r ..' ;• it
m
Presented to the
LIBRARY of the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
by
DR. MARION ROSS
MCIAN'S HIGHLANDERS AT HOME
M c I A N ' S
HIGHLANDERS AT
GAELIC GAI M I *- f > V:
TWENTY-FOUR COLOURED IL
WITH D»SCRlim
J A V fi i»
•
SON
MCIAN'S
i
HIGHLANDERS AT HOME
OR
GAELIC GATHERINGS
TWENTY-FOUR COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS
WITH DESCRIPTIVE LETTERPRESS BY
JAMES LOGAN
THE ORIGINAL WORK
IN ONE LARGE FOLIO VOLUME
IS GIVEN HERE COMPLETE AND UNALTERED
FURTHER THAN BEING REDUCED IN SIZE PROPERLY
PAGED AND INDEXED FOR EASY REFERENCE
WITH SUITABLE TAIL-PIECE
ILLUSTRATIONS
GLASGOW
DAVID BRYCE AND SON
NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
MCM
LARGE LUCKENBOOTH BROOCH OF SILVER AND STONES.
GAELIC GATHERINGS;
THE HIGHLANDERS AT HOMfi, ON THE HEATH, THE RIVEB, AND THE
ft Jbrrittf of ftdtfUf 3)utf tr9tma
aaum u THKIR SOCIAL ntnoTirasTs, ram STOSTS,
000010, ruxTOKa M/UIB EznmiLT ro» THM won.
BY R R M'lAN, ESQ.
Tim BSKurrm UTTZB-PKBM,
BY JAMES LOGAN, ESQ^ F.S.A, SO,
1CKEKMANN AND CO, STRAND. 1S48.
QUAICH OF EBONY AND IVORY.
HOOFED WITH SILVER. Said to have belonged to Prince Charles Edward.
TO
THE SOCIETIES ASSOCIATED FOB THE PBO1COTION OF THE NATIONAL MANNER) AND CUSTOMS,
AND THOSE "WHO PATROXISE
THE 8POET8. PASTIMES, AND PEIMITIVE OBSERVANCES, OP THE OAEL,
ARE INSCRIBED, WITH RESPECT AND GRATITUDE,
BY THEIR OBEDIENT SERVANTS,
THE PUBLISHERS.
BROOCH OP BRASS, 3} inch dia.
10
List of Coloured Illustrations
Carrying Fern, Threshing Corn, . Drovers,
The Hand-Mill, . Girls Washing, Highland Foot Post, Highland Shepherd, Going to School, . Gillies with Game, Gathering Dulse, . Wool-Carding, Angling, Deer-Stalking, Spinning with the Distaff, Herring Fishery, . Robbing an Eagle's Nest, Fording a River, . Spearing Salmon, . Whiskey Still, Throwing the Stone, Mac Phee, the Outlaw,. Signal for the Boat, Gille Calum, Carrying Peat,
Tail-Piece Illustrations
Lochaber Axes,
Large Luckenbooth Brooch, .
Quaich of Ebony and Ivory, .
Brooch of Brass,
Spade of Oak,
Cruisie or Oil Lamp,
Harris Pottery,
Steel Strike Lights,
Target used by Prince Charlie,
Ornamented Pins, .
Brass Cooking Pot,
PAGE
2
6
8
10
ii
21 . 22, 51, 241
42, 81, 91, 101, no 6l
62 82
Powder Horn, 1672, 102
Circular Silver Brooch, in
Skian Dhu worn by Prince Charlie, . . 121 Highland Targe of Wood, . . . 122, 131 Prince Charlie's Double Barrelled Flint-lock, 141, 181
Bell of St. Fillans, 142
Watch carried by Prince Charlie, . . . 151 Cruisie or Oil Lamp with Iron Stand, . ". 162 Wooden Drinking Vessel with Handles, . . 171 Silver Brooch with Interlaced Ornamentation, 182 Drinking Cup used by Prince Charlie, . . 190
Powder Horn, 1678, 191
Powder Horn, 1783, 202
Sporran worn by Prince Charlie, . . .231 Bronze Armlet 250
These Tail-Piece Illustrations are mostly from blocks kindly lent by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Introduction.
JOHNSON undertook a jour- ney to the Highlands of Scotland and the Hebride Isles, in 1773, curious to see a people whose military habits, simple and vigorous rules of government, and primitive manners, had, after their last daring attempt, in 1745, to restore the exiled line of Scottish kings, brought them so prominently under public notice.
Remarking that mountainous countries contain the original and oldest race of men, 13
INTRODUCTION
who from the nature of their territories, and their warlike habits, are not easily conquered, he observes, that " to the southern inhabitants of Scotland the state of the mountains and the islands is equally unknown with that of Borneo or Sumatra ; of both they have only heard a little, and guess the rest. They are strangers to the language and the manners, to the advantages and the wants of the people, whose life they would model, and whose evils they would remedy." " Never perhaps," he elsewhere adds, "was any change of national manners so quick, so great, and so general, as that which has operated in the Highlands by the last conquest and the subsequent laws." True as this may be, much still remains of that system of antiquated life, characteristic of those who have not advanced beyond the primitive state in which mankind
in alpine situations is long retained, by the 14
INTRODUCTION
difficulty of access to their secluded homes. Toilsome as travelling in the rugged and sequestered regions of Caledonia was at that time, especially to such a man as Johnson, he stoutly encountered the obstacles of the way: now, the Highlands can be traversed in most parts by the best of roads, and its coasts explored by means of numerous steam- boats.
Considerable attention was drawn to this part of the kingdom by the amusing journey of the Doctor, and the works of subsequent writers ; but the volumes of Sir Walter Scott have done more to attract tourists to the scenes he has depicted than was perhaps ever accomplished by any writer. Not only have natives crowded to these romantic scenes and hospitable tribes, but foreigners of highest distinction have been attracted to this portion of the northern world. Her Gracious Majesty
INTRODUCTION
and Illustrious Consort unbend the bow of Royal etiquette amid the quietness of a mountain retreat, breaking the monotony of seclusion by the healthful and exhilarating pursuits peculiar to a Highland life, deriving entertainment from the athletic and convivial performances of their loyal Gaelic subjects. The stream of visitors flows annually to the north, and the Highlands are better known in part to many than their native countries ; but this knowledge does not often extend beyond the mere exterior aspects of the land and its inhabitants. Guide books, pictorial illustrations, and historical productions, have appeared in imposing abundance for the gratification of the inquirer; but the social state of the Celtic population of Britain is still comparatively but little known. In order to become acquainted with the peculiarity of their manners and customs, a lengthened
16
INTRODUCTION
and familiar intercourse with the people is requisite. The rapidity of steam conveyance permits but a slight knowledge of a country or its inhabitants ; and even by the sportsman, who sojourns among the mountains during the shooting season, much is to be learned that does not meet his transient view.
Most of the European nations are now so highly civilized and refined, that it is quite refreshing to meet with those who are yet simple and unsophisticated. The Gael have preserved a peculiar language, a singular garb, and a mode of life alike to the nomadic, pastoral state of the most ancient people; and rapid as the march of innovation has been, they still retain much of their primitive features. If they cannot boast a literary history, they retain an oral record which in antiquity sets other nations distant far. When
Mr. Stone and Mr. Hill, neither of them »7
INTRODUCTION
natives, gave to the world several translated portions of that beautiful poetry which Mac Pherson some years after more industriously collected, arranged, and published, it was not dreamt that the Highlanders were in possession of national poetry the most ancient in Europe, and could glory in the immortal Ossian as their countryman. Is it less matter of pride for them, that when the Christian world had almost been overwhelmed, in the sacred fane of St. Columba the religion of the cross was preserved in purity to re- enlighten the nations of the west?
It is deemed the more useful thus to place on record the games, the sports, the pastimes, the social and domestic employments of the Gaelic tribes, inasmuch as in the progress of improvement and change they may at last be swept away. It will be long, however, ere the manners of this people are assimilated
18
INTRODUCTION
to those of the Saxon race, if they ever can be entirely so, but assuredly the changes produced on others must gradually affect them ; and laudably as individuals and associations strive to keep in vigour the ancient spirit of the people by the encouragement of their national language, poetry, music, dress, and amuse- ments, they have gradually declined since the breaking up of the bond of clanship, — the patriarchal rule, that natural safeguard of the pristine manners which so remarkably distin- guished the Gaelic population. The legal abolition of this antique system produced, in the course of thirty years, "a rapid, incredible, and total change," in the state of Highland society, rendering all record of their peculiar and decaying manners, an acceptable acquisition to the present and succeeding generations. In the former publication, entitled " The
Clans," this once formidable branch of the 19
INTRODUCTION
Celtic race, was exhibited in its genealogies, military character, social state and importance ; the peculiarities of the costume and arms were illustrated with graphic skill ; and striking views were presented of their former strength, alliance, and influence.
The GAELIC GATHERINGS display in the following pages the people engaged in their domestic employments, — in their pastoral, agricultural, piscatorial, and hunting occupa- tions; and in their sports and recreations — they indicate otherwise the nature of the country and character of the people.
"The Clans" and "The Gatherings" com- prise such a series of historical illustrations of the Highlanders as few other nations can show of themselves or approach in interest, and the pictorial accuracy and effect of the prints, with the research and lucid detail of the letterpress, recommend these works to
INTRODUCTION
the use of tourists, native or foreign, render them elegant and desirable productions for the table of the drawing room, and highly valuable as books of authentic reference to the historian and general inquirer.
CRUSIK OR OIL LAMP.
2!
L
HARRIS POTTERY.
22
Threshing Corn.
agricultural state of society succeeds the pastoral. Mankind, in the earliest stage of social existence, is found rearing herds and feeding numerous flocks ; but the practice of agriculture indicates a considerable advance in civilization. On the formation of settled communities, the occupations of the shepherd and tiller of the ground are pursued at the same time, as a double means of providing for comfortable subsistence ; and nations, in the practice of both, frequently pay more attention to the former than to the latter, which is attended with a greater amount of care and labour. 25
THRESHING CORN
We find from the Commentaries of Caesar that the Britons, on the first Roman descent, raised ample stores of corn, a proof that they were not in the savage state which some writers have represented. Caesar arrived in Britain on the 26th August, B. c. 55, accord- ing to Dr. Halley, and the harvest was then almost finished, as only one field was seen uncut, having been later than usual in ripen- ing. The ingenious method by which the Gauls reaped their fields is described by Pliny ; but the inhabitants of Britain do not appear to have made any improvement on the sickle.
Both Gauls and Britons, however, used a Flail in separating the ears from the straw, when among the Romans the clumsy and dilatory practice of treading it by cattle was still in use. The Flail consists of two pieces of hard round wood, about four feet in length, loosely fastened together by thongs of sheep-skin, or other hide ; and a dexterity, acquired by long practice, is necessary to perform the work, and save the workman's 26
THRESHING CORN
head, as he whirls the implement around in making each successive stroke.
Threshing is usually performed in the barn, but, in fine weather when the corn has been sufficiently dried, and the weather is favourable, the Highlander performs the operation on the field ; by which he is enabled speedily to remove the crop, a matter of no slight importance in a watery climate, like that of the West Highlands. For this purpose a floor is constructed of planks, on which is placed a sail or piece of canvas, where such may be had, and in many places a mat of sufficient size is spread underneath, formed of rushes, woven or plaited, as we find similar articles of furniture from India. On this platform, in general temporary, called Lar-bualadh, the vigorous workmen very cleanly and expeditiously detach the grain from the stalk, contriving in the operation to cast the straw to one side. It is then carried home and stored up until a suitable time for the Fasgna', or winnowing from the chaff, preparatory to grinding. The 27
_~2
THRESHING CORN
Threshers are called Buailtearan, from Buail, to strike, or beat.
Women in the Highlands perform most of the operations of agriculture, and they may be seen carrying on their backs, from the field, loads of the straw or the corn sheaves ; but this is not to be considered a proof of any disrespect to the fair, for the Gael have a high regard for their females ; it is one of the many practices derived from their ancestors. M. de Cubieres, writing on the services rendered to agriculture by females, shows that in all primitive nations, while the men were employed in hunting, fishing, and in war, the women attended to agriculture, the dairy, and their domestic avocations — an onerous accumulation of duties.
If the use of oats is not now so exclusively prevalent among Scotsmen in the low country as it was in the days of Dr. Johnson, it is still so in the Highlands. His definition of this grain, as being "the food of horses in England and men in Scotland," gave an 28
THRESHING CORN
offence which has not yet been forgiven ; but the Doctor, without intending it, passed a high eulogium on this grain, for it is well ascertained, and recent scarcity has drawn particular attention to the subject, that it is a much more nutritious substance than wheaten flour, being lighter and more digestive ; and hence the use of oatmeal is often prescribed by medical men to patients of weakly stomachs. It has been observed that the products of a country have been adapted by Providence to the circumstances of its inhabitants. In this respect the oatmeal and milk of the Gael have served on many an occasion to carry them through severe and protracted exertion, and prolonged their health and lives to a goodly term. It is farther proved that a Scottish labourer will perform a greater amount of work, with unabated strength, on his humble fare, than that of an Englishman in similar employment, say field labour — on a much greater propor- tion of his wheaten bread, dumpling, and bacon ; and it has been wittily remarked, 29
THRESHING CORN
that the horses of England and workmen in Scotland, fed on the same materials, are the most useful and best specimens of their kind.
The subject of illustration is from a party at work near the old castle of Inverlochie, in the county of Inverness, within twenty yards of a spot where thirteen gentlemen of the Campbells lie buried, side by side, having fallen in the battle which took place in the vicinity, anno 1645, when the Earl of Argyle, with the whole power of his clan, opposed the Marquis of Montrose in arms for King Charles, whom he thought to subdue with facility, but suffered an unexpected attack and complete defeat, with the loss of 1500 men, leaving the royalists to proceed south- wards to further conquest. This plain was battle ground from an earlier period.
The turbulence of Clan Donald induced the government to commission the Earls of Caithness and Mar to attempt a pacification, taking the precaution, at the same time, to back their persuasions with a powerful army ; but the energetic Donull du', or black Donald 3°
THRESHING CORN
Ballach of the Isles, landed in 1431, and with inferior numbers, he at once engaged his enemies, defeated and compelled them to a speedy retreat. Very different are the pursuits of the group here represented ; their swords, if not converted into Suistean, or flails, are, happily, no longer required to guard the produce of their labour.
Drovers
TN the matter introduced on the illustration of the Shepherd, in Number II., it was observed that cattle constituted the riches of the ancient Gael, with whom the possession of many herds was synonymous with afflu- ence. This was the case with all branches of the Celtic race, and instances are there given of the amazing numbers which belonged to some individuals. We read in those vener- able records of ancient manners, the Welsh Triads, of various herds which numbered 2 1 ,000 each ; those of Nudd, a noted prince, who flourished in the sixth century, amounted 32
DROVERS
to 20,000 ; and the three shepherds of Britain, i.e., Wales, tended no fewer than 1 20,000 ! Such numbers can scarcely be paralleled in later times ; but the booty of 50,000 head of cattle carried off in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, from Sorle bui' Mac Donald, of the Glens, a famous chief in Antrim, is no slight indication of pastoral wealth.
The inhabitants of mountainous countries depend chiefly on pasturage, and pursue it as a source of livelihood and enrichment, dispos- ing of their surplus stock to supply the wants of a denser population, engaged in manufac- tures and commerce. From the Highlands have been derived, from time immemorial, abundant supplies of black cattle and sheep, which are either sold in the fairs of the country or are driven southwards to England. Graziers and butchers frequently purchase in the Highlands ; but the droves are gene- rally taken to the south and the low country, where purchasers meet them. Falkirk, near the borders of the Highlands, has long been 35
DROVERS
celebrated as the great cattle market, which is held nine or ten times a year.
Farmers may convey their own ' beasts ' to these markets, and great proprietors may occasionally send their shepherds with them ; but the Highland Drover is a person whose special employment it is to do so, and he may be intrusted with various lots, amounting to a numerous drove. The drovers are an important class, and are men of the greatest integrity : large sums of money coming into their custody, and peculiar qualifications are necessary for their duties, of which a good knowledge of the value of cattle is an essential.
The trade, although of considerable diffi- culty and hardship, suits the spirit of a Celt. He drives his native herds, of which he is for a time the owner, with something of the pride of his ancestors, when carrying off the fat oxen of the Sassenaich, and his solicitude is to carry his charge safely and in good condition to their ultimate destination. The drover moves on by easy stages, crossing the 36
DROVERS
country by certain tractways, less circuitous than the public roads, soft for the feet of the cattle, and affording them a mouthful of grass as they pass along.
In the Highlands, the hardy drover rests on the heath among the wearied animals, whose heat in cold weather serves to keep him in warmth ; even when he reaches the plains, he cares not to avail himself of the shelter of a lodging, although his cattle he places within inclosure. Often do these trusty fellows travel from the northern High- lands to the south of England, as far as Barnet and Smithfield, with their horned stock, not losing one from their numerous droves, during the long and wearisome journey. It is surprising that in the darkness of night no animal gets astray ; but the acuteness of hearing possessed by those en- gaged in droving, enables them to detect, although unseen, those that may have left the herd to snatch a browse of the tempting herbage by the way — they will immediately spring in pursuit and drive the stragglers back. 37
DROVERS
The importance of this class of High- landers, and the responsibility of their occupa- tion, obtained for them an exemption from the operation of the Disarming Act, passed in 1725, and renewed with more stringent clauses in 1748, when the national dress itself was proscribed ! They were allowed to carry their usual arms for personal protection.
The young men engaged in droving, hold themselves of some consequence, for as they must speak English, and are acquainted with so many parts of Scotland and England, and are, moreover, occasionally men of a little substance, they are held in much respect. Their manners, also, become a little more polished than those who have never passed the Garbh-criochan, or Highland boundary. The author of a " Journey through Scotland in 1726," says, "At the fair of Crief, they were mighty civil, dressed in their slashed short waistcoats, trousing," etc.
Many stories have the drovers to tell of their travels to their neighbours during the winter evenings, and many adventures do 38
DROVERS
they truly meet ; numerous strange and laughable anecdotes being current respecting them, their unacquaintance with southern manners leading them at times into ludi- crous positions. In the " Chronicles of the Canongate," Sir Walter Scott has given an interesting tale of two drovers, in which their 'difficult trade' is very truly de- scribed :—
The Highlanders, in particular, are masters of this difficult trade of driving, which seems to suit them as well as the trade of war. It affords exercise for all their habits of patient endurance and active exertion. They are required to know perfectly the drove-roads, which lie over the wildest tracts of the country, and to avoid as much as possible the highways, which distress the feet of the bullocks, and the turnpikes, which annoy the spirit of the drover ; whereas on the broad green or grey track which leads across the pathless moor the herd not only move at ease and without taxation, but, if they mind their business, may pick up a mouthful of food by the way. At night the drovers usually sleep along with their cattle, let the weather be what it will; and many of these hardy men do not once rest under a roof during a journey on foot from Lochaber to Lincolnshire. They are paid very highly, for the trust reposed is of the last 39
Sf
DROVERS
importance, as it depends on their prudence, vigilance, and honesty whether the cattle reach the final market in good order, and afford a profit to the grazier. But as they maintain themselves at their own expense, they are especially economical in that particular. At the period we speak of) a Highland drover was victualled for his long and toilsome journey with a few handfuls of oatmeal and two or three onions, renewed from time to time, and a ram's horn filled with whisky, which he used regularly but sparingly every night and morning.
His dirk, or $kene-dhu (i.e. black-knife), so worn as to be concealed beneath the arm, or by the folds of the plaid, was his only weapon, excepting the cudgel with which he directed the movements of the cattle. A Highlander was never so happy as on these occasions. There was a variety in the whole journey which exercised the Celt's natural curiosity and love of motion; there were the constant change of place and scene, the petty adventures incidental to the traffic, and the intercourse with the various farmers, graziers, and traders, intermingled with occasional merry-making, not the less acceptable to Donald that they were void of expense; and there was the consciousness of superior skill, for the Highlander, a child amongst flocks, is a prince amongst herds, and his natural habits induce him to disdain the shepherd's slothful life, so that he feels himself nowhere more at home than when following a gallant drove of his country cattle in the character of their guardian. 40
DROVERS ^
The print from Landseer's painting of Drovers setting out with their Herds, justly celebrated as a work of art, is a striking representation of the animated scene.
