubs cannot grow above the
limit of their sheltering wall, and true trees
are not to be seen. The white sea-fogs spread
rapidly over the islands during summer,
and though dense enough to blot out the view,
are not always so thick as wholly to obscure
the sun.
To one accustomed to more southern latitudes
428 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
the chief defect of the Scottish climate is
the want of sunshine. The nimbus Britannicus
spreads too frequently as a grey pall across
the sky. But the native who has been used
to this canopy all his life, and has never seen
the continuous unclouded blue of a southern
clime, manages to enjoy good health, lives
often a long and active life, and resents im-
putations on the meteorology of his country,
though he reserves to himself, especially if
he be a farmer, the privilege of a good
grumble, when no stranger is at hand to
overhear it.
Most people shun a shower, and think
themselves worthy of pity if one should
overtake them when they can find no shelter,
or have no umbrella to protect them. But to
ordinary Highlanders exposure to heavy rain
is a matter of indifference, even if not a source
of real pleasure. On any wet day you may see
these men standing together in pouring rain,
although a shed or other shelter may be close
at hand. They get soaked to the skin, but it
does not seem to do them any harm. In fact,
they say themselves that the wet thickens
the cloth of their raiment and keeps them
warm. And that they are often really warm
is obvious enough when the steam may be
HIGHLANDERS IN RAIN 429
seen rising from them, as if they were drying
themselves before a fire. The only concession
I ever noticed a Highlander make is now
and then to take off his cap, if the water is
trickling from it down his neck, and to wring
the rain out of it before putting it on again.
As an illustration of how strong and persistent
this national trait is, it may be mentioned
that about the middle of the eighteenth
century a Highlander from the forest of Mam
More emigrated to Canada, where after some
years he was visited by an old friend from
Scotland who, when the man was out of the
way, asked his wife and daughters whether
he ever talked of the Highlands. They said
he frequently did so, and though he was fairly
content with his home in the colony, he would
often complain that there was not rain enough.
When a good heavy shower came, he would
go out and stand in it till he was quite
drenched ; and returning into the house,
dripping wet, but with a smile of satisfaction
on his face, he would say, ' What a comfort-
able thing rain is ! ' l
A lady of my acquaintance on the west
coast, to whom I remarked that it was a pity
for ordinary mortals that so much rain fell
1 Burt's Letters^ vol. ii., p. 28.
430 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
there, immediately answered me, ' O, but you
must remember, it is dry rain.' The remark
appears stupidly absurd, but she was an intel-
ligent and observant person, who would not
have made an idiotic statement I learnt
that what she referred to was the rapidity
with which the rain disappeared from the
surface of the ground and from the garments
of those exposed to it. She maintained that,
owing to the more genial climate of the west,
the rain, as it fell, was warmer than on the
east side of the country, and owing to more
rapid evaporation, and perhaps to greater
porousness of the soil, it vanished out of sight
sooner. Certainly from my own experience, I
do not think one catches cold from severe
wetting so readily on the west as on the east
coast.
In the year 1728, Aaron Hill, who is now
chiefly remembered because of his connection
with Pope, became popular in the north of
Scotland owing to the vigorous, but ultimately
unsuccessful efforts, he made to cut and float
down timber on the Spey, for the uses of
the navy. He was entertained by the nobles
and magistrates, and received the freedom of
the town of Inverness. But he must have
happened upon a spell of bad weather, for
WIND AND RAIN 431
when he halted at Berwick he wrote on the
window of the inn the following lines :
Scotland ! thy weather's like a modish wife ;
Thy winds and rains for ever are at strife;
So Termagant a while her thunder tries,
And when she can no longer scold she cries. 1
More trying to the temper than the rain
is the wind that too often sweeps across the
country. Men who have to ' strive with all
the tempest in their teeth,' acquire a certain
compression of the lips and look of deter-
mination which sometimes, by the end of a
long and weather-beaten life, may become
permanent. Edinburgh, built on ridges ex-
posed to the breeze from all quarters, is said
to be distinguished by the ' windy walk ' of
its inhabitants. Ami Boue was struck with the
wall that ran along the middle of the earthen
mound which was thrown across the central
valley, in order to connect the old and the new
town of that city, and he tells us that pedes-
trians chose one or other side of this wall
1 Burt in his Letters says that he found these lines
scribbled on the window with the initials A. H. at the end of
them, and he conjectured them to be Hill's. They were
afterwards included in the poems of that writer, who seems
to have had a passion for thus disfiguring window-panes, for
he has collected a series of his verses ' written on windows
in several parts of the kingdom in a journey to Scotland.'