The print represents drovers in their pro- gress stopping to refresh themselves with a little bruithiste, or brose, being a simple mixture of oatmeal and water, which with, perchance, a few onions and a little butter, is their wonted fare. Those of a former day, dispensed with the pot, and were content with cold water, and it is a very probable etymology for Bannockburn, that it was so called from the circumstance of the High- landers attending the * tryst ' of Falkirk or Eaglais-breac, as it is known to them, stopping on the banks of the stream, from which they laved the water for their humble meal.
As they travelled at their own expense, they were the more careful to avoid any luxurious seductions ; but a supply of whiskey in a ram's horn, used sparingly night and morn- ing, was an indispensable necessary. 41
DROVERS
Black cattle is a description more particu- larly applied to the breed of the north High- lands. They are small and hardy, seldom weighing above thirty stone, but fattening rapidly in rich pastures, and Furnishing admirable beef. Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and Lincolnshire, are the chief counties in which the graziers put them to pasture.
STEEL STRIKE LIGHT.
42
The Hand-Mill.
/"T"VHE art of reducing grain to meal for human food is coeval with the first practice of agriculture. The corn productions of the earth were ground by manual labour, the simple method of using a Hand-mill being common to all people in the early stages of civilization, and it is still in practice among those whose primitive circumstances have not estranged them from the artless manners of their fathers. Baking and boiling were the only preparations in ancient use, and Sarah is the first on record who kneaded meal, and she has left, says the quaint and
45
:j« THE HAND-MILL
honest Thomas Fuller, in "The Holie State," the prints of her knuckles in the leaven to this day.
The circumstances recorded in Holy Writ of Esau having parted with his birthright for a mess of porridge, is a proof of the early use of meal in the state so generally served up in the north; and although the people in that part of the kingdom may be jeered on the subject of their roughish fare, as the Sybarites of old were on their black broth, it is now fairly proved by analysis, that oatmeal contains more nutritious substance than the flour of wheat, or that of any other grain.
The Hand-mill is called in Gaelic, Muillean-bra', which will strike one as being a term very similar to the French Moulin a bras; in -the Irish idiom it is Bronn, and in the Lowland Scots it is named Quern. The stones are eighteen to thirty inches in diameter, the undermost being rather larger than the upper, and having a spike in the centre as a pivot on which the other is turned. The women, when at work, seat 46
THE HAND-MILL
themselves on the ground, beside the Muillean, and with a stick, which is fixed into a hole in the margin of the stone, turn it round while they pour in the grain by a central opening. There are generally two females employed, who sit opposite to each other, and as usual in almost all their avocations, they lighten their labours by appropriate songs. In this employment we are reminded of the Scriptural passage, Matthew xxiv. 41 : "Two women shall be grinding at the mill ; the one shall be taken and the other left ; " and we are told by Dr. Shaw, that the Arabs at this day use two small grindstones, the uppermost turned by a handle of wood placed in its edge, and when expedition is required, then two persons, who are generally women, sit at it.
When water and windmills were intro- duced, the lairds very strictly prohibited the use of the hand-stone, by which they were deprived of their thirlage dues, and the miller of his lawful multure ; consequently, wherever found they were broken up. In
47
THE HAND-MILL
1284, it was er acted by King Alexander III., that "na man sail presume to grind Quheit, Maishlach, or Rye, with a Hand Mylne, except he be compellit be storm, or be in lack of mylnes quhilk suld grind the samen ; " if he was found to do so, he was mulcted of the thirteenth measure, or multure, and by a repetition of the offence, he was to " tyne," or lose, "his hand-mylne perpetuallie." The exception permitted their very general use in remote parts, where they cannot yet be laid aside, and in caves and beside the ruins of ancient houses these stones are frequently discovered.
The conversion of grain into bread, or other food, was an operation which did not occupy much of the time of a Highland goodwife, as will be seen from the following account, among many others that could be given. It is furnished by Ian fada, or long John, of Ben Nevis, a much respected gentle- man and true-hearted Celt. He verges on the patriarchal age of fourscore, and recollects when a boy having been sent by his grand-
!tJ
THE HAND-MILL
father, Ian du', or dark John of Aberarder, on a message to a distant part of the country, and when he reached the end of his journey, he found there was no bread, or other eatables, where he was to take up his quarters for the night. The woman of the house, however, speedily supplied this want ; for taking a reaping-hook, she went to the field, cut a sufficient quantity of corn, and quickly separating the grain from the straw, winnowed it in the open air, dried it in an iron pot, ground it by the Quern, and presented it in well-baked Bonaich-cloich, or cakes prepared on a stone before the turf fire; the time occupied in these various operations not exceeding half an hour ! Long John is a Mac Donald of the brass of Lochaber, and adds to his other qualifications that of being one of the best and most extensive distillers of the native Uisge-bea', or Whiskey.
The corn and meal prepared in this ancient manner is called Graddan, from grad, quick, speedy, and the operation after reaping is
49
THE HAND-MILL
thus performed : — A woman sitting down takes a handful of corn, and holding it by the stems in her left hand, she sets fire to the ears, which immediately flame up; but to prevent them being burnt, with a small stick held in her right hand, she dextrously beats the grain off the straw, the moment when it is sufficiently done. For sifting the meal from the husks, a sheep's skin, perforated by a small hot iron, is stretched on a hoop.
It is maintained all over the Highlands, that the meal thus manufactured is more pleasant to the palate and is more wholesome than what is dried and ground by the aid of machinery, and the graddan meal is pre- ferred for bannocks, brose, brochan, lite, or porridge, fuarag, a mixture of meal with cream, or water, and other culinary prepara- tions of the Celtic housewives.
The practice of burning corn in the straw prevailed among the Irish; but as they performed it so recklessly as to destroy most part of the straw, an Act of Parlia- 50
THE HAND-MILL
ment was passed in 1635, which declared it illegal.
Oats and rye, we find, were raised by the Britons before the introduction of wheat and barley, and in the barbarous ages acorns were ground for bread, hence, by the Welsh laws, the oak tree is declared to be common property.
HARRIS POTTERY.
Girls Washing.
'TP'HE important domestic operation of Washing is generally performed by the Highland females, in the clear, purling streams of their native glens, the water from its softness being excellent for the purpose of cleansing.
Blankets and the heavier linen are always taken to this natural lavatory, but smaller articles are occasionally ' beetled,' that is, they are laid upon a stone in the river and beaten with a wooden mallet ; but treading with the bare feet, as here represented, is the usual process of purification. 52
GIRLS WASHING
This method is generally termed Strampail na Plaideachan, or ' tramping the blankets,' as these are the stuffs most frequently washed in this manner.
Companies of young women are sometimes engaged in this work at the same time, and on the margin of the river at Inverness, which is reckoned the capital of the Highlands, fifty or sixty girls may be seen busily em- ployed in this necessary part of their domestic duties, which they call ' posting,' and it presents an animated scene, from its singu- larity, particularly striking to a stranger.
The beautiful banks of the stream are a favourite promenade of the citizens, and the younger portion of the male community are no doubt fond of sauntering by the river, but no offensive curiosity is displayed. Were any persons, by unbecoming levity of be- haviour or expression, to draw on them the resentment of these Celtic Naiads, an uncere- monious drenching in the Ness would be the least penalty they might expect to pay for their indiscretion.
55
GIRLS WASHING
This simple practice, once equally common in more southern towns, is giving place to genteeler modes of executing a work indis- pensable in Highland housekeeping.
Allan Ramsay celebrates Habbie's How, a romantic spot in the vicinity of Edinburgh, as a favourite resort of the rural laundresses of that city, and very prettily describes it, in his interesting composition, ' The Gentle Shep- herd,' as
" A flowery howm atween twa verdant braes, Where lasses use to wash an' spread their clai's, A trottin' burnie wimplin' through the ground, Its channel pebbles, shinin' smooth an' round; Between twa birks out o'er a little lin, The water fa's an' mak's a singin' din ; A pool breast-deep beneath, as clear as glass, Kisses in easy whirls the borderin' grass : Here view twa barefoot beauties clean an' clear, First please your eye, next gratify your ear."
Sir Walter Scott, also, in the ninth chapter of ' Waverley,' describes the appearance of the Baron of Bradwardine's maids when at this work : —
56
GIRLS WASHING
" The garden, which seemed to be kept with great accuracy, abounded in fruit-trees, and exhibited a profusion of flowers and ever- greens, cut into grotesque forms. It was laid out in terraces, which descended rank by rank from the western wall to a large brook, which had a tranquil and smooth appearance, where it served as a boundary to the garden ; but, near the extremity, leapt in tumult over a strong dam, or wear-head, the cause of its temporary tranquillity, and there forming a cascade, was overlooked by an octangular summer-house, with a gilded bear on the top by way of vane. After this feat, the brook, assuming its natural rapid and fierce char- acter, escaped from the eye down a deep and wooded dell, from the copse of which arose a massive, but ruinous tower, the former habitation of the Barons of Bradwardine. The margin of the brook, opposite to the garden, displayed a narrow meadow, or haugh as it was called, which formed a ^small washing-green ; the bank, which retired be- hind it, was covered by ancient trees. 57
GIRLS WASHING
" The scene, though pleasing, was not quite equal to the gardens of Alcina ; yet wanted not the ' due donzelette garrule ' of that en- chanted paradise ; for upon the green aforesaid, two bare-legged damsels, each standing in a spacious tub, performed with their feet the office of a patent washing-machine.
" These did not, however, like the maidens of Armida, remain to greet with their harmony the approaching guest, but, alarmed at the appearance of a handsome stranger on the opposite side, dropped their garments (I should say garment, to be quite correct) over their limbs, which their occupation exposed somewhat too freely, and, with a shrill exclamation of ' Eh, sirs ! ' uttered with an accent between modesty and coquetry, sprung off, like deer, in different directions."
The girls generally select a retired and romantic spot, where, in some cases, they are secluded by rocks, with trees, overhanging foliage, and other beauties of the sylvan scene ; and here, when the large pot or cauldron 58
.v« GIRLS WASHING
is used to assist the labour, they light their fire.
Sometimes two girls trample together in the same tub, when with one arm encircling each other's waist, they go round, while their motions are accompanied with a simple and melodious song, the arms being frequently changed as they move in a contrary direction. Judging from the hilarity which prevails, the burnside washing seems to be a favourite 1 ploy ' with these damsels.
The Highlanders, like all primitive people, when at work, always accompanied their labours with appropriate songs, which modu- lated their operations and lightened their toil. The Oran Luathadh is the melody chanted by the women engaged in washing, and is more particularly referable to the ancient practice of cleansing and fulling their woollen cloths.
The process of Luatha', the * waulking ' of the low country, is likewise performed by the feet ; but the parties, eight, ten, or more, sit on the ground opposite to each other, having 59
GIRLS WASHING
the wet material laid between, on a long hurdle or piece of grooved woodwork. The cloth is then rubbed and tossed about with great vigour and dexterity until it becomes properly thickened, the swell of voices and rapidity of execution rising to a climax as the work pro- ceeds ; and the story is told of an English gentleman, who having come unexpectedly on a number of women in the heat of their work, made a speedy retreat, believing he had discovered a company of lunatics ! This singular operation forms the subject of one of the prints in * Pennant's Tour in Scot- land,' 1772.
The wash-house, or laundry, in the house of a Highland gentleman, is called Tigh Nig- heachain.
The picture was made from sketches stolen from three mountain belles, natives of the lonely vale of Glenco, interesting as the birth- place of Ossian, the prince of Celtic bards, and long the possession of a branch of the great Clan Donald, most of whom were treacherously slain in a winter midnight, by order of King 60
GIRLS WASHING
William III., the intention being to cut off the whole. These nymphs bear the euphonious appellations, Isabell ruadh, Caorag ruadh, Morag dubh, and Cairistin dail, but they are, of course, all Mac Donalds.
TARGET USED BY PRINCE CHARLIE.
61
ORNAMENTED PINS.
62
Highland Foot Post.
* I ^HE conveyance of written communica- tions is one of the most important objects of civilized society, and without the considera- tion of telegraphic dispatch, it is accomplished by railroad in these days with a celerity and certainty altogether astonishing.
The only written correspondence which took place in former ages was between princes on matters of state, or the more powerful nobility, on matters of consequence to themselves, and the functionaries to whom the responsible duty of its conveyance was entrusted, were called Nuncios. Edward IV. of England, during his 65
HIGHLAND FOOT POST
war with the Scots in 1481, established Posts twenty miles distant from each other, where relays of horses were stationed for the trans- mission of letters from one to another, which was duly performed at the rate of two hundred miles a day. From this early arrangement, it would thus appear, arose the name of the national establishment which has now attained such universal magnitude.
Long after this time the public conveyance of literary correspondence remained in the hands of private individuals, but letters were transmitted by special messengers among the higher classes, who did not choose to commit them to the dilatory progress and uncertainty of the stage-waggon, or horseman ; for the injunction which so frequently accompanied the superscription, ' haste poste, haste,' indi- cates an occasional want of punctuality in those carriers of the good old times.
It was soon perceived that the ' promiscuous use of transmitting or taking up of letters, whereby the secrets of the realm might be disclosed,' ought not to be entrusted to
66
HIGHLAND FOOT POST
private enterprise, but that it was of political and pecuniary importance for Government to assume the sole management of epistolary conveyance. A proclamation of Charles I. was issued in 1635, for regulating the 'letter office,' and a running post was established between Edinburgh and London, to go thither and return in six days. The city of London and other parties, nevertheless, maintained for a considerable time a rivalry with the Govern- ment ' master of the posts, messengers, and couriers,' but all opposition was finally put down in 1656, by an Act which instituted * one general post-office and one postmaster- general of England.'
The post-office of Scotland was settled by Act of 1698, but it was so troublesome and unprofitable, that a grant of £300 a-year, with the whole receipts, would not induce Sir Robert Sinclair to retain his situation of superintendent! The penny postage which had been established in Edinburgh by Peter Williamson, a person who attained celebrity by having lived many years among the American Indians, into whose 67
HIGHLAND FOOT POST
hands he had fallen, was purchased by Govern- ment about 1760.
From the nature of the country, it was much more difficult to establish a regular system of post conveyance in the northern part of the kingdom ; and at this day the transmission of letters in many Highland districts is accomplished with considerable difficulty and delay. It would seem, at the same time, that the post-office authorities decline the conveyance of letters to parts of the country which do not pay the ex- pense, or are considered too insignificant to receive the favour, for the proprietors of remote districts, as the Isles of Lewis, Barra, etc., are obliged to keep yachts for the purpose of communication with the main- land !
It is said that the first Duke of Gordon, who received the tide in 1684, was accustomed to dispatch a confidential retainer to the south country, in order that he might glean in his travels all news of importance, which he was to relate faithfully to his Grace on return,
68
HIGHLAND FOOT POST
and traditions exist as to the same practice in other families. These messengers were expected to bring home an ample budget of various information from * beyond the month.'
The Gille-ruithe, or running footman, was a member of the Luchdtachd, a body of per- sonal attendants kept by a Highland laird, and his most important duty was to carry through- out the country, at his chief's behest, all missives and messages.
The Highland postman must be qualified for his toilsome occupation by great activity and hardihood, having to traverse unremit- tingly, in all weathers, a country, in many parts very uninviting in the finest season. He has not often the advantage of a regular road, but knowing all the localities, he urges his way even in the darksome night, through hill and glen, fording the streams when they cross his path. This last is one of his greatest perils, for the mountain torrents come down so suddenly, that the wayfarer is often surprised by finding a flooded river when it is quite unlooked for. 69
HIGHLAND FOOT POST
The post bags sometimes get wet to the damage of their contents, and it is said that one of those useful and adventurous couriers, in passing a river while her Majesty sojourned at Ard Ferigie, having got the mail packet wet, the circumstance gave rise to the idle story of some of the royal letters having been opened in transitu !
An old man, who died about thirty years ago, carried the letters for Braemar during thirty-six years, in which time it was calculated he had walked no less than about 260,000 miles !
The postman here represented is a speci- men of these hardy pedestrians, who, it will be seen, are occasionally loaded with other property than letters or papers. He is always a welcome visitor, — except, indeed, when he unhaply brings evil news. When he has any time to spare, he gratifies his eager hearers with all the news he has acquired ; and as those for whom he has letters are often in remote locali- ties, the epistles are frequently left with others, who cheerfully undertake to transmit their 70
HIGHLAND FOOT POST
charge to the proper parties, either by some one going the way of their dwellings, or per- sonally delivering the letters on meeting them at kirk or market.
LOCHABKR AXB.
Highland Shepherd.
/TpHE Highlands are the natural breeding- •*• grounds for black cattle and sheep. The inhabitants were not inattentive to agri- culture ; but their herds and flocks were the staple commodities, either for their own con- sumption or disposal to the dealers of the south, and the extensive proprietor of kine was formerly synonymous with a rich man.
The Duke of Cumberland's soldiers drove in from around the neighbourhood a herd of 20,000 in the short time during which they lay at Killi-Chuimin, after the battle of Culloden.
HIGHLAND SHEPHERD
In the north of Ireland, the people being of the same race as the Scots Highlanders, were in a similar state of Society; and an expedi- tion sent, in 1585, by Queen Elizabeth against Sorle buidh, a celebrated chief, carried off no fewer than' 50,000 head of cattle !
The hurricane which burst from the High- lands in 1745, spreading consternation and fear as it swept victoriously along, was followed by measures of coercion, which were characterised by neither statesmanship nor humanity. The legislative enactments which followed, and dissolved the patriarchal state in which the Highlanders had lived, repressed their warlike propensities, and secluded them long from the public view.
The country was scarcely known, save from the numerous droves of well-pastured cattle, which supplied the southern markets, but a great revolution in its social state was going on. The altered state of chiefs and gentle- men required other means of preserving their position in society than by a numerous clan of humble tenants, who were no longer wanted 75
HIGHLAND SHEPHERD
for service in war, and could add little or nothing to the increased exigencies of the proprietor, nor do anything to better their own dependent condition ; and as the land was found admirably adapted for rearing sheep, long ranges of glen and muir were ' thrown into extensive Sheep-walks, yielding a greatly increased rental.
The Store farmer now occupies the place of a very superior order of tenants called Tacks- men — blood relations of the chief and men of education, who in many cases had seen much of the world by military service, either in the British army or that of foreign states. To this class portions of land were leased on moderate, and occasionally nominal terms, and besides maintaining a number of servants for management of the stock, proportionate crofts were sublet by them to a numerous body of poorer cottars, who claimed with them, a propinquity of blood.
From this change, unhappy for the people, the ruins of houses and hamlets are so frequently met with throughout the High- 76
HIGHLAND SHEPHERD
lands, and as every farm had its Bothan- Airidh, or mountain Sheilings, where the dairy-maids sojourned during the months of summer, preparing their cheese and butter, the number of abandoned dwellings is more strikingly increased.
Those solitary ruins, around which the green sward and marks of cultivation may still be seen, impart a melancholy character to the view, and one is more prone to fancy the desolate sites, where hundreds dwelt, were the scenes of continued peace and comfort, rather than the witnesses, mayhap, of warlike feuds and predatory forays.
Much has been written on the system of sheep-farming. The expatriation of a race, who may be called the indigenous possessors of the land, is a subject which painfully touches the chord of human sympathy; but the Act of 1748, which abolished the hereditary rights of clanship, made so com- plete a change in the constitution of Highland government, that the natural and reciprocal bonds of service and protection were violently
77
HIGHLAND SHEPHERD
dissolved, and the country, under the regal law, seemed no longer suitable for the dis- heartened people, or the people for it.
The introduction of sheep- farming has not, it must at the same time be noted, been the sole cause of depopulation. Many proprietors, whose pecuniary wants were above the requirements of such means of increasing their rental, gratified their other desires in a different manner. A gentleman writing lately, says : —
" In Glentilt, we counted, in a few hours' walk, upwards of thirty ruined villages, not one house of which has been rebuilt, so that that fine and once cultivated district, is now a solitary waste, used only as a huge Deer- forest with a few sheep farms."
The loss of the Kelp manufacture, by the introduction of Barilla, was a heavy blow to both landlord and tenant ; but the fleeces of the numerous flocks now pastured throughout the Highlands, would furnish material for a manufacture which the country is in every way adapted for, and which would give use- 78
HIGHLAND SHEPHERD
ful employment to thousands who now are so often subject to great distress.