432 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
according to the quarter from which the con-
tinual and often violent winds blew. ' How
many hats,' he exclaims, 'were lost there in a
year ! I wore out more umbrellas in my four
years of residence in Great Britain than during
all the rest of my life. Macintoshes had not
been invented.' 1
To any one intent on some definite employ-
ment out-of-doors, such as fishing, sketching,
botanising, geological mapping, or any pursuit
where quiet air is necessary, nothing can be
more exasperating than a struggle against the
ceaseless driving of the blast Mere heavy
rain, if it fall straight, can be endured, for it
allows one to stand, to turn round, and if an
umbrella be used, to consult a map or guide-
book. With a furious wind, however, you can
do nothing but
Grow sick, and damn the climate like a lord.
In Scotland, as in other countries having a
variable climate, the weather has long been a
1 From Boue's Autobiography r , which he wrote in French
some time before his death, and printed in Vienna. It abounds
in misprints, over and above those of which he appends a
long list, and reminds one of the French of his Esquisse
Gtologique sur VEcosse. He addressed copies of the work in
his own handwriting to his friends, to be distributed after his
death. Mine was not only inscribed to me inside, but the
postal cover was also addressed by him, and I received it by
post shortly after the news came that he had passed away.
WEATHER SALUTATIONS 433
staple subject with which to introduce a con-
versation. And it is curious that even when
the sky is overcast, with a threatening of rain,
the usual greeting, 'It's a fine day/ may not
infrequently be heard as the beginning of the
colloquy. So inveterate is this habit that the
observation is apt to escape from the lips,
even when the meteorological conditions make
it grotesquely out of place, as in the case of
the man who made use of it on a day of
howling tempest, but immediately corrected
himself: 'It's a fine day,' said he, 'but
coorse.'
Remarks about the weather have been known
to be resented on Sundays as an unbecoming
topic of conversation for that solemn season.
When the usual salutation had been made to
one of the more strait-laced elders, he testily
answered, 'Ay, but whatna a day's this, to be
speakin' about days ? '
Still more gruff was the Aberdonian response
to the ordinary greeting of a stranger on a
country road, ' Ou ay, fae's findin' faut wi' the
day. There's some folk wad fecht wi' a stane
waV
The number of days in a year when an
outdoor walk is impracticable on account of
the weather is in Scotland far smaller than
2 E
434 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
people might imagine. Of course there come
storms of wind and rain that will keep one
a prisoner for a day or so at a time. But
even in these storms there are not infre-
quently lulls, when a brisk walk may be
enjoyed before the tempest begins again. Geo-
logical surveying affords a good test of climate,
and I have found it quite possible to carry
this work on the whole year through. Snow
puts a stop to it, but many winters come
and go without leaving snow on the lowlands
at all, or at least for more than a day or two
altogether.
Those who are familiar with the peculiarly
genial and healthy climate of the southern
shores of the Moray Firth have sometimes
thought that as good an argument as many
that have been brought forward to prove that
Shakespeare visited Scotland, might be based
on the extraordinarily minute and accurate
description which he gives of the climate of
that region.
The air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses. This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve
By his loved mansionry that the heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze,
Buttress nor coign of vantage, but this bird
IRISHMAN AND HIGHLANDER 435
Hath made his bed and procreant cradle;
Where they most breed and haunt I have observed
The air is delicate.
The salubrity of the climate has been
recognised for many years by medical men,
who, as already mentioned, send their patients
from the south of England to these northern
shores.
The most suggestive illustration of the
influence of environment upon the character
of the people is probably to be found in the
Highlands. There can be no doubt that the
Celtic inhabitants of that region belong to the
same stock as those of Ireland. We know,
indeed, as a historical fact, that the south-
western districts of Scotland were actually
peopled from Ireland. Yet no one familiar
with the population of the two countries can
fail to recognise the contrasts which they
present to each other, both in general physique
and in habits and temperament. Neither race
has kept itself pure and unmixed, but in each
case the foreign infusion has been of the
same kind in varying proportions. Norsemen,
Danes, Normans, English, have mingled with
the Celtic stock in both islands. The Irishman,
however, has had the advantage of, on the
whole, a better climate. His country possesses
436 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
far more level ground and a much larger pro-
portion of arable soil. His mountains rise
up for the most part as islands out of a vast
plain, and thus have offered little serious
impediment to the free intercourse of the
people from one end of the island to the
other. Hence he has been able to sow and
reap his crops, and to rear his sheep, cattle
and horses, with comparatively little opposition
from nature. Moreover, he has escaped the
shadow of the Calvinistic gloom. His religion
has not repressed his natural liveliness of tem-
perament. His clergy have not set themselves
to eradicate all his superstitions and usages,
habits and customs, but have allowed these
free play where they were not clearly opposed
to the cause of morality. And thus his gaiety,
if it has not been greatly promoted by the
cheerfulness of his surroundings, has at least
not been always and everywhere dimmed and
chastened by a contest with his environment
for the means of subsistence, save where the
population has increased beyond the capacity
of the ground to support it, nor by a stern
and inquisitorial interference on the part of
his priesthood.
The fate of the Celt in the Highlands has
been far different. There he has found himself
GRIMNESS OF THE HIGHLANDER 437
in a region of mountains too rugged and lofty
for cultivation, save along their bases, and
too continuous to permit easy access from one
district to another, yet not sufficiently im-
passable to prevent the sudden irruption of
some hostile clan of mountaineers, carrying
with it slaughter and spoliation. Shut in
among long, narrow, and deep glens, he has
cultivated their strips of alluvium, but has too
often found the thin stony soil to yield but
a poor return for his labour. For many a
long century he had to defend his flocks and
herds from the wolf, the fox, and the wild
cat. 1 The gloom of his valleys is deepened
by the canopy of cloud which for so large a
part of the year rests upon the mountain-ridges
and cuts off the light and heat of the sun.
Hence his harvests are often thrown into the
late autumn, and in many a season his thin
and scanty crops rot on the ground, leaving
x The last wolf is believed to have been killed in Scotland
about the year 1743 in the forest of Tarnaway, Morayland,
by Macqueen of Pall-a'-Chrocain, a deer-stalker of great
stature and strength (Chambers' Domestic Annals of Scotland,
Vol. III. p. 609). The fox is still common in many districts,
where it is hunted with dogs and rifles. The wild-cat is
becoming scarce, but continues to haunt some of the mountain-
ous tracts of the Highlands. A number of captive individuals
are kept in confinement at the Earl of Seaforth's residence
in Glen Urquhart.
438 SCOTTISH REMINISCENCES
him face to face with starvation and an in-
clement winter. Under these adverse con-
ditions he could hardly fail to become more
or less subdued and grim. But he has likewise
been exposed, more irresistibly than his fellow-
countrymen of the Lowlands, to the mis-
guided solicitude and sombre fanaticism of
kirk-sessions and Presbyteries. His tales, his
legends, and his superstitions have been de-
rided by his ecclesiastical guides as foolish
fables ; his songs, his instrumental music, and
his dances, have been stigmatised as vain and
unworthy exhibitions, his musical instruments
have been broken and burnt His natural
and innocent ebullitions of joy and mirth have
been checked and repressed as unbecoming in
a being who is journeying onward to eternity.
Need it be matter for wonder if under
these various restraining influences the gaiety
which the Highlander doubtless shared origin-
ally with his brother in Ireland, has been in
large measure replaced by a serious sedate-
ness, passing even into depression. When he
chooses to solace himself with music, its sad
cadences seem to re-echo the monotonous
melancholy of the winds that sough past his
roughly-built cot, or howl down his glens and
across his wastes of barren moorland. But
HIGHLAND CHARACTER 439
while the lighter side of his nature has thus
suffered, his higher qualities have probably
been only further fostered and developed. His
struggle with climate and soil has strengthened
in him a spirit of stubborn endurance and self-
reliance, which his moral training has directed
towards praiseworthy ends. This spirit finds
its freest scope in the life of a soldier. In
that career, also, the instincts and traditions
of his race meet with their fullest realisation.