Sheep-walks are sometimes of incredible extent, many farms being thrown into one, and their tenants are generally from the southern districts of Scotland. The wages of a shepherd vary in different localities, and are dependent on the extent of the duty to be performed. He usually receives between io/. and I2/. yearly, if he live in his master's house. If he occupy one of his own, he will be allowed ground for raising potatoes, three to five or six bolls of meal per annum, grazing for two or three cows, a horse, and perhaps fifty to seventy sheep, with ground sufficient to raise winter fodder.
The shepherds wear the grey plaid common in the great sheep districts of the border counties, and now so well known every- where as a material of general use. It is not, however, of Highland origin, but was first seen on the shoulders of the southern farmers, who visited the north in the way of business. The late Mac Leod of Luskintire asserted
79
HIGHLAND SHEPHERD
that the first plaid of this pattern seen in Skye, was worn by Hogg,* the celebrated "Shepherd" poet; but even the gamekeepers and foresters on the estates of some High- land nobles and gentlemen, are seen at the present day, arrayed in dresses of this homely hue.
The sketch was made from Duncan Mac Niven, or Doncha' mor Mac Gille Naomh, in the vernacular ; a shepherd in the service of Campbell of Monzie, at that time dwelling in the farm of Dalness.
*We know that the great shepherd poet wore his plaid during his journey through the Western Highlands and Islands in 1803. He says, "On the twenty-seventh of May I again dressed in black, put one shirt, and two neckcloths in my pocket ; took a staff in my hand, and a shepherd's plaid about me, and left Ettrick on foot, with a view of traversing the West Highlands, at least as far as the Isle of Skye. I took the road by Peebles for Edinburgh, and after being furnished with letters of introduction to such gentlemen as were most likely to furnish me with the intelligence which I wanted respect- ing the state of the country, I took a passage in the * Stirling Fly ' for that town. I got only a short and superficial view at the old palace of Linlithgow, and 80
HIGHLAND SHEPHERD
satisfied myself with only making my uncle's observation on viewing the Abbey of Melrose, " Our masons can mak nae sic houses now-a-days."
Again in Glenfalloch he says, " Musing on certain objects I fell into a sound sleep, out of which I was at length awaked by a hideous, yelling noise. I listened for some time before I ventured to look up, and on throwing the plaid off my face, what was it but four huge eagles howering over me in a circle at a short distance ; and at times joining all their voices in one unconceivable bleat. I desired them to keep at a due distance, like Sundhope's man, for I was not yet dead, which, if I had been, I saw they were resolved that I should not long remain a nuisance amongst the rocks of Glenfalloch."
STEEL STRIKE LIGHT.
Si
BRASS COOKING POT.
82
ft.
Going to School
country is more celebrated for its educational institutions than Scotland, the advantages of moral and intellectual improvement being 'secured to all, by the legal provision for a school and teacher in every parish throughout the kingdom. This system, so admirably adapted for the low country, is less effective in the rugged land of the Gael, where the great extent of the parishes was found to require subsidiary establishments.
It is not merely the elementary branches of education which are taught in these 85
GOING TO SCHOOL
seminaries; the schoolmasters having to go through a classical curriculum before being admitted to a parochial charge, and being, indeed, often licentiates for the ministry, their acquirements are sufficient to enable them to prepare pupils for college.
The numbers who attend the parish schools, vary, of course, with the popula- tion ; but there are always fewer in the summer months, as parents then require the assistance of their children in agricul- tural or pastoral occupations.
Fees are paid by all who are able to do so, but the children of the poor have a claim to gratuitous education, a liberal pro- vision, but far from the constitution of a charity school.
The subject of illustration is a scene in Lochaber, representing a peculiar custom. One of the poorer boys is appointed to muster his fellow pupils to their morning tasks, which he does at half-past eight in summer, and nine in winter : and this juvenile official is known as the Gille an Adharc, or 86
.,.« GOING TO SCHOOL
the Boy of the Horn, from the instrument he uses to "gather his motley clan," a duty for which he receives one penny a quarter from each scholar.
It is the practice in rural parishes for each boy to carry a peat, or piece of turf, to school every morning, by .which means a good fire is kept up for the general benefit. These ragged-looking, bare-legged urchins, wading through the snow of a cold morning, are, notwithstanding, strong and healthy, and in general hardier than children whose parents wrap them in more comfort- able-looking garments. They are also of sharp intellect; and there are few boys in the Highlands of twelve or fourteen years of age who cannot read and write.
The aptitude of the race for the acqui- sition of knowledge, although assertions have repeatedly been made to the con- trary, has been, from the days of Druidism, one of its characteristics, which, to Roman refinement, appeared only an idle and importunate curiosity in the people. 87
GOING TO SCHOOL
Thiery, speaking of a later division than the Gael, more truly observes in them a predilection for " the cultivation of letters, that power of imagination," in which he sees " a trace of their Celtic origin."*
The Highlanders have been rashly pro- nounced an illiterate people. Unacquainted with the early history of those whose lan- guage is unknown to their accusers, such writers may be forgiven, but waving con- sideration of the Bardic remains, so carefully held in oral preservation, and the series of illustrious teachers in the far-famed isle of lona, for ages the conservators of Gospel light in Western Europe, it will be admitted that their general literary history equals neither that of the Celts of Ireland nor the Cumri of Wales, cognate branches of the same great race. The Highlanders were not, unfortunately, in a state so favourable to the pursuits of peace and the gratification of mental solace as that of their neighbours. It was the attachment of the great Buchanan
* Hist. Norman Conquest. 88
GOING TO SCHOOL
to the court of King James, that gave him opportunity to display his classical acquire- ments and literary talent.
The first book printed in Gaelic was the Liturgy of Dr. Carsewell, Bishop of the Isles, in 1566, since which time typography has steadily progressed. Dictionaries and grammars have been long published; well- conducted periodicals have, from time to time, appeared, and a cheap newspaper is now circulated. The names of Doctors Mac Leod, Mackay, Mac Pherson, Ross, Dewar, Armstrong, Stewart, Smith, Ewen Mac Lachlan, and many others, would throw lustre on the literature of any country.
In the Highlands, there are about 400,000 persons who speak Gaelic, of whom it is calculated that 80,000 know no other. How surprising therefore it must appear, that among a people so careful of moral and intellectual education, there should not exist in any of the Scottish colleges a chair for the qualification of future teachers in a gram- matical knowledge of that language ! 89
GOING TO SCHOOL
If, as it has been stated, in a congregation of 500 persons, not more perhaps than fifty would be found who could understand an English sermon perfectly throughout, the magnitude of such an evil is lamentably obvious.
A spirit has frequently prevailed, strongly opposed to the continuance of old lan- guages, as serving to keep up inconvenient distinctions, and at one time the Assembly of the Scottish Kirk, the guardian of parochial education, thought it right to interdict all tuition through the vernacular tongue. It was alleged by the advocates of this profound policy, that the Gaelic was an insurmountable barrier to all mental improvement. The children were, therefore, taught in English, and the lesson was acquired, and correctly repeated too, without being at all under- stood !
The latent nationality of some individuals, who saw the absurdity and injustice of such a method of instruction was roused, and funds having been provided, in 1811, "The 90
GOING TO SCHOOL
Gaelic School Society" was established. The plan met with eminent success, and not only did the young joyfully attend, but cases have frequently been reported where the aged have gone to school, learning to read the Scriptures along with their children and offspring! The Venerable Assembly thus stimulated, repealed the insane regulation, and schoolmasters, now most properly, give the first lessons in the mother tongue of the children, the only one which in early life a majority of the population can understand.
STKEL STKIKR LIGHT.
Gillies with Game.
ILLE is the Gaelic term applied to a boy, or young man, and is used also for a servant, being given, like the Irish buachal, to those who have long surmounted the age of youth, and even of manhood. ' Gille-cois,' is a footman — * Gille-each,' a groom, &c.
The love of field sports, for which the country is admirably adapted, is so strong in the Highlander, that it may be said to be innate. No greater delight can be afforded a boy than to be allowed to accompany the sportsmen to the hills or the rivers, and their services are exceedingly useful, especi- 92
GILLIES WITH GAME
ally to those who are not well accustomed to traverse the rugged and boggy muirs and mountains.
They lead the way with sure footing across morasses, a matter, occasionally, of no small difficulty, nor always devoid of danger ; they bound over the heath with surprising agility, and in walking or running up hill, few of the gentlemen from the south country who go to the shooting could keep pace with them.
In wooded districts the deer are frequently ' driven ' from their coverts, as they cannot in such a situation be { stalked,' and lads from ten to sixteen years of age are generally the most efficient for the purpose, as they make their way both bare-legged and bare-footed through heather, whins, and underwood, where grown-up men could not very easily follow, and numbers are sometimes so employed.
Possessed of much endurance and greater temerity than those more advanced in years, these lads will perform feats, the hazard of
95
GILLIES WITH GAME
which might well deter others from the attempt. On precipitous and giddy preci- pices they will pursue the game, and an instance lately occurred of a boy, who, at ten years of age, killed with his own hand no less than nine foxes in one year, on most rugged parts of the mountain of Ben Nevis. ,
The artist has related of a Gillie, only twelve years old, that going out alone in one of the wildest parts of Ross-shire, for the purpose of stalking deer, he brought down a fine stag, which he greallached, i.e., opened and cut up on the spot. He is now alive and no longer a poacher ; but the rifle is his loved companion, and he is a most excellent shot and a worthy Highlander.
Indeed, the Highlanders are the surest of marksmen, and their proficiency is solely the result of their early and constant practice ; neither Highlanders nor any others being ' naturally good shots,' as a tourist in Scotland very simply observes. The nature of the country leads to the frequent use of gun and 96
GILLIES WITH GAME
rod, and hence the dexterity acquired by the natives.
A Highlander having proved himself a most skilful stalker and an unerring shot, it was jocularly proposed by a hunting party, that he should shoot a deer, then in view, through the off eye ! The Gael at once undertook to do so, and giving a loud whistle, the animal immediately turned round his head, when instantly the fatal ball, true to its mark, went through the devoted eye !
The principal figure in the print is given from a sketch of Corie bui' 6g, nephew to Ewen Mac Fee, the outlaw of Glenquoich, taken in Glen Nevis, where the stag, the brown and white, or alpine, hare, and the birds, which he carries, were killed within two hours, near the curious natural caves, in one of which the Lady Glennevis, her child, and servant, were concealed in the lamentable 1746.
The exhilarating effect of a hunting expedi- tion, accompanied by the hardy tenants of the hills, is acknowledged by the numerous parties
97
GILLIES WITH GAME
who leave the south for its enjoyment. The scenes in the good old days were quite capti- vating to strangers from their novelty and rude grandeur.
When at peace, the lairds kept alive the spirit of their clans by congregating the Gillies to this sort of military exercise, and when meditating war, it served as a pretext for a general mustering without any suspicion of the design being excited.
The eccentric Taylor, called * The Water Poet,' from having been a waterman of South- wark, went, in 1618, on a * pennilesse pilgrimage' as far northwards as Banffshire, and having been invited to accompany Lord Erskine to a deer hunt, he witnessed a meeting of noblemen, with a retinue of fourteen or fifteen hundred, and most of these were the hardy Gillies who drove in the game from the recesses of the forest of Mar, which he describes as follows : —
" I thank my good Lord Erskine (says the poet) ; hee commanded that I should always bee lodged in his
GILLIES WITH GAME
lodging, the kitchen being always on the side of a banke, many kettles and pots boyling, and many spits turning and winding with great variety of cheere, as venison baked, sodden, rost, and stu'de ; beef, mutton, goates, kid, hares, fish, salmon, pigeons, hens, capons, chickens, partridge, moorcoots, heathcocks, caperkillies, and terma- gents ; good ale, sacke, white and claret, tent (or Alle- gant), and most potent aquaevitas.
" All these, and more than these, we had continually in superfluous abundance, caught by faulconers, fowlers, fishers, and brought by my lord's (Mar) tenants and purveyres to victual our campe, which consisted of fourteen or fifteen hundred men and horses.
" The manner of the hunting is this : five or six hundred men doe rise early in the morning, and they doe disperse themselves divers wayes, and seven, eight or ten miles compass they doe bring or chase in the deer in many heards (two, three, or four hundred in a heard) to such or such a place as the noblemen shall appoint them; then when the day is come, the lords and gentlemen of their companies doe ride or go to the said places, some- times wading up to the middles through bournes and rivers ; and then they being come to the place, doe lye down on the ground till those foresaid scouts, which are called the Tinckell, do bring down the deer ; but as the proverb says of a bad cooke, so these Tinckell men doe lick their own fingers ; for besides their bows and arrows, which they carry with them, wee can heare now and then a harquebusse or musket goe off which they doe 99
GILLIES WITH GAME
seldom discharge in vaine : then after we had stayed three houres, or thereabouts, we might perceive the deer appeare on the hills round about us (their heads making a shew like a wood), which being followed close by the Tinckell, are chased down into the valley where wee lay; then all the valley on each side being waylaid with a hundred couple of strong Irish greyhounds, they are let loose as occasion serves upon the hearde of deere, that with dogs, gunnes, arrowes, durks, and daggers, in the space of two houres, fourscore fat deere were slain, which after are disposed of, some one way and some another, twenty or thirty miles ; and more than enough left for us to make merrey withall at our rendevouse. Being come to our lodgings, there was such baking, boyling, resting, and stewing, as if cook Ruffian had been there to have scalded the devill in his feathers."
Inspired with the scene, his muse burst forth in these quaint and curious lines : —
" If sport like this can on the mountains be,
Where Phoebus' flame can never melt the snow : Then let who list delight in vales below,
Skie-kissing mountains pleasure are for me.
What braver object can man's eyesight see, Than noble, worshipfull, and worthy wights, As if they were prepared for sundry fights,
Yet all in sweet society agree ?
ICO
GILLIES WITH GAME
"Through heather, moss, 'mong frogs, and bogs, and
fogs,
'Mongst craggy cliffs, and thunder-battered hills, Hares, hinds, bucks, roes, are chaced by men and dogs,
Where two hours hunting fourscore fat-deer kills. Lowlands, your sports are low as is your seat : The Highland games and minds are high and great" !
STEEL STRIKE LIGHT.
101
POWDER HORN, 1672.
102
Gathering Dulse
71 I ''HIS marine production, which grows in leaves of a deep chocolate colour, over- spreads the sea rocks, from which it is gathered when the tide recedes, chiefly by women and children, who carry it home in creels, Croid- hleagan, as represented in the illustration, or in a smaller sort borne under the arm, called Murlan.
The Dulse of the low country is the Gaelic Duilasg, the Dulisc of the Irish, and the Fucus palmatus of naturalists.
When freshly picked and washed it is an agreeable and wholesome article of food, and 105
GATHERING DULSE
is in perfection when it has been " three times bathed in the May flood." The Ollamh Mhaolich, or the celebrated doctor of Mull, held this production in high estimation, and a saying of his is preserved, which intimates that did the people know its excellence they would gather it from the rocks as if their nails were like iron. It is much improved when intermixed with a small pungent plant called pepper dulse the fucus primatifidus. Some prefer it dipped in scalding water, and we have had it roasted with a hot poker, but when properly boiled it forms a rich, gela- tinous sort of soup, a piece of butter being added to it, and seasoning according to one's means or taste, in which state it may be preserved for some time. It is at times boiled with milk, or a mixture of cream is added when served up, by which it is much improved.
Slaik is another marine plant, less abundant than dulse, which is used in a similar manner. The leaves are transparent, of a brown colour, and being of so extremely delicate a texture,
106
GATHERING DULSE
they are dissolved in boiling into a beautiful jelly, in the preparation of which some old dames are very nice. Dulse is regularly sold in the northern towns, and women attend the markets from great distances, with heavy loads in creels slung on their backs.
The severity of the climate in the High- lands of Scotland is in many seasons exceed- ingly great, subjecting the natives to frequent painful privations, the poorer cottars, from their situation, being often reduced to utter want on the failure of their little crops. The temperature is not so excessively low, being mollified, especially in the islands and along the coasts of the mainland, by the ocean ; but the country is subject to long-continued winds and rains, which with the early in- setting of winter and the late advance of spring, frustrate the labours of the industrious farmer and leave him in sad destitution.
Of late years, and at the present time, this is lamentably the case with the hardy popu- lation of these parts, whose patient endurance of their sufferings is worthy of the highest 107
GATHERING DULSE
praise, and if we do not read of such dire calamities as famine and consequent disease ravaging the Highlands in former ages, we must conclude that under the patriarchal rule of clanship the people were saved by the chiefs, their natural protectors, from such a fate, being provided for when in distress by them and their more fortunate friends, and assisted through their difficulties by the frater- nal co-operation of the clan.
The social state of the Gael is now very different, and it is unfortunately found that they can no longer live with comfort, or even without the frequent occurrence of periods of starvation in their native land. Emigra- tion is the political panacea for both their own distress and the burden of their support thereby thrown on the lairds. The solitude of sheepwalks, hunting grounds, and forest preserves, are already more commonly seen than the cultivated fields and grazings of the tenantry, and the destruction of that class, never to be restored — " a bold peasantry, their country's pride," — cannot be averted ;
108
GATHERING DULSE
sic tempora mutantur in the progress of society — the Highlanders have outlived their pristine state, and must yield to changes not to be eluded. Tenaciously have they clung to their fathers' institutions, delighting in the recollec- tion of a system no longer in existence.
The wars, for which they were so useful in the British armies, opportunely met their wonted feelings and habits ; but even now when these are legally subverted, they have not been able, generally speaking, to adapt themselves entirely to the wide alteration of their circumstances. The philosopher and patriot may regret this melancholy change, but the Highlander's fate appears inevitable.
When a people are visited with want of food, what expedients will be resorted to for alleviation of the pains of hunger ! In the late periods of destitution, old and young resorted daily to the rocks of a stormy ocean as the only source, whence they strove to pick the means of life ; but, truly, much may there be found to serve for human food, and of no inferior sort. Besides the dulse 109
GATHERING DULSE
and slaik, there are wilks, limpits, mussels, oysters, crabs, etc. Of the first an excellent and substantial broth is made, with the addi- tion of butter, and, at times, oatmeal. Groups of children are often seen around a fire kindled among the rocks, broiling the shell fish which have just been taken from their oozy bed, rejoicing at their humble feast, and furnishing pleasing subjects for the artist.
STBKL STRIKE LIGHT.
\
CIRCULAR SILVER BROOCH (Pin broken).
>
Wool-Carding.
T)EFORE the application of machinery for carding and spinning wool, these operations were most efficiently performed by manual labour : they are among those primitive domestic occupations of the High- land females which have not yet been superseded. If, in the march of improve- ment, carding could be accomplished with greater expedition, it could not certainly be done in greater perfection by artificial process. The superiority of home-wrought materials is well known, and the people very indus- triously prosecute carding, spinning, weaving,
WOOL-CARDING
and wauking or fulling linen, tartan, and other cloth, in preference to sending it to the mill or the manufacturer, where, as old women will say, "the heart is taken out of it."
The sheep's fleece is divided into short, or clothing, and long, or combing, wool. The first varies in length from one to four inches, and it is carded with the implements represented in the print, which are furnished with fine short wire teeth, thickly set on leather on a wooden frame, by which the material is mixed or matted, one being held firmly on the knee. This is generally spun soft, and is chiefly used for * cath-da ' hose and coarse thick cloth.
Long wool, which is from three to eight inches in length, is prepared by a different process. The carding is so called from the ' Card,' with which it is performed : for long fleece, the Cir na-Olain, or wool-comb, is used, of which there are, in most families, two or three sets. These, having been moderately heated, the one in which the "5
WOOL-CARDING
teeth, about four inches in length, are widest apart, is filled with the wool, and, when sufficiently combed, it is in a similar manner put through the second, and being thus nicely smoothed in one direction, it is transferred to the finest, and drawn strongly through it by the hand, operations requiring considerable patience and strength. When completed the wool is carefully rolled up for spinning, and the residue sticking in the teeth is placed among the short wool.