And thus it has come that for more than a
century and a half the British Army has had
no braver or more loyal body of men than
those of the Highland regiments. On many
a hard-fought field, in all parts of the world,
wherever deeds of heroism had to be done,
the pibroch has thrilled and the tartan has
waved in the front.
INDEX.
Aberfoyle, Bailie Nicol Jarvie's
coulter at, 18.
Accent, persistence of local, 368.
Advocates at Scottish Bar, 148,
154.
Ailsa Craig, legendary origin of,
420.
Alexander, Rev. Dr. W. L., 19.
Angling experiences, 288.
Anstruther, 364.
Arctic shells of Kyles of Bute,
362.
Ardnamurchan, Point of, 163.
Argyll, Duke of, 187.
Arran, village ' natural ' in, 332 ;
Parliamentary election in, 362.
'Aster' steam yacht, 248, 255,
282, 284.
Avoch, saint's well in, 112.
Ayrshire ministers, 67, 70 ;
Sabbath observance in, 138 ;
lairds, 190; miners, 116, 313,
336 ; witches, 336.
Bailies in Scotland, 359.
Bald Robert, 341.
Baptismal rites, 68.
Barometer, use of, by farmers,
211.
Barra, 45.
Benbecula, 45.
Berwick-on-Tweed, tombstone
at, 326.
Birkhill, Moffatdale, 300.
Black Isle, 414.
Black, Joseph, tomb of, 327 ;
anecdotes of, 352 ; one of the
scientific lights of Edinburgh,
371-
Black, William, 31.
Blackie, John Stuart, 175, 272.
Boswell, James, 349.
Boue", Ami, 383, 431.
Boulders, explanations of origin
of, 417-
Breadalbane, second Marquis of,
185, 346.
Breakfasts, former sociality of,
350; attractions of, in Scot-
land, 405.
Brodick, 'natural' at, 332.
Buckhaven, 364,
INDEX
441
Burke and Hare, murders by,
324-
' Burning the water,' 288.
Burns, Robert, 116, 144, 368.
Burt's Letters from a Gentleman
in the North of Scotland, 17,
235, 3M, 431-
Bute, volunteer battery on, 64 ;
social changes in, 360.
Butler, S., cited, 125, 297, 351.
Butter, superstitions in making
of, 114.
Byron, cited, 126, 157, 173, 349-
Caithness, 275, 414.
Callernish, standing stones of,
39, 248.
Campbell, Lord Chancellor, 12.
Campbell, Rev. J. Gregorson,
cited, 108, 257.
Canal travelling, 14.
Canna Island, 45 ; a broken leg
in, 162.
Castles in West Highlands, 253.
Catechising in church, 71.
Celtic Church, 40, 60, 108.
Chalmers, Dr., 179, 365, 379.
Chambers, Robert, 173, 341, 346,
352, 380, 437.
Chang, the Chinese giant, 322.
Christison, Sir R., 177.
Churchill, 161.
Clans, dispersion of, 267.
Cleanliness, former want of, in
Scottish inns and towns, 302.
Clergy, influence of, in Scotland,
47, 101, 438.
Clubs, convivial, 350, 358.
Clyde, social changes in district
of, 360.
Cockburn, Henry, 4, 350, 352,
369-
Collier superstitions, 116, 336;
servitude in Scotland, 341 ;
humour, 345.
' Corp,' use of the word, in Scot-
land, 328.
Crail, 324, 364.
Crofter-life in Highlands, 219,
224, 330, 397, 399, 40i.
Cromarty, holy well near, 112.
Cromwell, tradition connected
with, in Lammermuir, 208.
Cullen, Lord, 150.
Culloden, effects of Battle of, 2.
Curling, game of, 218.
Cyclists and inns, 360.
Dalquharran Castle, 193.
Dancing, sinfulness of, 141.
Darlings of Priestlaw, 206.
Death, Scottish humour in re-
lation to, 321.
Dechen, H. von, 383.
Deer, depredations of, in High-
lands, 220.
'Deserts' of the Celtic saints, 41.
Devil, superstitions connected
with the, 114, 417.
' Devilish,' modern use of the
word, 1 1 8.
Dinner customs, 318.
Disruption of the Church of
Scotland, 96.
Dogs, shepherds', 296.
Dolphinton, railways to, 21.
442
INDEX
Drink in Scotland, 303, 310.
Drunkenness, Scottish, 312.
Dryden, cited, 129.
Dunbar, fisher folk of, 365.
Dunvegan Castle, 253.
Edinburgh, stage-coaches from,
8, 10, 13 ; street preaching in,
75 ; Sunday walking in, 126 ;
medical school of, 156 ; Uni-
versity of, 1 66; former dirti-
ness of, 348 ; convivial clubs
of, 35i 355, 357 5 Geology in,
371 ; cliff portrait near, 421 ;
wind of, 431.
Eigg, steamboats to, 31 ; Roman
Catholicism in, 45 ; massacre
of Macdonalds in, 254.
Eviction, a Highland, 225.
Excise officers on English Bor-
der, 304.
Fairies, 108.
Fairs in the Highlands, 233.
Fairy-stones, 422.
Farm-life in the Highlands, 219.
Farm-servants, 215.
Farmers, Lowland, 205.
Faroe Isles, 284.
Fast Day, 139.
Ferries in Highlands, 239.
Field-geologist, experiences of a,
386.
Fisher-folk of Eastern Scotland,
363-
Fisherrow, 365.
Fleming, John, 381.
Flint, imitative shapes in, 424.
Fogs on northern seas, 284, 427.
Footprints, supposed, in rock,
423-
Forbes, James David, 373, 374.
Forth, fisher- towns of the, 363.
Foula, Isle of, 282.
Free Church, influence of, in
Highlands, 141, 261.
Funerals and half-witted folk,
329-
Gaelic in court, 150 ; dying out
of, 268 ; topographical names,
269 ; difficulty of acquiring,
270.
Galloway, inns of, 305.
Gannets, 42, 251.
Geikie, Prof. James, 390.
Geological Survey, 379, 380,
387.
Geology, Scottish school of, 370.
Glasgow, stage-coaches from,
8, 13; medical school of, 156;
a professor at, 168.
Goat in kirk, 89 ; taken for
'Auld Hornie,' 118.
Golf, early attractions of, 122 ;
derived from Scotland, 305,
367 ; anecdotes of, 367.
Grant, Mrs., of Laggan, 9, 234,
237-
Gravediggers, 322.
Gravestones, 325, rapid decay
of, 326.
Grierson of Lag, 197.
Gull, Sir W., i6a
Haidinger, W., 382.
INDEX
443
Hall, Sir James, of Dunglass,
371.
Hanna, Dr., 69, 74, 81, 364.
Harris, Sound of, 252.
Heaven and Hell, influence of
belief in a material, 103.
Hebrides, medical attendance
in, 161 ; scenery of, 248 ;
charm of, 258 ; geologists in,
393-
Henderson, Alexander, tomb of,
327.
Highlander, demureness of, 261 ;
gentlemanliness of, 414 ; dis-
regards rain, 428 ; influence
of environment on, 435.
Highlands, history of roads in,
2, 8 ; songs of, 16, 264 ; rail-
way construction in, 23 ;
steamboats in, 27-36 ; tele-
graph in, 37 ; Celtic Church
in, 40, 60 ; ministers in, 53-66,
74, 80 ; sermon in, 83 ; church-
psalmody in, 92 ; Established
and Free Churches in, 96, 141 ;
Sabbath observance in, 128 ;
dancing in, 141 ; medical
attendance in, 161 ; laziness
in, 234 ; want of manufactures
in, 237 ; ferries and coaches in,
239 ; castles in, 253 ; crusade
against music in, 260, 438 ;
topographical names in, 269 ;
inns of, 306; whisky in, 315 ;
geologists in, 393 ; breakfast
in, 405.
Hill, Aaron, 430.
Horner, Leonard, 174, 373.
Hoy, cliffs of, 277.
Hume's 'Essays,' 155.
Humour, character of Scottish
50, 52.
Hutcheson, David, 29.
Hutton, James, anecdotes of,
353 ; one of the founders of
modem geology, 371.
Idiots in Scotland, 331.
Inns, Scottish, 302.
lona, cathedral of, 44 ; island
of, 244.
Irishman and Highlander com-
pared, 435.
Jameson, Robert, 372.
Jeffrey, Francis, 349.
Johnson, Samuel, 349, 406.
Jura, unburied skeleton in, 255 ;
caves of, 256 ; laird of, 257.
Jury-trial in Scotland, 145.