Before the wool is submitted to the card or the comb, for the poor can seldom afford to separate the fine, it is thoroughly washed, dried, and greased, or saturated with oil, of which a quantity equal to a fifth, sixth, or more, of its weight is required. As fish-oil will not do, tallow, lard, and the butter from ewe's milk is generally used in the West Isles and remote parts. Long wool may be spun in soft or hand yarn, but the latter requires greater length of staple. It is of course a matter of pride to have fine thread, and this is usually called * fingering,' from the
116
WOOL-CARDING
careful process of spinning. The whole furnishes very ingenious and useful employ- ment for the female inmates of a Highland farm-house during the winter nights, pro- ducing scenes of joyous industry and content. Cloth among primitive nations must have been first formed of the undyed wool, or a mixture of the natural white and black, still common. The manufacture of wool is supposed to have been introduced by the Belgae, who are said to have arrived in Britain about three hundred years A. c., and it is evident that woollen garments were used in the time of Julius Cassar. If the robe interwoven with various colours which distin- guished the renowned Bonduica, otherwise Boadicea, was not a tartan plaid, it is difficult to imagine of what other material it could be formed. Of the same nature were the dresses worn by the Gauls, described by Diodorus, as "saga virgata, crebrisque tesselis florum instar distincta — seu floribus conspersas " ; and the inference is, that their descendants, so tenacious of ancient 117
WOOL-CARDING
usages, retained the manufacture of their progenitors.
Be that as it may, tartan, as known in later times, may be indisputably held to be an original Scottish production, and these beautiful stuffs, now so popular, were until recent years peculiar to the northern portion of the kingdom. The fabrics of these manufactures are often exceedingly good in material and design, and the old webs are far from inferior to those of the present day. A plaid of elegant pattern has been obligingly submitted to us by Mrs. Mackintosh, of Stephen's Green, Dublin, a lady of the family of Mac Pherson of Crubin in Badenach. The colours and texture are very fine, and there is a considerable intermixture of silk. She states, that when placed on the shoulders of her grand-daughter, it is the seventh generation by whom it has been worn ; and, although thus more than two hundred years old, it is still in good condition, but rather threadbare. It is of the hard manufacture, and believed to have been the veritable
118
WOOLCARDING
tartan worn by her ancestors, the clan Mhuirich ; having been submitted, with other specimens, to George IV. and the Emperor Alexander, who wished to possess Highland costumes, it was the pattern which they selected. Several remains of garments worn by Prince Charles and others, in 1745, and before that period, have likewise come under our observation, which display very fine thread, and colours which are still vivid.
The subject is given from an aged woman called Kirsty Mac Cail, the wife of an old Islesman, who adheres to the fashion of a century back, and the figure is seen in almost the same dress which the old dame wore when she became a guidwife.
The square piece of tartan, worn over the shoulders in manner of a shawl, is the Tonnag ; the covering of the head, assumed on marriage, is called Breid, and consists of a square of fine linen, neatly fastened round the head, and hanging down behind. She is busily occupied in carding, as depicted, and, at the time the sketch was taken, she was 119
WOOL-CARDING
relating to her attentive great-grandchild, with characteristic earnestness, Gaelic traditions of other years : of raids and reivers of bygone days, and rencontres of the red-coats and the Gael ; thus handing down, with oral precision, those stirring details of her country's history, too frequently overlooked by the general writer. The abode of this almost centenarian is at Balme, Bunawe, the property of Camp- bell of Monzie, situated on the borders of Loch Etive, near the old castle of Dunstaff- nage, long the residence of royalty, but now in unarrested ruin, although its brightly polished keys are often proudly displayed at the girdle of its hereditary keeper. Nearer to the humble cottage of Mac Cail stand the noble ruins of Ardchattan Priory, also suffered to fall into utter decay, with its monuments and tombstones, so highly interesting as relics of remote antiquity, and curious specimens of sculptural art. Loch Etive is scarcely inferior in romantic beauty to any salt-water lake throughout the Highlands.
To no department of national industry has
120
WOOL-CARDING
more sedulous attention been devoted than to the wool trade and its manufacture. The Acts of Parliament on the subject are exceedingly numerous, and no small anxiety was at times manifested for the proper formation of Cards, which, it was complained, were often made of old leather. It is a curious evidence of the estimation in which this * staple of England ' was held by the British legislature, that in the House of Peers, the most distinguished seat retains its ancient name and impressive form of a Wool Sack.
SKIAN DHU WORN BY PRINCE CHARLIE.
HIGHLAND TARGE OF WOOD, Covered with Leather and studded with Nailheads.
Angling.
/T~"VHIS sport has been denounced as a cruel, unsocial, and foolish amusement, by many eminent writers — Johnson, Byron, and others ; but opposed to their opinion we have that of Walton, the prince of anglers, a man of gentle and amiable nature, of Dr. Paley, Sir Humphrey Davy, and a host of the distin- guished and good. Certain, however, it is, that sensitive minds revolt at a pastime by which fish, guiltless of committing any injury, as in the case of many land animals, are ensnared and killed whilst harmlessly playing in their native element. The sport may be 125
ANGLING
•
well defended ; but the unfeeling argument that neither the bait nor the fish have the sen- sation of pain must be reprobated.
No creature is exposed so much to the attacks of man as the inoffensive salmon. If it escapes the draught, stake, and bag nets in the sea and lower stream, it is intercepted in ascending by the impassable cruives, and should it get upwards during the * Saturday slap,' when they are opened from twelve o'clock at night until twelve next night, the devoted fish is pursued by the skilful angler with his hook, and the poacher with his deadly trident. Indeed, so greatly have salmon decreased in the Scottish rivers, as anglers are well aware, that the Duke of Sutherland has just ordered them a year of jubilee throughout his extensive northern estates; and if other proprietors do not imitate so judicious an example, this will assuredly in time become one of the rarer breeds of fish.
The salmon is called Bradan by the High- landers, and a trout is termed Breac, from its 126
ANGLING
spots; and he who angles is the lasgair, literally the fisherman.
The salmon, although properly a sea-fish, is never caught afar off, but on the coasts adjacent to the mouths of rivers. They are impelled to forsake this element periodically, to get rid of vermin which attach themselves to the sides under the fins ; but ere they leave the streams, other parasites, in the form of worms, fix themselves about the gills. The salmon possess the wonderful instinct of un- deviatingly returning to the river in which they were spawned; but some cases have occurred in which, after floods, they have mistaken their native stream, and been found in others, being easily known by experienced fishers.
In making their way to the upper streams for the purpose of depositing their spawn, they encounter obstacles which it is surprising they surmount. After urging a passage for many miles along the rocky channel of a rapid stream, a perpendicular waterfall may present to the now greatly 127
ANGLING
enfeebled fish, a formidable impediment to their farther progress. The Keith, a fall on the river Erich, in Perthshire, is a direct down pour of upwards of thirteen, feet, the water rushing through a gap of the width of a few feet only. In seasons of drought, the channel is so ebb, that the salmon cannot attempt the necessary leap, and they may be seen in the pool below, waiting, in shoals two or three deep, the swelling of the waters. When the rain produces a sufficient stream, the salmon then essay the arduous task, and often do they leap before they get fairly a head, the falling water dashing them back; but according to the height, they seem to calculate the requisite force, and all at last get over the cascade. These falls are called easan in the Highlands, and linn in the Low Country, which is the Gaelic for the pool which they form. They occur on almost every stream, and it is amusing to witness a shoal of salmon thus actively engaged. When the spawning season is over, the fish pass down to the sea in a state 128
ANGLING
of such weakness as scarcely to be able to swim, even with the stream.
It is needless to give any particular descrip- tion oi the tackle used in this sport, the least expensive and perhaps the most easily acquired of all others. The rod and line are known to almost every one ; the manner of using them is, like all other accomplishments, acquired by practice. An angler must have a knowledge of the flies which are in exist- ence at the different seasons ; and those found about particular streams, and the proper mode of busking artificial ones on the hook, requires considerable skill.
No rivers are better adapted for the enjoy- ment of nature and this exhilarating and health-giving amusement than those of the Highlands. The Gael, from early infancy, betake themselves to angling, and at an early age become such adepts, that they will some- times hook and land salmon almost as big as themselves. Boys of ten or twelve years of age have been known, in favourable streams, to kill upwards of a hundred good trout in 129
ANGLING
one day ; and Coll, son of Mac Donald of Inch, a youth equally expert with his gun as with his rod, has taken in the Spean, which flows from Loch Laggan, six fine salmon before breakfast.
As the breed of salmon decreases, so also does the size. The largest we recollect of late was one caught two years ago in the Tay, which weighed forty-five pounds ; but in that river, which of all others in Scotland has pro- duced those of greatest weight, there have been taken beautiful fish of sixty and even seventy pounds. Next to the majestic Tay, in this respect, ranks the beautiful Tweed.
Before the expedient of preserving them in ice was adopted, salmon were generally boiled and pickled; the Highlander kippers them, which is performed by cutting them open, salting and drying them over wood or turf fires, and in this state they are to him a con- venient provision, as the bacon is to the Eng- lishman.
130
HIGHLAND TARGB OF WOOD, - Covered with Leather and studded with Nailheads.
Deer-Stalking
/T^HIS is the most notable of all field- sports, as regards the majestic character of the prey, and its keenness of instinct, the qualities necessary for the hunter, and the grandeur of the scenery where he pursues his game. The deer, notwithstanding its great strength and fleetness, is an extremely shy and solitary animal, and so vigilantly does it guard against the approach of man, that it is a matter of the greatest difficulty to get within reach of shot. The deer possesses the keenest of eyes, and its olfactory powers are surprising ; hence it is scarcely possible to 132
DEER-STALKING
advance, especially on the weather side, the animal never, but from necessity, going ' down the wind,' without giving alarm, while still perhaps at an unseen distance.
It is further remarkable of the deer, that in a herd there is always a stag of com- manding age and size, which takes the van, and is indeed the leader, the whole following his movements, and taking warning of danger from him. The sportsman must, therefore, have recourse to the most skilful manoeuvring to get within reach of his game, with which he has to deal much in the way of the red warriors of America, adopting the same tactics to entrap his prey as the Indian prac- tises to surprise his enemy. Like him, also, he must possess the necessary qualities for the arduous task : energy — perseverance — endurance of bodily fatigue and privation- quickness of sight, and precision of aim. The Highland deer-hunter will have to go through numberless fatigues ; wading through bogs and streams, swimming rivers, clambering among rugged mountains, lying prostrate for 135
DEER-STALKING
hours, advancing on hands and knees — a movement in sporting parlance called ealadh — and even creeping like a snake among the lank heather, are some of the pleasures of this manly recreation. A bivouac on the naked heath after a day spent in the above evolutions, and a frugal breakfast of oatcake and water, happily, at times qualified by a glass of whiskey, are not to be reckoned hardships. When the deer are discovered, the softened exclamation Eid, passes quickly along the company.
There is not, throughout the Highlands, a man who possesses a superiority in every qualification required in a hunter of the hills to John Mac Rae, gamekeeper to Grant of Glenmoriston, in Inverness-shire, and from a sketch of this worthy the principal figure in the print is taken.
The stealthy manner in which the deer is slain is called Stalking ; but although a covert attack, resembling the method used by illegal trespassers, is thus made on the game, which is incompatible with the rules 136
DEERSTALKING
of the open chase, it must in nowise be confounded with poaching. The country does not permit the deer to be followed as on the gentle uplands in the southern por- tion of the kingdom, with the exhilarating attendants of hound and horn.
When hunting was necessarily pursued for the supply of food, or, in accordance with a Gaelic practice, to honour the visits of strangers, it was on a scale which gave it the aspect of a military campaign. The Scottish monarchs frequently retired from the cares of royalty to enjoy the chase in their Highland dominions ; and our most gracious Queen, like the unhappy Mary of Scotland, evinces a partiality for this ' royal divertisement.'
This ancient mode of hunting was per- formed by surrounding a large extent of country by numbers of men, who, at a signal, advanced slowly with loud shouting, and by these means roused the game, and drove the whole towards a certain point, where the animals were shot or cut down by the broad- 137
DEER-STALKING
sword. This extensive battue is not in exact accordance with the modern rules ; but it had formerly necessity in its favour, and it is so agreeable to a Highlander's habits, that it is not yet abandoned when such a circumstance occurs as a royal visit. It is called Timchioll na Sealg, or the Circuit of Hunting. Curious accounts are preserved by olden chroniclers of several of these magnificent huntings, which have been made the subject of an entertaining article in the ' United Service Magazine ' for November, 1 844.
At that held in honour of Queen Mary, 1563, there were collected, besides fallow and roe, 2000 red deer, of which more than 360 were killed. In another of these ' hunting matches,' given by the Earl of Athol to King James V., there fell " thirty score hart and hynd, with other small beasts, as roe, wolf, fox, and wild cats."
Taylor, an English writer, called the Water- Poet, accompanied Lord Erskine, ancestor of the Earl of Mar, to the Highlands of Aber- deenshire, where he witnessed a splendid deer 138
DEER-STALKING
hunt, with the subsequent banquet, and gives a very particular detail of the whole pro- ceedings, in quaint prose and quainter verse. The camp contained 1400 or 1500 men, who were sumptuously regaled.
"The modern method of deer-stalking, though not carried out with such semi-barbaric display, has very largely increased during the last half of the nineteenth century. This is more strikingly illustrated when we state that the deer-forests of Scotland cover a space of over two million square acres. These are chiefly rented by English noblemen, wealthy merchants, or American millionaires. Though called deer-forests in Scotland, there is really now little wood in them. They chiefly consist of large tracts of ground, lofty mountains, pasture, heather, moorland, and sheltered corries. These vast solitudes are supposed to be more favourable for the purpose of breeding the deer and for sport, if other game, sheep and cattle, are excluded. It is a debatable point whether the extension of these forests has done much to displace the crofters and sheep in the Highlands. The great deer-forests of Scotland are nearly all in the counties of Aberdeen, Sutherland, Ross, Argyll, Perth, and Inverness."
As may be supposed, the English terms of venery are not in use among the High- 139
DEER-STALKING
landers. A deer is called Fiadh, a male roe Boc, a female, Earb, and Earbag, the dimi- nutive, is usually applied to a fawn. The young at six months of age is called Laogh, a calf. Mang or fiadh 6g will correspond with the English term brocket ; when the animal is three years old, it acquires the name Damh, which it retains until it is five, and is afterwards called Lan-damh, a full stag. The same terms are applied to the roe, except that after the third year the female obtains the name of Eilid.
The Antlers are called Cabar, from which the deer is frequently called Cabarach. A male deer at the age of one year has knobs, or cnapan, on his forehead and small brow antlers appear. The horns are shed annually, and the new-attain their full growth in three months, when a velvet-like coat, called Mogan, which covers them at first, drops off. The horns are the perquisites of the gamekeeper, and they are valuable, but are so seldom found in comparison with the numbers which are cast, that it has often 140
DEER-STALKING
excited surprise. From so many being found in lakes and marshes, it is supposed that the animal resorts to these places at the time the horn begins to get loose.
The size of the stag depends on the supply of pasturage in the range he in- habits : eighteen or twenty stone is the average weight; but instances have occurred of their weighing thirty. The longevity of the deer is very great. By a Gaelic Rann, or verse, it is said to be three times the age of a man, and cases have occurred which fully verify the calculation.
PRINCE CHARLIE'S
FLINTLOCK DOUBLE-BARRELLED PISTOL (Left Side).
141
142
Spinning with the Distaff.
/TT^HE art of forming threads from wool, •*• flax, cotton or other material, was practised in the most early ages. In the sculptures of ancient Egypt are representations of females spinning, who use the spindle and distaff in precisely the same manner as repre- sented in the illustrative print; and in the Bible record, frequent allusion is made to this manual occupation, as one of the most excellent of female qualifications. In Exodus xxxv. 26, the Jewish women are extolled for their diligence and skill in spinning ; and in that beautiful book, the Proverbs xxxi. 13, a us
SPINNING WITH THE DISTAFF
strong recommendation of a good wife is that " she seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands." It is the most natural expedient that could have been adopted for the combination of fibres, and the primitive operation continues in practice among the inhabitants of our Celtic countries, and in the rural districts of the continental nations.
The Dealgan, or Spindle, the Whorl of the low country, is a piece of hard wood, round, smooth, and tapering at one end to a small point, the thicker end being downwards, which serves to give it sufficient impetus to spin round. The whorl, or whirling part, is, however, often composed of a circular bit of wood, sometimes even of bone or ivory, through which the spindle is thrust, fixing it near the lower end. The Fearsaid differs from the Dealgan in being formed like a slender cone of such weight as to maintain a proper velocity.
The Cuigeil or Distaff, called Kogel by the Welsh, is the staff, around the top of which 146
SPINNING WITH THE DISTAFF
is wrapped the material to be spun, and it is kept upright at the side by being fixed in the string or belt, fastened around the waist. This part is frequently carved, as the dirk hilts are, with tracery, much similar to the implements used by the Indian tribes, and they are preserved for generations. It appears that this part of the simple apparatus was often held in the hand, and the spindle was twirled on the ground, on which the women were seated, in the same manner as children spin their tops ; but by a simple noose which prevents the thread from un- winding, the fearsaid, or spindle, can be suspended so that the spinner may work while standing or walking, thus gaining a greater length of thread. Having set it in motion by the fingers and thumb, or a smart roll against the thigh, the fibres which have been attached to the small end are twisted into thread of the requisite fineness, and the spinner continues to draw off proportionate supplies until a convenient length is obtained, when she winds it around the thicker part 147
SPINNING WITH THE DISTAFF
of the spindle, repeating the operation and removing the balls of worsted or thread until the task is completed. When the spindle was worked on the ground and rapidly whirling, the spinner was enabled to make it wind up the thread by bending it with the finger to right angles with the spindle, and when it was thus wound up, the spinning was recommenced without stopping, a process requiring the greatest dexterity.
The great, or one thread wheel, was the first improvement on this tedious occupation. By this the spindle is worked horizontally, the end, to which the thread is attached, projecting beyond its frame. The wheel being driven quickly round, which gives great velocity to the spindle ; as it continues to revolve, the spinner goes backwards, supplying the wool, which is not put on a distaff, but held in the hand or affixed to the side ; and when a sufficient line of thread is formed, it is either wound up in the manner above described, or allowed to wind itself up as the person slowly walks towards the 148
SPINNING WITH THE DISTAFF
wheel. Ardess and toilsome as these modes of spinning may appear, they require an attention and dexterity which nothing but long and careful practice can produce.
The Saxon, or small wheel, for spinning linen thread, common elsewhere for house- hold use, is so little known in the Highlands, that it is unnecessary to say more respect- ing it.
By these methods of spinning one thread only is formed, and when two or more are to be united, so many balls are put in a basket and wound into one as in the first operation, or an instrument is used for the purpose, called Caitir-leasg, or Catti-suirig.
The simple reel on which the threads are wound preparatory to making them into iornan or hanks, is represented in the figure carding wool in Number III.
.The picture was made from a sketch taken in Strathglas, Inverness-shire, a romantic glen near the baronial castle of the Chisholm. The costume of these damsels is such as is commonly worn by Highland girls in these 149
SPINNING WITH THE DISTAFF
days — rather modern, especially the cap. The short upper frock, called in parts of the low country, a wrapper, is the Bedagoun of the Gael, a term derived, it is presumed, with the garment from the Saxon. The want of stockings or shoes is no privation to the Highland fair sex, for in going to church or elsewhere, when it is becoming to wear them, it is done with reluctance, and in returning they will often be seen to sit down by the way and denude themselves of such un- pleasant restraint.
The cottage walls are formed partly of turf and stone, a very usual mode of building, and the roof is thatched with straw. The * Hake ' on which the fish are hung, is a usual appen- dage to the cottager's house, except in the more inland parts, where from the want of conveyance, that excellent food cannot readily be procured.
The horse-shoe is placed over the door to prevent the effects of witchcraft or intrusion of the Sithichean, or fairies, who, although they are called ' the good people,' no High- 150
w
w\
SPINNING WITH THE DISTAFF
m
II
lander wishes in any way to encounter. This potent preservative is also affixed to the masts of boats and ships to save them from being wrecked by malevolent spirits ; but the superstition is not confined to the Gael, it is prevalent among the higher civilized English; and we have seen the talisman at the threshold of more than one house, even in London.
WATCH CARRIED BY PRINCE CHARLIE.
15*
Herring Fishery.
' I VHIS branch of our national commerce, the source of great wealth, gives em- ployment to many thousands, and affords a cheap and excellent food to millions.
The name of this prolific and useful fish is derived from the German Heer, an army, a term descriptive of the prodigious numbers in which they appear ; in Gaelic it is called Sgadan.
The shoal which proceeds from Iceland, occupies an extent of surface equal to that of Great Britain and Ireland. It reaches the shores of these kingdoms about the middle 152
HERRING FISHERY
of June, and dividing, one division proceeds southwards by the east coast, as far as Great Yarmouth, while the other passes by the Hebrides and west coast of Scotland, to Ireland and Wales. They are in full roe until the end of June, and are in good con- dition until the beginning of winter, when they begin to deposit their spawn and dis- appear from the southern seas, retiring, it is supposed, to their native haunts in the polar ocean.
The Dutch have obtained the credit of being the first to engage in the herring fishing, and they have for centuries enjoyed the best part of it ; but there is good reason to believe that the inhabitants of Britain had devoted their attention to it at an earlier period. From Anderson's " History of Com- merce," it appears that traders from the Netherlands resorted to Scotland in 836, for the purchase of salted fish ; and in the " Annals of Batavia," it is recorded that the Scots were accustomed to sell their her- rings there in the ninth century, a traffic
HERRING FISHERY
which led to a commercial alliance, which long subsisted, between the two countries. The Dutch, who date their regular fishing from 1163, nevertheless, appear to have acquired a sort of monopoly of the herring fishery, while it became much neglected by the Scots. To revive this trade, King James III., considering it " expedient for the com- mon good of the realm, and great increase of riches," enacted, in 1471, that certain lords, spiritual and temporal, and burghs, should make or procure "ships, busses, and other pink boats, with nets, etc., for fishing." This was confirmed by James IV., when the burghs were ordered to provide ships and boats of not less than twenty tons, with nets and all other necessaries, according to the substance of each burgh. Subsequently the attempt was made to establish towns in the Highlands for the promotion of fishing, which after many years' perseverance by the " Undertakers," or barons and gentlemen, empowered for the purpose, in the island of Lewes, was 156
^
HERRING FISHERY
ultimately frustrated by the opposition of the Highlanders.
It has been remarked by the author of " Caledonia," that no encouragement has in- duced the Celtic race, in Ireland, Wales, or Scotland, to enter with spirit into the fisheries, for which their coasts are so favourable ; the herring is, however, so desultory in its habits, that the Highlanders may be unjustly blamed, for sometimes a loch, or tract of coast, will be entirely deserted for years ; neither does it appear that in other portions of the empire have even bounties and privileges produced greater enterprise. The herring fishery has been regulated by many Acts of the Legis- lature ; but the first bounty on the expor- tation of herrings was granted by the Scottish parliament, in 1705.
The Highland Society of Scotland, with characteristic patriotism, charged itself with the duty of framing a bill for the revival of this important branch of employment, which was passed in 1808, and by the encourage- ment given by subsequent regulations, and 15?
HERRING FISHERY
the services of the Board for Fisheries, etc., it has since been prosecuted with spirit.
The art of curing herrings is supposed to have been discovered by William Beukelings, a Dutchman, who died in 1397 ; but there is reason to believe that he was only an im- prover on the art, for from 1306 to 1360, the herring fair and fishery of Yarmouth formed a great branch of its trade ; and, in 1313, a ship of Lynn, a neighbouring town, was captured, which had been fishing for herrings on the Norwegian coast.
The herrings of the west coast are not so plentiful, but are much superior to those of the east ; and, as the season commences, the Highlanders pass round in great numbers, when the town of Wick, in Caithness, the most noted place of resort, presents a highly animated appearance. When multitudes of boats from both north and south are col- lected, the scene is singular and pleasing. In the northern latitudes, a dim twilight con- tinues during the mid-summer nights, and the boats are often within hail of each other. 158
HERRING FISHERY
The stillness is broken by the occasional mirth of the crews, or the plaintive lorrams, or boat songs of the West Highlanders, whose thoughts are of their distant home and the relatives and friends they have there left.
When the boats arrive with their cargoes, which are reckoned by crans, or barrelfuls, the fish to be cured have the entrails taken out by a particular nip, leaving the melt and roe ; but they are not opened, as several of the most esteemed Encyclopedias describe ; they are then put into a strong brine, where they are allowed to remain from twelve to sixteen hours, and when taken out are well drained, and packed closely on their backs, in a circular form, the cooper finishing the process by putting in the heads of the barrels very tightly. This is called the White pickle. Red herrings must be kept in the salt water twenty-four hours, they are then strung by the head on wooden spits, and placed, to the number of many thousands, in chimneys, where brushwood, or
HERRING FISHERY
turf, is kindled on the floor, and managed so as to give a great deal of smoke without flame, from which is derived their peculiar flavour and colour. They are generally dry in about twenty-four hours, when they are put into barrels for keeping. These barrels will hold from 500 to 800 fish.
The sketch was taken on the side of Loch nan Uagh, in Arisaig, and the male figure is that of a man not more experienced as a fisher than notorious as a smuggler ; and it is said that in barrels, such as represented, he has at times contrived to convey without detection, a keg of good poit du', or whiskey, concealed among the fish. A curious cir- cumstance had occurred at the time the artist made his drawing. The fishermen, having one night caught a young whale, the old one making its appearance, attacked the boats furiously, and continued in the loch for some days, so that without harpoons or other weapons they could not venture on an attack. The group represents an idle peasantry, in their usual costume, having
160
HERRING FISHERY
at the time no avocation to withdraw them from ' a friendly crack ' about the country news.
It is matter of just complaint that the Dutch should be allowed to fish so near the coasts, and drive a lucrative trade on our very shores ; it indicates a laxity in the en- forcement of the international laws, which regulate the mutual rights of different countries.
PIN HEAD.
161
CRUSIE OR OIL LAMP WITH IRON STAND.
162
Robbing an Eagle's Nest.
f I VHE Eagle, sacred to Jove, is called lolair, by the Highlanders, as a generic name, but a common designation is Fioreun, a term composed of Fior, perfect, true, and Eun, a bird, and it well merits such a title of distinction, holding the first rank among birds, as the lion does among quadrupeds.
The towering flight of the eagle has been often alluded to with admiration ; in the height to which he soars he is frequently lost to view; yet, from this altitude, he appears, by his extraordinary visual powers, to discover his prey, on which he descends with amazing 165
ROBBING AN EAGLE'S NEST
rapidity. When, however, the bird is flying low, the speed is not remarkably great; and notwithstanding his surprising strength, majestic mien, and expanse of wing, the act of rising from the ground is accomplished with difficulty.
This noblest of British birds is so keenly pursued as a destroyer of game, that they have, in general, much decreased; yet, it is observable, that in those parts of the High- lands where the population has been removed, it has been favourable to the increase of the lolairean, and game on which they prey has become, consequently, scarce ; the lambs of the solitary shepherd, more particularly, afford- ing them a frequent and favourite repast.
The districts of Arisaig, Muidart, and Morar, on the Western coast of Inverness- shire, still known by the natives as ' the country of Clan Rannald,' though now in possession of the stranger, are rather famed for the stock of these monarchs of the feathered race ; and in the former locality, the interesting circumstance took place which 1 66
ROBBING AN EAGLE'S NEST
forms the subject of the accompanying print, and which the young man to whom it occurred himself related to the artist. On the summit and ledges of its inaccessible crags, the eagle rears its young, and may be observed looking abroad, fearless of molesta- tion, searching with its piercing eyes the lake and the plains, whence it so often, to the shepherd's grief, bears off its prey.
The anecdote was thus detailed : — Having repeatedly lost his lambs, a watch was care- fully set, and the lawless 'lifter' was detected by the Buachail, or herdsman, in the very act — a splendid eagle, seizing a lambkin, bore it away, high in mid air to feed its young. The nest was built in the cliff of a perpen- dicular rock, on the north side of Loch nan uagh, or Lake of the caves, noted as the place where Prince Charles landed, in the rising of 1745. The eyrie was thus discovered; but a height of two hundred feet from the surface of the lake seemed to preclude the shepherd from all modes of assault. Determined to succeed, the fearless Celt formed the resolution 167
ROBBING AN EAGLE'S NEST
of descending from above, as practised by the fowlers in the island of St. Kilda and the North Isles, and slung himself by a rope over the dizzy steep. He had reached the nest, where lay his lamb, the provender for two voracious eaglets, when suddenly he was pounced on by the old birds, arrived with a fresh supply. The peril of his situation may be conceived ; on plain ground the fierce encounter with two such infuriated assailants would have been sufficiently trying, but in his position it was appalling. He defended himself long from their furious attacks, and at last succeeded in wounding both with his sgian-dubh ; when, fastening to his girdle the eaglets and the relics of the lamb, with the knife in his mouth, ready for further defence, he warped himself up, and fortunately reached the summit, bleeding and quite exhausted! A similar exploit is recorded as having taken place in the province of Connaught, Ireland ; but in this case the hero was let down the precipice in a basket, which gave him a great advantage over the Highlander; yet he was 1 68
ROBBING AN EAGLE'S NEST
glad to escape, after wounding one of the eagles, without accomplishing his object.
The plunder which eagles may amass is astonishing, both from its quantity and variety, and their predacious habits require an extended range : from their power of wing and talons, and the deadly stroke of beak, none of the weaker animals can make defence. Naturalists have at the same time observed, that they do not indulge in wanton destruction, are inclined to solitude, and roam only in search of food. It is told of a gentleman in Strathspey, near whose residence a couple of large eagles had taken up their abode, that if, on the arrival of guests or otherwise, he was in want of pro- vision, he sent to the eyrie of his providers, where hares, rabbits, poultry, game, and lambs were procured. Salmon and trout might even be found among the multifarious products of the forage, for it is known that they will watch by the breeding fords of the fish, and destroy numbers when weakly and intent on forming the beds for their spawn; but instances are on record where the salmon has 169
ROBBING AN EAGLE'S NEST
destroyed the eagle, by carrying it under water, when incapable of extricating his deep sunk talons, and having his plumage drenched in the stream.
A Highlander, who had found out a nest with young, contrived, by fixing rings around the eaglets' throats, to restrict their appetite, to live sumptuously, by carrying away, daily, the best provision which the old eagles had collected for their brood. In some countries young eagles are trained to the chase.
The voracity of the eagle sometimes equals that of the vulture, and it is not unusual to find the bird so gorged over a carcase, that, unable to get away, it is overtaken and killed. It lives to a very old age, being known to have reached considerably upwards of a century.
As the eagle is reckoned the most noble bearing in heraldry, so it affords the mark of distinction among the Gael. By the Ossianic compositions, we learn that a pinion distin- guished the heroes of old. The Highlander carries one feather in his bonnet, the Duine- 170
ROBBING AN EAGLE'S NEST
uasal, or higher order, display two, and the chief is known by bearing three. Had the enterprise of Prince Charles been successful, it is said that a Celtic order of the mountain eagle was to have been instituted.
WOODEN DRINKING VESSEL WITH HANDLES.
171
so
Fording a River
f I VHE streams which descend from a mountainous country are difficult to be passed, and when swollen it is often impossible for a considerable time to get across them, where no bridges have been erected. Channels, which in summer are almost dry, become raging torrents during winter, and continue full until the summer is advanced, from the melting of the snow in the mountain hollows.
The heavy falls of rain, also, which frequently take place, bring down the waters suddenly as to cause great damage, and 172
FORDING A RIVER
they rush onwards with such rapidity that instances are recorded of loss of life from being surprised by the impetuous flood ; but a Highlander can distinguish the peculiar noise of the coming stream before it emerges from the mountains.
Water spouts occasionally burst in the hills, when trees, corn, cattle, and houses, are carried away, gravel and stones of enormous size being left on the fertile haughs, or meadow land ; and sometimes a new channel is formed for the stream, and where in such case it is the march or boun- dary of estates, disputes have arisen as to the proprietorship of the dissevered portion of land.
On the broader rivers, where boats are used, they have not unfrequently been swamped in the passage, and this was more particularly the case in the olden time, when Curraghs, or small vessels con- structed of hides, stretched on a wicker frame work, or boats formed from the massive trunks of trees were used, as was 175
FORDING A RIVER
the case within memory of man in Strathglas.
An ingenious contrivance is to be seen at the castle of Abergeldie,1 in Braemar, where the passenger takes himself across the Dee in a basket, or ' cradle,' suspended from a rope passed from each bank of the river; stilts are, also, sometimes used where the bottom is not rocky and uneven, which seems a practice introduced from the south, where it is quite common; but it being necessary for the Highlanders to ford the streams without artificial assistance, great strength, fortitude, and particular skill, are required to do so with safety.
1 While the 'cradle ' at Abergeldie existed until recently, much of the danger and romance which survive in the story and legends of the Highlands in connection with the fords and ferries by which the 'crossing of the stream ' was effected has been swept away by the onward march of civilization. Many of those ferries, deep and rapid rivers, and innumerable smaller streams, subject to frequent and sudden floods or ' spates,' have long since been provided with the requisite bridges and necessary roads leading thereto, chiefly provided for by statute 176
FORDING A RIVER
i
If the river is very rapid, the stones and pebbles are rolled violently along its rugged bed, which renders the passage more dan- gerous; and as a means of strengthening his resistance to the water, the Highlander will carry a heavy stone in his plaid as ballast ; but when two are in company, they are enabled by their joint energies to ford deep and strong rivers, by grasping each other at arms' -length and using a strong stick in the other hand as a support. If the ford admits it, the more who are thus locked together, * gualibh ri cheile,' or shoulder to shoulder, as it is expressed, so much the
labour. The first result of this was the substitution of carts and other wheeled vehicles instead of ponies for the internal commercial intercourse of the people, and consequently partial disuse of the 'fords.' In more recent times still, the utilitarian spirit of the age has provided, either at the public expense or by private generosity, bridges almost wherever they were required. Thus all the glamour and mystery connected with nearly every fordable Highland stream will henceforth only exist as legends and traditions preserved in local history.
177
FORDING A RIVER
better, although their confidence often exposes parties to great danger.
A company returning from a funeral in Strathglas, resolved to ford the river, a practice which the more spirited Highlanders prefer, even when a bridge is nigh. It was then greatly swollen, or in a ' spate,' and they arranged themselves as usual with the strongest men towards the stream ; but when they reached the middle, so insecure was their footing, that, afraid to proceed, and unable to retreat, they came to a stand still.
Those who had accompanied them to the water, and the others, who, having passed round by the bridge and awaited their landing, beheld in anguish their imminent and helpless situation, as they stood in the raging flood, which every moment threatened to carry them off.
The cries of the friends of Ian mor, who stemmed the torrent, were, that he should loose hold of his neighbour, and seek to save his own life : advice to which the generous Celt would give no ear. Some of 178
?,«* FORDING A RIVER
the weaker occasionally gave way, but were upheld by their companions : and a short, thick-set fellow, Cailain dubh, or dark Colin, who flanked the lower end of the line, having fastened a heavy stone across his shoulders with the rope that had been used to lower the coffin, firmly kept his feet, until, towards nightfall, by cautious steps, they all got safely over!
Ian mor's brogs, by the effect of the gravel and water, had lost their soles and worked up to his knees; but he and his friends were becomingly thankful that the coffin rope, to which they owed their salvation, had been brought with them.
The Spean, through which the figure in the illustration is passing, discharges in a rapid stream a great body of water, and as the fords in most places are narrow, and bordered by pools of great depth, it is a very dangerous river to those who may attempt its passage. Some years ago a party, consisting of Mr. Eraser, sheriff 179
FORDING A RIVER
of Fort William, Mr. Mac Donald, of Inch, and their ladies, with the author of these illustrations, were nearly lost by fording it in the night. Since this mishap, the place has been pointed out as glac an t-Siorra, ' the sheriff's pass.'
The figure of the Highlander here repre- sented is taken from an old but sturdy fellow, called Mac Gillie Mhantich, and it is very usual to ford the river in this manner; a plaid being put around the woman, the ends are taken over the neck of the man, who, pro- vided with a stout staff, or as here shown, the Cromag, or Crook, makes his way, with the female on his back, steadily through his watery path. When there are two men, by grasping each other as before described, a person can sit securely between them, the arms being put around their necks. This way is more particularly suited to females in delicate health.
There is a Gaelic rann, or verse, which celebrates the most fearless forders of their native streams in these words :— 180
FORDING A RIVER
u Mac Garranich, Mac Glasich's, Mac Uthich, Triur 's fhear a chuireas An Amhuin an Alba,"
which signifies, that, ' The men of the Garry, the Glass, and the Ewe, are the three best to cross any river in Britain.'
PRINCE CHARLIE'S
FLINTLOCK DOUBLE-BARRELLED Pisrot (Right Side).
181
SILVER BROOCH WITH INTERLACED ORNAMENTATION,
182
As
sr
V
Spearing Salmon
/TPO the rivers, friths, and lochs of Scot- land, this excellent species of the finny tribe resorts in great abundance, and the streams afford to the angler the most excel- lent amusement.
It was an early observation, that among the Celtic race a prejudice to fish existed, and reference has been made in modern times to its still lingering existence. In some old poems, catching salmon is spoken of as a Highland sport, yet a proverb is retained ex- pressing something like contempt for those who feed on fish ; and certain it is that some 185
SPEARING SALMON
writers of a former generation who visited the Highlands, felt surprised to find that the trout, with which many streams abounded, should not be molested by the natives. It is to be feared that dire necessity, from their want of cattle and failure of their crops, has since forced such prejudice to give way. Too happy would the hungry be to carry home a load of trout, fattened in the moss-imbued waters of the lake or burn.
The nature of all mountain streams is well known : in winter and in spring they pour down in rapid torrents, when the trout and salmon leave the sea, and urge, with amazing strength and instinct, their passage to the upper parts, where they deposit their spawn. Here they continue, until often they are left in numbers, imprisoned in pools by the de- clining stream, thus affording a plentiful and easy capture. The anti-game preserving ideas of the Highlander, lead him to con- sider the taking of salmon little breach of moral propriety ; yet " black fishing," as it is called, is not only illegal, but lamentably 1 86
SPEARING SALMON
destructive to the brood of this valuable fish, as they are then foul, or in their passage to the spawning ground.
Like all such exhilarating sports, the young are greatly pleased when engaged in it, and Highland boys are often dexterous salmon spearers, even by day, when it is much more difficult to strike a fish than by night, the usual time for operation.
The scene represented was sketched in Lochaber, where two men are seen busily engaged, but more may be supposed present, as parties of ten, twenty, or thirty sometimes go out, and pursue their occupation all night. They are generally men from a neighbouring district, who are more likely to avoid detec- tion ; and as those who engage in such pursuits are of determined character, no one who values a whole head and unbroken bones would venture to molest them.
One man holds the torch, which is com- posed of pieces of tar barrels, old ropes, bog fir, etc., and another carries the instrument, which he can use with unerring dexterity ; 187
SPEARING SALMON
and a company will sometimes be so success- ful as to carry off creels full of fine salmon, sufficient to load several native garrons, or ponies.
The spear is called Muirgheadh in Gaelic, but is otherwise named the leister, and, as shown in the print, it is barbed, so that when the fish is struck its capture is sure. If the spearman can approach so near as to transfix the salmon, he brings it up ; but the instru- ment is often thrown by a good marksman, with equal certainty, and in this case it has sometimes a rope attached, to recover it and the fish with facility. A man in Glenspean has been known to kill a salmon nine times out of ten attempts, at a distance of forty yards. It is best to strike at the head or middle, for if fixed by the tail, from its great strength, the fish may give considerable trouble.
Spearing salmon affords a scene of the most novel and striking description, the wild excitement of which must be witnessed to be rightly appreciated. The picturesque effect
1 88
SPEARING SALMON
of the blazing torches on the darksome waters, on which are thrown shifting and fantastic shadows, the lurid glare discovering the expected prey — the sound of the rushing stream in the gloomy night — the splashing of both men and salmon, with the shouts of laughter as some poor fellow, intent upon the sport, slips over a stone into a sullen pool — the occasional dash of a heavy fish as it springs from the water through the legs of the spearman, altogether form a picture of the strangest character to the eye of one unaccustomed to the sight.
It is a scene the more interesting, as among other effects of refined civilization, spearing salmon may be among those things which once have been. This valuable fish has been decreasing for years, and if the breed continue to decline in the same propor- tion, experienced fishermen say it must, ere long, become extinct.