Kennedy, T. F., of Dunure, 10,
190.
Knox, Robert, 157.
Lady of the Lake, influence of,
1 6.
Lairds, Scottish, 185.
Lammermuir, 206.
Landed proprietors, 185.
Law, Scottish fondness for, 142.
Legends connected with topo-
graphy, 416.
Lesmahagow, 99.
Lewis, Isle of, 248.
Litigiousness of Scotsmen, 142.
444
INDEX
Loch Alsh, 63.
Carron, 421.
Coruisk, 408.
Duich, 62.
Katrine in 1843, 15 ; in
1810, 16.
Lomond, first steamboats
on, 15 ; ferry on, 16.
Maree, in.
Roag, 248.
Scavaig, 407, 409.
Striven, 64.
London, travelling to, 9, 10.
Lyell, Sir Charles, 317, 373.
Lyke-wakes, 124, 330.
Lyndsay, Sir David, 142.
Macculloch, John, 393.
Macintoshes and Macgregors,
268.
Mackinnon of Corriehatachan,
394-
Mackinnon, Rev. John,of Strath,
53, 96, 219.
Maclagan, Sir D., 177, 356.
Maclaren, Charles, 375.
Macleod, Dr. Norman, 9, 165,
394-
Macnee, Sir D., 145.
Maconochie \Velwood, Allan,
1 68.
Macrae, Rev. Mr., of Glenelg,
61.
Mania, religious, 105.
Manses of the Highlands, 57.
Marble, rapid open-air decay of,
327-
Martin's Western Islands^ \ 10.
Medical profession in Scotland
156.
Metal-mining, 346.
Miller, Hugh, on women colliers,
344 ; references to, 375, 377,
394, 397;
Mineral-oil, consequences of
introduction of, 266.
Minister's ' man,' 97.
Ministers, Scottish, 47, 48, 53-76,
77-106.
Moffatdale, 300.
Moray, climate of, 160, 434.
Mull, steamboats to, 33.
Murchison, Sir R. I., 129-186,
39, 373, 379, 394-
Murray, Lord, 192.
Music, instrumental, in Scottish
kirks, 94 ; in the Highlands,
263, 438.
Musselburgh, 365.
'Naturals' in Scottish villages,
33i.
Neaves, Lord, 139, 151.
Neptunist School of Geology,
372.
Newhaven, 365.
Nicol, James, 381.
North Berwick Links, 367.
North, Christopher, 405.
Norsemen in Scotland, 411.
Ochil Hills, metal-mining in,
346.
Old Red Sandstone, supposed
footprints in, 423.
Orkney Islands, 274.
INDEX
445
Pabba island, 397.
Paganism, traces of, in Scotland,
38, 107.
Palmer's Stage-coaches, 12.
Papa Stour, 279.
Parish-visiting by Scottish
ministers, 98.
Parliamentary election in Bute,
361.
Patriotism, Scottish, 358.
Peach, Mr. B. N., 275.
Peat, time for cutting, 114.
Physiognomy affected by topo-
graphy, 415.
Pig, prejudice against, in High-
lands, 114.
Pillans, Professor, 173, 350, 357.
Pine-candles and torches, 266.
Pittenweem, 364.
Playfair, Lord, 139, 178, 356.
Popery, Scottish abhorrence of,
95-
Posting in Scotland, 9.
Precentors, 92.
Provosts, Scottish, 359.
Publican, Irish, in Scotland,
31 i.
Queensferry, South, 100.
Raasay, isle of, 93, 227.
Railways in Scotland, 15, 20-27.
Rain in Scotland, 428.
Resurrectionists, 323.
Roads in Scotland, history of,
2,8.
Robertson, Patrick, 148.
Rodil, church of, 44, 252.
Roman Catholicism in Scotland,
45,111.
Rothesay, growth of, 360.
Royal Society Club (Edinburgh),
176, 355-
Rutherford Clark, Lord, 153.
Sabbath observance, history of,
119; illustrations of, 126.
St. Andrews, Celtic church at,
44 ; Kirk Session Register of,
121 ; professor at, 167; fisher
part of, 364.
St. Kilda, 250.
St. Monans, 364.
St. Vigeans, 45. .
Saints' wells, in.
Salmon, a la mode, 290.
Salters, formerly slaves, 341.