The salmon fishery, in a national point of view, is highly important, and although numerous Acts of Parliament have been 189
SPEARING SALMON
passed to protect it, and various individuals, as the late Sir Francis Mac Kenzie, of Gair- loch, have exerted themselves in the discovery of means for the safety of the spawn, the root of the evil has not been reached. It is the new, and it is believed illegal, use of bag-nets, introduced about twenty years ago, which is the chief cause of this result ; they are not only placed in rivers, but along the whole coast, and their effect may be seen from the fact, that in this year there arrived in London market, of grilse or young salmon, 5100 boxes less than in 1846, which was itself one of the worst years of fishing ever remembered.
DRINKING CUP USED BY PRINCE CHAKLIB.
190
POWDER HORN, 1678.
191
Whiskey Still.
TT is a curious fact that the means of producing artificial excitation, or a pleasing flow of animal spirits, is one of the earliest objects of human solicitude. No sooner have herds been domesticated and the land brought into cultivation, than the invention of man discovers the art of preparing an exhilarating beverage. To the people of the east and the southern countries of Europe, the vine afforded a delicious treat, the want of which the Gauls and Britons supplied from grain, and the liquor prepared from it they named Curmi, a word 192
WHISKEY STILL
retained in close resemblance by the Welsh, whose term for beer is Cwrw ; the Gael have lost this word, but they retain Cuirm, a feast, and call ale Loinn, the Llyn, or liquor of the former.
It was reserved for the northern descend- ants of the Celtic race to improve on the process of fermentation, and by distilling the Brathleis, or wort, they became the noted preparers of Uisge beatha. This term is literally " the water of life," corresponding to Aqua vitae, Eau de vie, &c., and it is from the first portion of the word that * Whiskey ' is derived. It is otherwise called Poit du', or the black pot, in the slang vocabulary of the smuggler, the Irish Poteen, or the little pot, being of similar import.
The superiority of small still spirits to that which is usually produced in large licensed distilleries, is supposed to arise from the more equable coolness of the pipe, a regular supply of spring water being introduced for the condensation of the steam and the Braich, or malt, is also believed to be of a better 195
WHISKEY STILL
quality, being made in small quantities, and very carefully attended to. As the prepara- tion of malt for private distillation is illegal, it must be managed with great secrecy, and the writer has seen the process carried on in the Eird houses, often found on the muirs, which, being subterraneous, were very suitable for the manufacture. These rude construc- tions had been the store-houses for the grain, to be used in another form, of the original inhabitants. Whiskey may be sometimes of inferior quality; but where the people are generally so good judges of its worth it is not likely that a bad article will be produced, and it may be observed that the empyreumatic taste, vulgarly called 'peat reek,' is a great defect. Tarruing dubailt is double distilled, Treasturruing, three times, and when it is wanted to be still stronger, it is "put four times through," and called Uisge bea'a ba'ol. From the nature of the traffic, the most secluded spot is selected for the plantation of the simple distillery. Caves in the mountains, coiries or hollows in the upland heaths, and 196
WHISKEY STILL
recesses in the glens, are chosen for the purpose, and they are, from fear of detection, often abandoned after the first ' brewst.' The print exhibits a Whiskey Still at work in a moonlit night, attended by two gillean, or youths, and the primitive construction of the apparatus is sufficiently made out. Into the tub, or vessel, through which the ' worm,' or condensing pipe is conveyed, although not seen in the picture, there is a small rill conducted, which, running through, affords a constant supply of the cold stream.
National as the love of whiskey appears to be, it is matter of doubt whether it has been long known to the Highlanders. Some writers seem to have no doubt that the ancient Caledonians possessed the art of preparing alcohol ; but to arrive at the distillation of spirits an acquaintance with chemistry is requisite, and society must be in an advanced state of improvement ere such a manufacture could be attempted. Writers who have directed their attention to the subject, maintain that no satisfactory 197
proof can be found of whiskey having been in use at an earlier period than the beginning of the fifteenth century. Certain it is, that malt liquor formed the chief beverage of the old Highlanders, who do not seem to have had so fond a relish for uisge beatha as their successors, and however useful a dram of good Glenlivet may be in a northern climate, it does not appear that the present race are more healthy and hardy than their fathers. General Stewart gives the evidence of a person who died in 1791, at the age of 104, that lionn-laidir, strong ale, was the Highland beverage in his youth, whiskey being procured in scanty portions from the low country ; yet Prince Charles, at Coireairg, in 1745, elated to hear that Cope had declined battle, ordered whiskey for the common soldiers, to drink the general's health, which would prove it to have been then plentiful.
Illicit distillation was at one time perse- veringly carried on throughout Scotland, and whiskey was indeed a staple commodity. Many depended for payment of their rents 198
WHISKEY STILL
upon what they could make by this means, and landlords had obvious reasons to wink at the smuggling which prevailed with their knowledge to such an extent among their tenants; some years ago several justices of the peace in Aberdeenshire were deprived of their commissions, for stating it as impos- sible to carry into effect the stringent acts passed for the suppression of the illegal practice.
In the fastnesses of the Highland districts it was difficult to discover the bothies, where the work was carried on, and prudence often forbade the gauger from attempting a seizure ; but in more accessible parts of the country, his keen search could only be evaded by the utmost vigilance. In Strathdon, Strathspey, and neighbouring localities, where a mutual bond of protection exists, it is the practice, when the exciseman is seen approaching, to display immediately from the house-top, or a conspicuous eminence, a white sheet, which being seen by the people of the next ' town,' or farm steading, a similar signal is hoisted, 199
WHISKEY STILL
and thus the alarm passes rapidly up the glen, and before the officer can reach the trans- gressors of the law, everything has been carefully removed and so well concealed, that even when positive information has been given, it frequently happens that no trace of the work can be found.
The life of a smuggler is harassing, and the system has a demoralising tendency ; from the time he commences malting he is full of anxiety, and the risk he runs of having the proceeds of his painful labour captured in its transit to the customer is not the least of his troubles. Sometimes the low-country people will meet the Highlanders, and purchase the article at their own risk; but it is generally taken by the latter to the towns, and they travel frequently in bodies with horses and carts. Information is often obtained of these expeditions, and the exciseman intercepts it, taking, if necessary, a party of soldiers ; but sometimes, after a severe encounter, the smugglers have got off, carrying back a portion of the spirits, and, mayhap, leaving
WHISKEY STILL
wounded or dead on both sides. When the party reaches the vicinity of a town the greatest caution must be observed in going about with the sample of " the dew," and all sorts of expedients are adopted to convey it, when sold, to the premises of the buyer.
LOCHABSR AXB.
201
POWDER HORN, 1783.
202
Throwing the Stone.
A THLETIC sports form one of the Y"\
favourite pastimes of people in a state
of society similar to that of the Scottish Highlanders, the inhabitants of mountainous countries delighting in the perils of Alpine adventures and the trials of strength and hardihood. These are the most congenial amusements to those of masculine, agile frames, and impetuous spirits, and they greatly promote both mental animation and warlike prowess.
The famed Olympic games, founded in the infancy of Greece, and instituted for the 205
J!
THROWING THE STONE
display of feats of strength and agility, were proudly supported through after ages. The Athletae were professional exhibitors, but the most exalted personages also entered the heroic arena, and often carried off the prize. The Olympiads bore a close resemblance to the Bardic festivals still maintained in Wales, and the competition gatherings so frequently held in the Scottish Highlands.
Indoor employments are less suitable to the taste of a Gael, than the invigorating recreations of the field, yet, when not called abroad, some divertisement is naturally re- quired to alleviate the tedium of the evening hours, during the long and darksome winter, in which he is enwrapt. For this he is well provided with many amusing social recrea- tions, some of which are unknown in the low country. Mairi, nighean Alasdair ruadh, a poetess of high renown, who flourished about 1620, tells us that "the game of Chess and the music of the harp — the history of the feats of the Fingalians, with the relations of the pleasures of the chase, 206
THROWING THE STONE
were what the good son of Mac Leod loved."
The antiquity of Chess among the High- landers is proved by a curious discovery which was made in the Isle of Lewis 1831 of a number of the pieces, antiquely carved from the tusks of the Walrus, and a king- piece of similar workmanship found in the ruins of Dunstafnage Castle, Argyleshire.
The love of gambling was particularly observable among the ancient Gauls and Irish, for the latter would lie in wait for any one whom they might induce to play, and the former would continue the amusement, if the term can be used for so serious an affair, until all being lost, they staked their freedom on the chance and would thus place them- selves in slavery !
The Cymro branch of the Celtic race, so remarkable for the minute regulation of all their customs, did not overlook the impor- tance of manly exercises. From 'Proberts Welsh Laws ' as published in the Archasology, the following among " the twenty-four excel- 207
THROWING THE STONE
lencies," which formed the proper education of youth, are given as applicable to the present subject.
Feats of strength.
Wrestling.
Running.
Jumping.
Swimming.
Horsemanship.
Archery.
Fencing with sword and buckler.
Fencing with the two handed sword.
Fencing with the double pointed stick.
Coursing with grey hounds.
Fishing. Chasing birds.
Bardism.
Playing at Chess.
The first ten only are accounted manly, the others being either "youthful" or "trivial." The Quinquertium, or five principal games at the Olympian festival were running, leap- ing, wrestling, throwing the javelin and quoits. Among the Highlanders, are racing, leaping, 208
THROWING THE STONE
the running leap, much practised for its use- fulness, wrestling, club and foot ball, tossing the caber, throwing the hammer, putting or throwing the stone, lifting a heavy stone, contests in swimming and many other feats of sheer strength and agility. The weight of the stone, called clach-neart or the stone of strength, which was to be lifted from the ground, was sometimes very great, and it was frequently placed near the church and sometimes in the Kirkyard, that the men might exercise their ' vis inertia ' after the conclusion of religious service. One of this sort, named the Puterach, remains near the Kirk of Balquhider in Perthshire, which the strongest may boast having raised from the ground, breast high, which is the trial, and he is accounted a muscular man who can do so. Clach-cuid-fir was a stone of two hun- dred pounds weight and upwards, which was to be lifted from the ground and placed on another four feet high at least, and the youth who could perform this feat was forthwith reckoned a man.
209
THROWING THE STONE
It is judicious in several respects to encour- age national sports and pastimes, especially when they are of a manly and invigorating character. It affords pleasure to the tenantry who are excited to a generous rivalry, and circulates money in localities where it is some- times of great use. We accordingly find throughout Scotland, numerous associations tor promoting competition in these exercises, supported by the nobility and gentry. Be- sides the Highland Society of London and its branches, the chief objects of which, are the encouragement of Language, Literature, and ancient Music, and that of Scotland, which is principally devoted to Agriculture, the follow- ing may be enumerated as more particularly engaged in the patronage of athletic games. The Celtic, the Bannockbura and Stirling, the St. Fillan, the Athol, the Braemar, the Strath- earn, the Glasgow, the Perth, the Dunkeld, the Fort William, the Dornoch, established by the Duke of Sutherland, the Holyrood and the Roslin Gymnastic, the Heather dub of Edinburgh, and the St. Ronan on the border.
210
THROWING THE STONE
In the game here illustrated which is called Putting, two sorts of stones are used, the light and the heavy. The first is about six- teen pounds in weight, the latter from twenty to twenty-four pounds ; but the regulation differs in several societies. Sometimes a few paces run is taken to increase the impetus. We have seen a stone of twenty-two pounds thrown a distance of thirty-three feet, but it is often propelled considerably farther. The prizes are sometimes in money and at others in dresses, swords, dirks, powder horns, brooches, snaoisin mulls or snuff horns, medals, etc.
Mac Phee, the Outlaw.
A FTER the risings of 1715 and 1745, numerous individuals, and even bands of Highlanders, lived in undisguised hostility to the constituted authorities of the realm ; being either legally proscribed on charge of rebellion, or having voluntarily disclaimed allegiance to the House of Hanover. These lived in the ' troublous times ' ; but that any one in the present day should be able to maintain himself in safety when outlawed, is somewhat surprising.
There is considerable interest in the life of the Highlander, here the subject of
MAC PHEE, THE OUTLAW
illustration, who has lived so long at the ban of the law, and has grown grey in a state of roving independence.
It is about forty years since Ewen Mac Phee, then a fine athletic young man, was enlisted by his landlord in one of the Highland regiments embodied at that time. The profession was well suited to Ewen's disposition, and he was noted as a sprightly and able soldier ; but having very improperly been led to expect a commission, he became greatly discontented ; and when, after serving some time, he found no prospect of the realization of his hopes, he formed the resolution to desert.
He did not attempt this object in the usual clandestine manner, but quite deliberately left parade, and marched home to the Highlands. He was, of course, quickly pursued, and was speedily captured, handcuffed, and marched off under a file of soldiers. In passing through Stratheric, the prisoner, watching a favourable opportunity, bounded from his guard, and plunging down a precipitous 215
MAC PHEE, THE OUTLAW
bank escaped the musquets of the party, and was quickly lost in the thicket. He qpntinued his flight until he reached a lonely cottage, where, with the assistance of the shepherd, the handcuffs were knocked off by a stone, and the deserter was again free in his mountain wilds. He pro- ceeded to Coiriebuie, a secluded retreat on the estate of Locheil, where he lived unmolested for many years, supporting him- self by hunting, fishing, and rearing a few goats, and occasionally assisted in floating wood.
He was well known by his countrymen, but met with no molestation, for although he avoided giving any offence, his determination to die rather than be retaken, and his being constantly armed, served to overawe any who might intend to arrest him ; and it was matter of prudence not to arouse his sense of danger. On one occasion he was pointed out to a person anxious to see a character so noted, by the incautious observation, " there he is," on which Ewen drew his 216
MAC PHEE, THE OUTLAW
dirk, and in the confusion which arose, Mac Kenzie, the stranger, was wounded.
Being at last hotly pursued, he was obliged to leave Locheil, and he took possession of an island in Glenquoich, one of the chain of lakes in the line of the Caledonian canal. It is of small dimensions, scarcely a half acre in extent ; but the situation is highly romantic and solitary, the few birch trees which it produces contrasting agreeably with the dark mountains on either side, which are streaked with snow almost throughout the summer.
He had, when in Locheil's country, won the affection of a girl of fourteen, who is now his faithful wife, and mother of five children. In this islet they constructed a hut with branches of trees and turf, and he found, or formed, a boat, to enable him to get to the mainland, where he pastured some goats. These supplied him with milk and flesh, and his rod and gun procured him other food.
Ewen is held in fear by the neighbouring 217
MAC PHEE, THE OUTLAW
tenants, from his daring character and supposed supernatural powers, which he believes himself to possess, and hence offer- ings of meal and money are not unfrequently conveyed to the island. This residence, however, must in winter be exceedingly cheerless ; and the situation of his family, bred up in lawless wildness, is a painful consequence of Ewen's singular position ; although it is believed the mother, who is still comparatively young and active, may impart a certain amount of instruction and Christian duty.
Ewen is represented as much attached to his family, and a melancholy evidence of this lately occurred on occasion of the death of one of his sons. He had no wood wherewith to form a coffin, and if he had possessed the materials, he was so over- whelmed with grief, that he could not, as he said, "steady his hand for the work." He therefore left the desolate isle in his boat, and sought the assistance of a shepherd, who, procuring some herring barrel staves, was 218
MAC PHEE, THE OUTLAW
able to form a rude receptacle for the body, which was interred in a romantic burying-ground used by the people of the glen, and situated in another island in the lake.
Ewen, although well stricken in years, is still strong and healthy, and his muscular frame gives promise of a protracted age. The dangers to which his irregular mode of life exposes him, require his utmost vigilance, and frequently his greatest physical exertion. To prevent surprise, he has always a loaded gun close to his bed by night, and his dirk by his side during day : it seems even his wife is not unused to the rifle.
His goats, a flock of sixty, had pastured on the farm of Mr. Cameron, of Coirechoillie, for which Mac Phee had never paid ' grass mail'; so one day in February, 1842, during his absence, the whole were driven off. Mrs. Mac Phee, a modern Helen Mac Gregor, gave quick pursuit, firing several times upon the party, but could not rescue the spoil ; yet the dread of the outlaw's, retaliation on 219
MAC PHEE, THE OUTLAW
Cameron's sheep, induced him at last to pay for the goats.
When Mr. Edward Ellice had purchased the property of Glenquoich, Ewen paid him a visit, and in the style of ancient vassalage, or rather independent lairdship, he presented him with some goat milk cheese, and coolly, but with great politeness, informed the new proprietor, that he wished him well, and if no disturbance were offered to him, he should never think of molesting Mr. Ellice ! The island is, indeed, not perhaps worth a shilling ; but it was well adapted for the residence of this stern Highlander. Yet he has been lately ejected from his domain, and lives at Fort William, without much fear of being farther troubled by civil or military authorities.
The foregoing is graphically described in Mr. Edward C. EUice's book on Place- Names in Glengarry and Glenquoich^ published in 1898.
" Macphee was a well-known character throughout Inverness-shire about 50 years ago. Enlisting into the
MAC PHEE, THE OUTLAW
army as a young man, he soon found the restraints of discipline irksome to his restless nature, and, after a short term of service, deserted, and returned to his native Glengarry, where he lived in concealment with his sister at Feddan. The regimental authorities, however, hearing of his hiding-place, sent a sergeant with a. posse of soldiers to arrest him, and these, coming to Feddan unawares, captured him without much difficulty, and marched him off to the steamer at Corpach. Just as the steamer was starting, Ewen suddenly bent down, and, snapping his handcuffs against an iron bar which lay on the deck, leapt ashore. The steamer was off, and so was Ewen, and bounding over the heath, he was soon out of reach, unharmed by the few bullets which the soldiers sent after him. For two years he wandered about the woods which line the shores of Loch Arkaig, when, finding that he was no longer pursued, he made up his mind to build himself a bothy on the island in Loch Quoich, which now bears his name. His bothy built, he must needs have a wife ; so one fine morning he stepped across the hill to Glen Dulochan, where he had previously made the acquaintance of a girl, and, without much more courting, popped her on his back, and returned to his island, where they were duly married.
When Mr. Ellice first came to Glenquoich he found Macphee in possession of his island. He was looked up to by all the poor people of the glen as a " seer " ; cows that were ill were brought to him to be cured, and he was also a noted weaver of charms. Mr. Ellice's first interview with Ewen was characteristic of the man. The former and a friend were sitting one night after dinner at Glenquoich Lodge, then quite a small house, " a but and a ben," drinking their
MAC PHEE THE OUTLAW
whisky-toddy, when in walked Macphee, attired, as usual, in full Highland dress. Mr. Ellice, in the course of conversation, asked him by what right he lived on the island ; for answer, Ewen drew his dirk and, plunging it into the table, said : " By this right I have kept it, and by this right I will hold it."
Macphee lived for many years on the island, and was a great favourite with Mr. Ellice, in spite of his notoriously wild character. Many are the anecdotes told in Glenquoich of his escapes from the sheriff's officers ; but as time went on his sheep-stealing pro- pensities grew on him, and at last the neighbouring shepherds, alarmed at the losses in their flocks, de- termined to try and bring the thefts home to him. They had not long to wait ; one snowy morning they found the tracks of a man and some sheep which led down from the hill to the lochside just opposite his house. The sheriff was informed, and two officers were sent to his house; these rowed over from Glenquoich to the island. Ewen, of course, was away on the hill; not so his wife, who without much ado commenced to fire on the officers as soon as they approached the island ; these, being quite unprepared for this style of reception, found in discretion the better part of valour, and retired to Inverness. Then, next week, however, they returned in force and this time well-armed. Ewen Macphee was caught and taken to prison, where he eventually died ; and on searching the place, bales upon bales of tallow and skins were found hidden in the loch under the banks of the island."
222
Signal for the Boat.
of the great inconveniences of a Highland and insular life, is the necessity in traversing the country for cross- ing rivers, lochs, and arms of the sea. The state of the weather renders this frequently impossible for some length of time; rivers become swollen, lochs and seas are in tempestuous agitation during a great part of the winter, the inhabitants of remote places consequently suffering at times con- siderable privation from the stoppage of regular communication with the mainland or more favoured localities. Should the 225
SIGNAL FOR THE BOAT
weather, however, be favourable for a passage, it is necessary to apprise the Fear a bhata, or Boatman, on the opposite side, which may be a mile or more distant, that his services are required by some weary traveller, anxious to reach his destination. The hoisting a flag on a tall pole con- spicuously fixed, might well answer the purpose of a signal, but a more ready and natural expedient is practised in the High- lands. Turf is found plentifully in almost every part of the country, with which a fire is speedily got up, the smoke giving the necessary notice.
In these days of universal improvement, the Highlanders doubtless avail themselves of the use of chemical matches in the most remote districts, but when this valuable article is not at hand, a light is procured as in former times, from a neighbouring cottage, or a live peat may be carried from some distance. It is otherwise obtained by the sparks elicited from flint and steel, the back of a dirk, a sword, or the flash of the 226
.™ SIGNAL FOR THE BOAT
powder from the lock of a pistol or gun. Those who possessed a lens have used it during the warm days of summer to raise a fire by the well known concentration of the sun's rays.
There was much agreeable excitement in journeying through the West Highlands in days of yore. It was then incumbent on the tourist to engage a boat with able rowers to transport him from isle to isle or across the numerous lochs or inlets of the ocean ; horses and guides were also to be procured, and in these ways a considerable amount of money was left among the Highlanders, while the intercourse was in other respects beneficial.
It is quite otherwise now that steam boats ply all around. In these the travellers generally embark at Glasgow when bound to the west and north, and they are carried to the far-famed Staffa, the venerated lona, the Caledonian canal, and other places, where they are allowed an hour or two to land and examine the natural and antiquarian 227
SIGNAL FOR THE BOAT
curiosities, which offer themselves to notice, and thus they pass through the country, without perhaps leaving a shilling behind. The poor Highlanders feel the loss of this source, whence a seasonable accession to their scanty means was often obtained.
The boat fire is always made on the same spot, that it may not be mistaken. It is generally kindled on a projecting point of land, and when the smoke is seen ascending, the people on the opposite side announce it to the ferryman, " Smuid suas ! " the smoke is up, on which the boat puts off to convey the awaiting passengers across their watery way. The smoke, which it is desirable to render dense, is seen from a great distance when the day is fine, but in wet and foggy weather the mist which overhangs the water is embarrassing.
At night the brightness of the fire will render it the obvious means of giving signal for a boat. " The warning flame " was the primitive telegraph by which aid was requested and danger indicated, and the same means 228
•>* SIGNAL FOR THE BOAT
are yet employed in military operations. The proper distribution and management of " Bail fires " were regulated by Scottish Parliament, and the proper time for the immortal Bruce's descent upon Carrick for the recovery of his kingdom, was indicated by the kindling of a fire in a certain place.
An affecting tale, in which we find the use of fire, as the only mode of conveying information, is preserved in the islands of the west.
St. Kilda, or Hirta, as it is called by the natives, is the farthest inhabited islet in this range, and it has only one place where a landing can be effected, while it is exposed to the unopposed fury of the Atlantic Ocean. The people live chiefly on the sea fowl which abound among the rocks, and with the feathers their little rent is paid. To procure these birds the greatest perils are encountered, and loss of life is often the result of the adventurous toils.
A boat had gone on one occasion to a 229
SIGNAL FOR THE BOAT
precipitous rock at some distance from St. Kilda, in search of the usual game, when unfortunately the boat was dashed to pieces, while the crew got safe upon the rugged isle. The storm increased, and here were the for- lorn men exposed to its severity with no means of escape, or any hope of relief from their grieving friends, who could do nothing for their rescue or ascertain their fate. In these afflicting circumstances the unfortunate men lighted as many fires as there were survivors, and at night, when these beacons were seen, and the number reckoned, night by night, the people of St. Kilda knew, by this device, how many had been saved, and until the weather moderated so that assistance could be sent to take them off their sea-girt prison, they contrived to subsist on such fowl and fish as could be procured.
The artist has sketched a man and woman, waiting the arrival of the boat for which they have raised the smoke, the well-known signal, which has been obeyed. In cold weather the fire is agreeable, if the party has long 230
SIGNAL FOR THE BOAT
to wait, and there is usually a quantity of fuel prepared for use, as necessary for the working of this Celtic Trajectus, which is sometimes maintained at the expense of the landed proprietor or surrounding gentlemen.
SPORRAN WORN BY PRINCE CHARIJK.
231
Gille Calum.
'"TpHIS dance so popular in the Highlands •*• is more properly the Sword Dance, a performance which requires great agility and admits of considerable grace in its execution. Dancing is one of those beautiful exercises and agreeable amusements in which all nations indulge. The savage, with whom it is either a matter of enjoyment, a defiance to the foe, or incentive to fight, enters into the wonted evolutions with the same spirit, and threads its maddening mazes, with as much punctilio, as the accomplished performer of the grave minuet and the more exhilarating waltz. 232
, %
GILLE CALUM
It is deemed by many of the more austere to be unbecoming the composure and good sense of civilized mankind, if not morally reprehensible, to engage in dancing ; but we have the example of no less a personage than Socrates, who in his advanced life addicted himself to the practice, and to one who, having found him so engaged, expressed sur- prise at the philosopher's levity, he answered, that, were his friend to know how much pleasure and advantage in point of health were derived from the pastime, he also would learn the art.
Dancing was a part of religious worship among ancient nations, and it is intro- duced in the ceremonials of some modern people. We find King David dancing with joy and gladness before the ark of the Lord. On the escape of the Israel- ites from Pharaoh, Miriam, the sister of Aaron, went out, followed by all the women chaunting with timbrels and with Dances, a solemn song of praise for their deliverance, and the daughters of 235
GILLE CALUM
Shiloh danced in an yearly feast of the Lord.
With the Greeks and Romans it was a principal part of worship, and the Welsh were accustomed to form a dance in the churchyard on the conclusion of service.
There is, perhaps, no people who take more delight in dancing than the Gael, both of Scotland and Ireland. It is indicative of a strong musical genius and buoyancy of spirits, for they will resort to it as a recreation after the hard labours of the day. The figures and steps are admirably adapted to the national music ; the Jigs of the one, and the Reels and Strathspeys of the other being well known characteristics of the two countries.
The effect of Scottish dancing is very much heightened by the picturesque costume, as well as the manner of using the arms by the men, and knacking the finger and thumb, with an occasional shout of exhilara- tion in unison with the notes, which we think peculiar to Scotland. The steps and passes 236
GILLE CALUM
are varied, and in many cases elegant, generally requiring great agility to be well performed.
In variety, they are a contrast to those of Ireland. George IV. on witnessing some of the reeling, at the Ball given in the palace of Holyrood, 1822, repeatedly ex- pressed his applause by clapping his hands ; and our excellent Queen orders the native dances to be gone through, not only in her visits to the Highlands, but at all Court Balls.
Military dances have been in practice among most nations of antiquity, and are found with those who still retain their primitive manners. The Indians exhibit with fervent enthusiasm that striking scene in savage life, the wild war dance, and the Greeks, so highly refined, joyed in the Pyrrhic, in which the actors clashed their swords and bucklers in imitation of a combat.
The Gauls and their descendants, the Caledonians, doubtless, had similar warlike excitements. The Highlanders have the 237
GILLE CALUM
Dirk Dance now almost forgotten, and the Sword Dance, known all over the country, as * Gille Calum,' from the name of the tune by which the movements of the performer are regulated, but it has no relation to the performance itself, being simply the name of a man, about whom some unimportant verses are repeated.
The air played to the dancer does not appear to have been uniformly the same, different districts having had particular com- positions ; in Perthshire, the tune was called ' Mac an Rosaich,' being of that grave de- scription called ' Port.' Its original name, it would appear, was * Mac an' orsair,' which, with the mode of dancing, General Stewart of Garth tells us, has disappeared; but he had seen it executed by some old men.
As now performed, two naked swords are laid across each other on the floor, and the person who dances, moves nimbly around them, dextrously placing his feet by a peculiar step in the intervals between the blades, at first by a single step, but as he proceeds 238
GILLE CALUM
the movement becomes rapid and compli- cated, exciting a dread in spectators lest he may wound his ancles. The object is to avoid the blades, as the dance is broken should either be touched ever so slightly.
This is the Sword Dance as now per- formed, which does little more than shew, like those of several other nations, its martial origin. As danced by old men, according to descriptions I have received, it was more in character, for in the course of the dance they took up the swords and made certain flourishes as if engaged in fighting or defying an enemy.
It was also appropriately called ' an Baiteal,' or the Battle Dance, and was performed by thirteen persons at Perth in 1633, before King Charles. In Rolt's life of the Earl of Crauford, Colonel of the 42nd Highlanders in 1739, we are told, that "he performed in a noble way the Highland dance habited in that dress, and flourished a naked broad sword, similar to the Pyrrhic dance. He performed before the King and full court, 239
GILLE CALUM
also before a grand assembly at Cormorra, in Hungary, in the costume of that country."
' Gille Calum ' has not certainly been im- proved by the loss of this variation, which would give so much effect and character to an interesting relic of the ancient Gaelic manners.
The figure in the illustration dances to the music of the Jew's-harp, a simple instru- ment which the Highlanders play with great effect, and for excellence in which prizes were formerly bestowed. An old man whistles as an accompaniment.
w\
HARRIS POTTERY.
24I
Carrying Peat.
f I ""HE supply of fuel in a northern country •*• of variable climate, is an object of primary solicitude to the inhabitants.
In the north and west parts of Scotland the only material in general use for the domestic hearth is turf or peat, called in the Highlands foid and moin. It is un- necessary to describe so well known a natural feature as a moss or bog, and the manner of its formation from the marshy deposit of vegetable substances, accumulating for ages. Such a tract is sometimes of wide extent, and although in many cases shallow, 242
CARRYING PEAT
in others the depth is found astonishingly great. One at the foot of the Grampian Mountains in Aberdeenshire was sounded by an auger of forty feet without meeting other soil!
Mosses are often an unsightly blemish on the fair fields of a proprietor, and are fre- quently brought under tillage and rendered excellent soil by agricultural skill. This is accomplished sometimes by cutting up the surface, which is burned and the ashes scattered around ; at other times, judicious irrigation speedily transforms the dusky heath into a verdant field; and, in the case of the great Blair Drummond Moss in Perth- shire, the turf being cut deeply out, it was, by an ingenious contrivance, carried away by water and floated into the river Forth. Where the fuel is plentiful, a moss may be brought into cultivation without hardship to the people, and should it be wanted in future, the peat will be again found under the surface soil.
The destruction of the Caledonian forest, 245
J
CARRYING PEAT
which covered the Highlands, and the pro- gress of improvement has denuded the country of its ancient wood, and where coal is wanting, mosses afford a supply, as if by the order of Providence, of an article of the first necessity, for which no substitute is to be found.
In some parts where peat is valuable, the several farms have certain allotments, or ' peat banks,' specified in the tack or lease ; but great liberality is generally shown in this matter, the poorer tenantry being by most landowners allowed to supply them- selves with as much as they require during the year. Some proprietors have, indeed, restricted this practice, of immemorial obser- vance, at which the people, very reasonably, grumble, as an interference with their ancient rights.
The peat-harvest, to assume an expression, takes place in the months of summer, and the cutting or ' casting ' begins in May, the operation being performed with an implement called Torrisgian, by which the turf is cut 246
CARRYING PEAT
into pieces of the form of a brick, but thinner and some inches longer. The sur- face being taken off, the torrisgian is applied, and the spade part being furnished with a sharp projection at right angles, cuts the moin into the shape described. This is done within a certain breadth, the workman passing alternately from side to side, and the operation is continued to a suitable depth, the pieces being detached with rapidity and thrown to the bank, where a person dextrously catches them ; and when there are no wheelbarrows, and plenty of hands, the peats are passed from one to another, spread out to harden, and then set on end by threes and fours to dry. If the weather is propitious and the people diligent, they are then removed home and ' stacked,' or built up in an oblong form beside the house, like a small hut, and protected from wet by a covering of the upper part of the moss. They are often, however, left in this state on the muir, and portions carried home when required for use. The primitive 247
CARRYING PEAT
stack was conical, and hence called Cruach mhoine, as descriptive of its form.
The poorer people have their * firing ' cut and taken home for them by their friendly neighbours, and there is often seen a spirit of cheerful co-operation, such as a Socialist might envy. A certain farmer wishes to have the whole quantity of fuel which he requires cut up at once, he therefore intimates his desire, when all the adjacent tenants turn out, both men and women, and the work is speedily accomplished — generally in one day. This affords a scene of great animation, for casks of whiskey and ale, bread, cheese, fish, and mutton are provided in cheering abundance, and now-a-days the female portion of the labourers are provided with their valued beverage, the heart-healing tea. This is a mutual service rendered to each other with great delight, and is particu- larly remarkable in the county of Sutherland.
Peat-fuel is burned on the hearth, and considerable skill is said to be necessary in its right management. It makes a cheerful 248
CARRYING PEAT
fire, throwing out great heat with a smell which pervades the whole house, but is not disagreeable, and its effects are said to be less injurious than those of coal. The ashes are carefully preserved and are a useful manure, especially when mixed with sea- weed or other substances.
The illustration represents two Cailleagan carrying home a portion of their winter comfort, from the Maol a Cruadh, in Loch- aber, by a path where it is evident neither horse nor cart could be used. The principal figure was sketched from a Glenco girl, named Caorag rua' ; both are in the usual costume of Highland peasants, and the basket, the Scottish creel, is called Cliabh. The open work is for the convenience of lifting it, and reeving the rope by which it is carried.
249
BRONZE ARMLET.
250
Carrying Fern
(See Frontispiece.)
* I KHIS beautiful plant, the Filix of botanists, is found in the greatest abundance and luxuriance in most parts of the Highlands, rapidly spreading wherever it takes root, a single leaf often bearing no less than one hun- dred millions of seeds, and when it gets into land under cultivation for grass or crop, it is a matter of great difficulty to expel it from the soil. It is chiefly found in wooded situations, but it is otherwise seen over- spreading large tracks, forming a contrast to the brown or purple heathy muirs. In autumn, when it assumes a deep golden 251
CARRYING FERN
colour, some of the small uninhabited isles of the west present a pleasing and a singularly gorgeous appearance.
The Fern is called Raineach in- Gaelic, and receives the name of Braikens in the south and east of Scotland, a term which is properly applied to the female plant, and is evidently derived from the word ' breac,' signifying spotted, the seeds appearing in numerous brown specks or clusters beneath the leaf.
The Raineach is applied to different pur- poses by the economic Highlanders. It serves as a ready and excellent litter for cattle, and it forms no unpleasant bed for a weary traveller. It is highly valuable as a com- pound in manure, either of itself when green or taken from the cowhouse. It forms an excellent covering for corn stacks and houses, being much cheaper, while it is greatly superior for this purpose, to straw or rushes ; it is next to Heath in durability as an article for thatching, and if well laid on it will last without requiring any repair, 252
CARRYING FERN
from fifteen to twenty years, heather being equal to slate and standing as long as eighty to a hundred, if the timber do not decay!
The practice in thatching, Tughadh in the vernacular, is to lay an under covering of Foid, scotice, divots or thin cuttings of turf, which are placed with care and regu- larity in manner of fish scales, on cabers or pieces of wood laid transversely on the rafters or great beams, which in the houses of old construction spring from the ground, giving great strength to the building. On this the Fern is carefully spread, but it is frequently the sole covering. The plant is first laid at the top of the side walls, the stems being usually placed downwards and successive layers are added as the work advances upwards to the ridge, where it is terminated by a fastening of divot or turf; sometimes also its security is increased by ropes of straw or birch twigs, held in their place by wooden pegs.
To the above applications of this useful plant may be mentioned that of having it 253
burned when green, to procure a lye for the process of bleaching.
It has been observed in a former number, that in all primitive society, a large pro- portion of work is performed by women, more particularly that which appertains to the management of flocks, and the domestic regulation of the household. The same practice is continued to a great degree in the Highlands, and from observing the per- formance of duties which, from their severity, seem to devolve with more propriety on the men, travellers have taken frequent occasion to charge them with the harsh treatment of the females, an assertion al- together groundless and uncharacteristic of the people. When travellers observe the women engaged in what appears hard work, in fishing villages and habitations on the coast, they must recollect, that the men are spending their weary days and nights seeking a precarious livelihood on a stormy sea. Many duties in rural life necessarily fall to the care of the females, by whom they are 254
CARRYING FERN
performed with cheerfulness, however labori- ous, and such, indeed, is the force of habit, that they would not willingly be prevented from these acts of attention, which they believe it incumbent on them to perform. One of these employments is conveying home Ferns. From their lightness a quantity of great bulk may be easily carried, and the Highland girl, with a light heart and an agile step, bounds along the dusky plain and across the roughly rushing brook, with her sylvan load. The Raineach stubble and the wiry heath are not, to be sure, the softest materials on which the naked feet may tread, but habit has inured the peasant to the practice, and shoes would sadly cramp the elasticity of gait so observable in the High- land population : in fact, the females have a dislike to the use of shoes and stockings, although they may have them.
The visit of Her Majesty to Badenach, last year, afforded the artist an opportunity of sketching one of many girls employed to cut and carry from the hills the choicest 255
F
CARRYING FERN
Ferns to ornament the rustic arches raised in honour of the Royal landing at Fort William. The dress is that which is now worn, and has nothing in it more particular than what has been shewn in the illustrations of some former numbers. Heretofore the gown was open in front, which allowed it to be tucked behind with a degree of grace and convenience. In this figure it is parti- ally pinned up, loose, and neglige, without the appearance of scantiness; neat, and befitting the nature of alpine and pastoral life.
In elder times, while the men marched bare thighed to the field of honour, the better part of human creation went with uncovered leg to those employments which threw comfort and happiness around their mountain dwellings, and enhanced the solace of their " ain fire side."
256
Index.
Abergeldie Castle, 176.
Acts against illicit distilling,
199. Albert, Prince, his Highland
home, 15. Alexander, Emperor of Russia,
119.
Alexander II. of Scotland, 48. Allegiance to House of Hanover
disclaimed, 212. Amusements of the Highlanders,
205.
Anderson's " History of Com- merce," 155. Angling, 125. Angling, Opinions for and
against, 125.
" Annals of Batavia," 155. Antlers, or cabar, 139.
Antlers, shed annually, 140. Archaeological remains, Ard-
chattan, 120. Archery, 208. Ardchattan Priory, 120. Argyle, Earl of, in battle, 30. Arisaig, famous for eagles, 166. Armlet, Bronze, 250. Athol, Earl of, and James V.,
138-
Attacked by a whale, 160. Axe, Lochaber, 71.
Badenach visited by Queen Victoria, 255.
" Bail Fires " regulated by Par- liament, 229.
Ballach, Black Donald, 30.
Balme, Buna we, 120.
257
INDEX
Balquhidder, Kirk of, 209.
Bardic festivals, 206.
Bardism, 208.
Barilla, Introduction of, 78.
Battle dance, 239.
Bedagoun, The, 150.
Bell of St. Fillans, 142.
Benkelings, William, 158.
Bird chasing, 208.
Black and white cloth, 117.
Black cattle, 42.
" Black fishing," 186.
Blair Drummond Moss, 245.
Boadicea's robe, 117.
Boat, Signal for the, 225.
Boat, Waiting for the, 230.
Boat fire kindled, 228.
Boats swamped in crossing a
river, 175.
Book first printed in Gaelic, 89. Bothan-Airidh,or mountain sheil-
ings, 77.
" Boy of the Horn," 87. Bradan, or salmon, 126. Braikens, or ferns, 252. Bradwardine, Baron of, his
washing maids, 56. Brass cooking pot, 82. Breac, or trout, 126. Breid, The, 119. Britons, Early, Corn stores of, 26. Brooch, Brass, 10. Brooch, "Large Luckenbooth,"
6.
Brooch, Silver, in, 182. Buachail, or herdsman, 167. Buailtearan, or threshers, 28. Buchanan, George, 88. Burning corn in the straw
illegal, 50. Byron, Lord, on angling, 125.
Cabar, or antlers, 139.
Caesar landed in Britain B.C. 55, 26.
Caesar's " Commentaries," 26.
Caithness, Earl of, 30.
Caitir-leasg, 149.
" Caledonia," by Chalmers, 157.
Caledonian Forest, 245.
Caledonian's knowledge of dis- tilling, 197.
Cameron of Coirechoillie, 219.
Camp at a deer hunt, 139.
Campbell of Monzie, 120.
Carrying fern, 251.
Carrying peat, 242.
Carsewell, Dr., Bishop of the Isles, 89.
Cattle, Black, 42.