Sanday Island, 46.
Saxon element, cause of distri-
bution of, in population of
Scotland, 411.
Schoolmasters in Scotland, 180.
Scots drink, 303.
Scots language, decay of, 368.
Scotsman newspaper, founded
by Charles Maclaren, 376.
Scott, Michael, and witches,
418.
Scott, Walter, his influence on
the tourist traffic in Scotland,
16 ; his fiction characters, 143,
238, 302 ; his repartee on
Patrick Robertson, 148.
Sculptured Stones, 44.
Sedgwick, Adam, 394, 395.
Sermons in Scottish kirks, 77.
446
INDEX
Shakespeare and the climate of
Moray, 434.
Sheep-stealing, 232.
Shenstone, cited, 323.
Shepherds, 294.
Shetland Isles, 274, 279, 427.
Shiant Isles, 421.
Shiels, Tibbie, 299.
Skye, in 1773, 2 ^ ; communica-
tion with, 29, 31, 36 ; ministers
in, 53-64 ; Disruption in, 96 ;
fairies in, 108 ; superstitions
in, 112; Sabbath observance
in 133; farm-life in, 219;
crofters of, 224, 397 ; an evic-
tion in, 225 ; fairs in, 233;
place-names in, 269 ; old inns
of, 306 ; funeral in, 330 ; geo-
logists in, 393, 395, 396.
Slaves, Scottish, 341.
Sleeping in church, 85.
Smith, James, of Jordanhill, 362.
Smith, Sydney, 302, 349.
Snails, a dish of, 354.
Snow-storm in Southern Up-
lands, 299.
South Uist, 45.
Southern Uplands, reminiscen-
ces of, 294-302.
Spain, insurrection in, 169.
Spar Cave, 407.
Speldings and drink, 304.
Springs, superstitions connected
with, in.
Staffa, 246.
Stage-coaches in Scotland, 8,
10.
Standing Stones, 39, 108, 248.
Steamboats on Scottish lakes,
15 ; to London, 18 ; in West
Highlands, 27-36.
Stewart, Dugald, 346.
Stories, perennial reappearance
of Scottish, 86, 292.
Story, Principal, 88.
Street-preachers, 74.
Stroma, Isle of, 275.
Sula Sgeir, islet of, 41.
Superstition in Scotland, 107-
119,416.
Supper, former importance of,
350-
Sutherland, Sabbath observance
in, 131.
Sweetheart Abbey, 325.
Tait, Prof. P. G., 180.
Talla, valley of the, 294, 298.
Terrot, Bishop, 357.
Thorn, Rev. Mr., of Govan, 86.
Tippeny, 303.
Toasts, Scottish, 318.
Tombstone inscriptions, 325.
Topographical features, influ-
ence of, on population of Scot-
land, 410 ; legends suggested
by, 416.
Town-life in Scotland, 347.
Towns, former condition of
Scottish, 347.
Travel, former modes of, in
Scotland, 8.
Trossachs, 15, 17.
Trout in a Skye well, 1 10.
Universities, changes in the, 165
INDEX
447
University professors, 159.
Unst Lighthouse, 283.
Victoria, Queen, and Sabbath
observance, 136.
Vulcanist School of Geology, 372.
Waller, quoted, 426.
Water-bull, 113.
Water-horse, 113.
Weather and climate, difference
between, 426 ; anecdotes con-
nected with, 432.
Wells, holy, in.
Werner, A. G., 371, 372.
Western Isles. See Hebrides.
Whisky and law-pleas, 144 j and
interments, 165, 330 ; potency
of, 285, 313 ; modern increase
in consumption of, 303, 305 ;
before breakfast, 405.
Witches, 115, 336.
Witnesses, Scottish, 150.
Wolf in the Highlands, 292, 437.
Women in Scottish coal-mines,
341, 343-
Women's work in the Highlands,
235-
Wood, Long Sandy, 157.
Writers to the Signet, 154.
Yarrow, valley of the, 299.
Young, Professor John, 298, 335.
OI.ASOOW: PRINTED AT TH UNIVERSITY PRKSS BY ROBBRT MACLEHOM AWB oo. LTD.
DA 818 .645 1908
SMC
Geikie, Archibald, Sir,
1835-1924.
Scottish reminiscences /
BBT-0214 (sk)