Cattle, some wonderful herds, 32.
Celtic prejudice to fish, 185.
Chalmers's " Caledonia," 157.
Charles, Prince, 119.
Charles, Prince, and Cope, 198.
Charles, Prince, and the "order of the mountain eagle," 171.
Charles, Prince, his pistol, 141.
258
INDEX
Charles, Prince, his skian dhu,
121.
Charles, Prince, his target, 61. Charles, Prince, his watch, 151. Charles, Prince, landed, 1745,
167.
Chase, The, 137. Chasing birds, 208. Chess, Antiquity of, 207. Chess, Game of, 206. Chess men found at Dunstafnage,
207.
Chess playing, 208. Chisholms, The seat of the, 149. Christianity in early Scotland,
18. Circuit of hunting, an old
method, 138. Clanship abolished, 77. Clanship, Breaking up of, 19. Cloth, Black and white, 117. Club and foot ball, 209. Coffin made from herring-barrel
staves, 218.
Coiriebuie in Lochiel, 216. Caber, Tossing the, 2(39. Columba, St. , see St. Columba. Communication, Stoppage of,
225.
Competition gatherings, 206. Connaught, Ireland, 168. Cooking pot, Brass, 82. Cope, Sir John, 198. Cormorra, in Hungary, 240.
Corn burning in the straw illegal, 50.
Com grinding, 27.
Corn store, 26.
Com threshing, 25.
Costume of spinner girls, 150.
Coursing with grey hounds, 208.
Crauford, Earl of, dances sword dance, 239.
Crieff: "Drovers at fair of Crieff," 38.
Croidhleagan, or creel, 105.
Crusie, or oil lamp, 162.
Crossing rivers, 225.
Cubieres, De, 28.
Cuigeil, or distaff, 146.
Culloden, 20,000 cattle cap- tured, 72.
Cumberland, Duke of, drove in 20,000 cattle at Culloden, 72.
Curraghs, Description of, 175.
Dance, Battle, 239. Dance, Sword, 232. Dances, Military, 237. Dancing, Antiquity of, 235. Dancing, Socrates advocates,
235;
Dancing, Universality of, 232.
Dancing a part of early wor- ship, 236.
Dancing in Bible times, 235.
David, King of Israel, and danc- ing, 235.
259
INDEX
Davy, Sir Humphrey, on Ang- ling, 125.
Dealgan, or spindle, 146.
Deer, Age of, 140.
Deer, an exceedingly difficult animal to hunt, 132.
Deer herds, 135.
Deer-hunter, Privations of a,
'35-
Deer-hunting, Ancient mode of,
137.
Deer-hunting, 98. Deer-hunting in Highlands, 95. Deer- stalking, 132. Deer-stalking a regal sport, 137. Diodorus describes dresses worn
by the Gauls, 117. Dirk dance, 238. Disarming Act, 38. Distaff, 145. Distaff, Celtic veneration for,
.147-
Distillation, Illicit, 198. Distillation, Private, illegal, 196. Distilling, an old industry, 192. Donald Ballach of the Isles, 30. Donald, Clan, in rebellion, 30. Drinking cup used by Prince
Charlie, 190. Drovers, 32. Drovers, keen sense of hearing,
37-
Drovers, tale of two drovers, 39. Drovers, their work, 36.
Drovers exempted from Dis- arming Act, 38.
Dulochan Glen, 221.
Dulse, a wholesome article of food, 105.
Dulse, Description of, 105.
Dulse gathering, 105.
Dulse, Various ways of cooking, 106.
Dunstafnage Castle, 120.
Dunstafnage Castle, Chess men found at, 207.
Dutch and Scotch Fishers, 155.
Eagle, Fight with an, 167.
Eagle and the Highlander, 170.
Eagle in heraldry, 170.
Eagle sacred to Jove, 165.
Eagles attack sheep, 166.
Eagles' feathers denote rank, 170.
Eagles' great strength, 166.
Eagles greatly decreasing in numbers, 166.
Eagles, Longevity of, 170.
Eagle's nest, Robbing an, 165.
Eagles, some of their good habits, 169.
Eagles, Voracity of, 170.
Eagles, their plunder, 169.
Eagles and salmon, Fights be- tween, 169.
Edinburgh and London Post, 67.
Education free, 86.
260
INDEX
Educational institutions, 85.
Edward IV. established posts, 66. [220.
Ellice, Edward, of Glenquoich,
Ellice, Edward C. , Place-names in Glengarry, 220.
Emigration for Highlanders, 108.
Erich, River, in Perthshire, 128.
Erskine, Lord, 138.
Erskine, Lord, and his deer- hunt, 98.
Etive, Loch, 120.
Excitement of travelling in West Highlands, 227.
Falkirk, a great cattle market, 35. Fasgna, or winnowing from the
chaff, 27.
Fear a bhata, or boatman, 225. Fearsaid, The, 146. Feathers, Eagles', denoting
rank, 170. Feathers, Three, denoting a
chief, 170.
Feathers as rent, 229. Feats of strength, 208. Fencing, Various modes of, 208. Fencing with sword and buckler,
208.
Ferns, an excellent manure, 252. Ferns, Carrying, 251. Ferns used for litter, 252. Ferns used for thatch, 252. Festival, Bardic, 206.
Fiadh, or deer, 139.
Fight between eagle and salmon, 169.
Fight with an eagle, 168.
Fights between smugglers and excisemen, 200.
Fingalian feats, 206.
Fire, Methods of getting, 226.
First book printed hi Gaelic, 89.
Fishery, Herring, 152.
Fishing, 208.
Fishing Laws, Laxity of, 161.
Flail described, 26.
Flail used by Britons, 26.
Flame, Warning, 228.
Fly-fishing, 129.
Football, 209.
Fording a river, 172. [177-
Fording incident at Strathglass,
Foxes, boy kills 9 foxes, 96.
Fraser, Mr., Sheriff of Fort- William, 179.
Free education, 86.
Fuller, Thomas, "The Holie State," 46.
Funeral in Strathglass, 177.
Gael, Social state of, 108.
Gaelic gatherings, 20.
Gaelic language, need for a
chair at a university, 89. Gaelic language, number of
people who speak Gaelic, 89. Gaelic language preserved, 17.
261
INDEX
Gaelic School Society, 91.
Gaels' love for dancing, 236.
Gambling, Love of, among High- landers, 207.
Game laws, 186.
Games, Olympic, 205. •
Garbh-criochan, or Highland boundary, 38.
Gathering dulse, 105
Gatherings, Gaelic, 20.
" Gentle Shepherd," Allan Ramsay, 56.
George IV., 119.
Gille Calum, Description of, 238.
Gille Calum or sword dance, 232.
Gille-ruithe, or running footman, 69.
Gillie, or servant, 92.
Gillies with game, 92.
Girls washing, 52.
Glencoe, birthplace of Ossian, 59-
Glencoe, Massacre of, 59.
Glenquoich, MacPhee in, 217.
Glenspean, 188.
Goats, Flock of, belonging to MacPhee, 219.
Gordon, Duke of, and his con- fidential retainer, 68.
Graddan, or meal, 49.
Grant of Glenmoriston's game- keeper, 136.
Grinding corn, 27.
Grinding corn by hand-mill, 45.
Great Yarmouth, 155.
Habbie's How, 56.
Hake, The, 150.
Halley, Dr., 26.
Hammer, Throwing the, 209.
Hand-mill, 45.
Hand-mill, how used, 47.
Hand-milling forbidden by law,
48. Hanover, House of, Hostility to,
212.
Harp, Jew's, 240. Harp, Music of the, 206. Harris' pottery, 22, 51, 241. Hebrides, Johnson's Journey to,
13-
Heraldry, The eagle in, 170. Herring, Derivation of, 152. Herring curing, 158. Herring curing described, 1 59. Herring fishing, 152. Herring Fishery Legislature,
157- Herring shoal, enormous area of,
152-
Herrings, Red, 159. Highland children healthy, 87. Highland foot post, 65. Highland games, Prizes at,
211.
Highland gatherings, 206.
262
INDEX
Highland girls without shoes,
ISO-
Highland names of deer, 139. Highland risings of 1715 and
1745, 212.
Highland societies, List of, 210. Highland Society of Scotland
and herring fisheries, 157. Highland targe of wood, 122,
131-
Highlander and the eagle, 170.
Highlander carries stone in his plaid, 176.
Highlanders' literary qualities, 88.
Highlanders simple and un- sophisticated, 17.
Highlanders, Social condition of, 1 6.
Highlanders foretell a flood, 175.
Highlanders of keen intellect, 87.
Highlanders true sportsmen, 96.
Highlands, Johnson's Journey to,
13-
Hill, Mr., 17.
Hirta, or St. Kilda, 229.
Hogg, James, the Ettrick Shep- herd, 80.
Home-spun materials, 112.
Horse shoes for good luck, 150.
Horsemanship, 208.
Horn, Powder, 102.
Horns, See Antlers.
Hunting, Examples of Highland,
96.
Hunting, old methods, 138. Hunting expeditions, 96, 97. Hunting matches, 138.
lasgair, a fisherman, 127.
Ian du, or Dark John of Aber-
arder, 49. Ian fada, or Long John of Ben
Nevis, 48.
Ian m6r fording a river, 178. Illicit distillation, 198. Illicit stills, 196. Inverlochie, Battle near, 1645,
30.
Inverlochie Castle, 30. Inverness, Washing scenes at,
55- lorrams, or boat songs, 159.
James III. revives fishing trade, James V., 138. [156.
Javelin, Throwing the, 208. Jew's harp, 240. Johnson's definition of oats, 28. Johnson, Samuel, "Journey to
the Highlands," 13. Johnson, Samuel, on "Angling,"
125. Jumping, 208.
Keith, Fall of, 128. Kelp manufacture, 78.
263
INDEX
Laggan, Loch, 130. Landseer, Edwin, 41. Language, Gaelic, preserved, 17. Lar-bualadh, The, 27. Leister, or spear, 188. Lens used to produce fire, 227. Lewis, Barra, etc., 68. Life, Gaelic mode of, 17, Light. Steel strike-light, 42, 81,
91, 101, no.
Literature of Highlanders, 17. Live peat as a signal, 226. Lochaber axes, 2, 71. Lochaber, Salmon spearing at,
187.
London and Edinburgh post, 67. Luatha' or " waulking," 58. Luckenbooth brooch, 6. Lynn, A ship of, captured, 1 58.
MacCail, Kirsty, 119. MacDonald, Coll, a young fisher,
130.
MacDonald, Mr., of Inch, 179. MacDonald, Sorle" bui', 35. MacKenzie, Sir Francis, 190. MacKintosh, Mrs., 118. MacPhee, The outlaw, 212. MacPhee, Ewen, an outlaw, 97. MacPhee, Ewen, captured, 215. MacPhee, Ewen, enlists in a
Highland regiment, 215. MacPhee, Ewen, deserts, 215. MacPhee, Ewen, escapes, 216.
MacPhee, Ewen, death of, 222. MacPhee, Ewen, his wife, 217. MacPhee, Ewen, short sketch of
his wanderings, 220-3. MacPherson of Crubin, 1 18. MacPherson, James, 18. MacRae, John, deerstalker, 136. Main, nighean Alasdair ruadh,
206.
Manly exercises, 208. Manners, change of national, 14. Mar, Earl of, 30. Mary, Queen. Deer hunt in
her honour, 138. Mhuirich, Clan, 119. Military dances, 237. Mill, hand. See Hand-mill. Mode of life, Gaelic, 17. Mogan, 140.
Montrose, Marquis of, 30. Monuments of antiquity — Ard-
chattan, 120.
Monzie, Campbell of, 120. Morar, famed for eagles, 166. Muidart, famous district for
eagles, 166.
Muillean-bra", or hand-mill, 46. Muirgheadh, or spear, 188. Mnrlan, or creel, 105. Music of the harp, 206. Mustering for school, 86.
National sports, their uses, 210 Nuncios, or postmen, 65.
264
INDEX
Oatmeal medically recom- mended, 29.
Oats, Dr. Johnson's definition of, 28.
Oats used in Scotland, 28.
Olympiads, The, 206.
Olympic games, 205.
" Order of the mountain eagle," 171.
Ornamented pins, 62.
Ossian, Poetry of, 1 8.
Ossian's birthplace, 59.
Outlaw, Story of an, 215.
Paley, Dr., on angling, 125. Parish schools, 85. Peat ashes used as manure, 249. Peat banks specified in the lease,
246.
Peat carrying, 242. Peat casting or cutting, 246. Peat cutting described, 246. Peat, live, as a signal, 226. Peat moss, Great depth of a,
245. Peat, old practice of carrying
peats to school, 87. Peat smoke less injurious than
coal, 249. Peat stacks, 247. Pennant's tour in Scotland, 59. Penny postage established by
Peter Williamson, 67. Pepper dulse, 106.
Pins, Ornamented, 62.
Pistol, Prince Charlie's, 141-181.
Plaid of a shepherd, 79.
Pliny and the Gaul's method of
reaping, 26. Poetry, Gaelic, 18. Porridge, Antiquity of, 46. Postage, Penny, established, 67. Post bags, Mishaps to, 70. Post, Highland foot, 65. Postman, Highland, 65, 69. Post offices taken over by
Government, 67. Posts established by Edward IV.,
66.
Pot, Brass cooking, 82. Pottery, Harris, 51. Powder horn, 102, 191, 202. Prizes at Highland games, 211. Probert's Welsh Laws, 207. Puterach, The, 209. Putting the stone, 209.
Quaich of ebony and ivory, 8. Quoits, 208.
Raineach of Fern, 252.
Ramsay, Allan, describes a wash- ing scene, 56.
Rebellions of 1715 and 1745, 212.
Recreations, Social, 206.
Red herrings, 159.
Reels, Scotch, 236.
265
INDEX
River, Fording a, 172. Rivers become swollen, 225. Rivers cause great damage to life
and property, 175. Rivers, Difficulty in crossing, 172. Robbing an eagle's nest, 165. Rolt's Life of Earl of Crauford,
239-
Ruins of hamlets in the High- lands, 76.
Running, 208.
Running leap, 209.
Roads in the Highlands, 15.
St. Columba, 18.
St. Kilda, or Hirta, 229.
St. Kilda. Fowlers, 168.
St. Kilda, Wrecked at, 230.
St. Fillans, Bell of, 142.
Salmon a much hunted creature, 126.
Salmon, Large, 130.
Salmon, Preserving, 130.
Salmon and eagle, Fight be- tween, 169. | Salmon Fishery Acts, 189.
Salmon leaps, 128.
Salmon spearing, 185, 187.
Shield. See Targe.
Silver brooch, HI.
Skian dhu worn by Prince Charlie, 121.
School attendance in summer, 86.
School fees, 86.
School, Going to, 85.
Schools, Parish, 85.
Scotch fisheries in olden times,
155-
Scotch reels, 236.
Scotland, climate of, 107.
Scott, Sir Walter, and Scottish scenery, 15.
Scott, Sir Walter. Tale of two drovers, 30.
Sheep farming, 77.
Sheilings, 77.
Shell-fish broth, 109
Shepherd, Highland, 72.
Shepherd's tartan plaid, 79.
Shepherd's wages, 79.
"Sheriff's pass," 179.
Sickle mentioned, 26.
Signal for the boat, 225.
Signalling the approach of an exciseman, 199.
Sinclair, Sir Robert, as post- master, 67.
Singing when at work, 58.
Slaik, description, 106.
Small-still spirits, Superiority of,
Smuggler's life, 200. [195.
Smuggling, Difficulties of, 200.
Smuggling whisky, 160.
" Smuid suas," the smoke is up, 228.
Social condition of Highlanders little known, 16.
266
INDEX
Social recreations, 206. Societies, Highland, List of, 210. Society, altered state of, after
1745. 75-
Socrates on dancing, 235. Spade of oak, n. Spate, Rivers in, 177. Spean, River, 178. Spearing salmon, 185, 187. Spinner girls, Costume of, 150. Spinning an art, 149. Spinning, Antiquity of, 145. Spinning, description of the
process, 147. Spinning, Scriptural quotations
on, 145.
Spinning in ancient Egypt, 145. Spinning with the distaff, 145. Sporran worn by Prince Charlie,
231.
Sport, Highlanders' love of, 92. Sport, Some instances of fine, 96. Sports, Highland, 16. Sports, List of, 208. Sports, National, Uses of, 210. Sports promote warlike prowess,
205. Steel strike-light, 42, 81, 91,
1 01, IIO.
Stewart, General, 198. Stewart, General, of Garth, on
Highland dances, 238. Stewart, Charles Edward. See
Charles, Prince.
Still, Whiskey, 192.
Still, Whiskey described, 197.
Stills, Illicit, 196.
Stilts used for fording a river,
176.
Stone, Mr., 17. Stone, Putting the, 209. Stone, Throwing the, 205. Stone carried in the plaid, 176. Store farmer, 76. Strampail na Plaideachan, or
tramping the blankets, 55. Strathdon, Illicit stills at, 199. Strathglass, Fording incident at,
177.
Strathglass, Inverness, 149. Strength, Feats of, 208. Strike-light, Steel, 42, 81, 91,
10!, IIO.
Suistean, or flails, 31. Superstitions of the Highlanders,
150. Sutherland, Duke of, and his
salmon, 126. Swimming, 208. Sword dance, or Gille Calum,
232.
Targe, Highland, 122, 131. Target used by Prince Charlie,
61.
Tartan, A very old, 1 1 8. Tartans, Antiquity of, 118. Tay, River, 130.
267
INDEX
Taylor, the Water Poet, 98, 138.
Thatched roofs, 150.
Thatching, Method of, 253.
Thiery on the Gaels, 88.
Three feathers, 170.
Threshing corn, 25.
Throwing the javelin, 208.
Throwing the stone, 205.
Tigh-Nigheachain, or wash- house, 59.
Timchioll na Sealg, or circuit of hunting, 138,
Tonnag, The, 119.
Torrisgian, The, for cutting peats, 246.
Tossing the caber, 209.
Travelling in West Highlands, Excitement of, 227.
Travelling then and now, 227.
Triads, Welsh, 32.
Trout, Good catches of, 129.
Tweed, River, 130.
Uagh, Loch Nan, 160. Uisge-bea, or Whiskey. "Undertakers," 156. United Service Magazine, 138.
Venery, Highland Terms of,
139-
Victoria, Queen, Her Highland Home, 15.
Victoria, Queen, visits Bade-
nach, 255. Vine, In eastern countries, 192.
Waiting for the boat, 230. Walrus tusks, 207. Walton, Isaac, on angling, 125. Warning flame, Uses of the,
228.
Washing clothes, 52. Washing scenes at Inverness, 55. Watch carried by Prince Charlie,
IS*-
Water Poet, Taylor, 98, 138.
Water spouts, 175.
Waverley, Sir Walter Scott, De- scription of washing scene, 56.
Welsh laws, 207.
Welsh trials, 32.
Whale attacks a fishing party, 160.
Whiskey, Long John, A famous distiller, 49.
Whiskey, Various names for, 195.
Whiskey still, 192.
Whorl, The, 146.
Wick in the fishing season, 158.
William III., 59.
Williamson, Peter, Established penny postage, 67.
Wooden drinking vessel with handles, 171.
Wool, Fingering, 116.
Wool long and short, 115.
268
INDEX
Wool, Manufacture of, intro- duced, 117. Wool, process of preparation,
US- Wool carding, 112. Wool carding, Legislature, 121. Wool sack, The, 121. Woman's work in the High- lands, 254. Women working in fields, 28.
Women, Highlanders' high re- gard for, 28.
Wreck at St. Kilda, 230. Wrestling, 208.
Yachts kept for postal authori- ties, 68.
Yarmouth, Great, 155. Yarmouth, herring fishery, 158.
PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW.
HARRIS POTTERY.
500 Pages, Crown 8vo, Cloth, 6/- net; Stewart Tartan Silk, 7/6 net,
MCIAN'S COSTUMES OF
THE CLANS
OF THE
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS
WITH LETTERPRESS BY
JAMES LOGAN
FIFTH THOUSAND.
MclAN's " Clans of the Scottish Highlands," published half a century ago, in two large quarto volumes, is one of the most artistic, sumptuous, and costly of our national literary publications, and can only be pur- chased at prices ranging from seven to twelve guineas.
The work, besides being most valuable and interesting, is the only one giving 'the costumes of the various clans, in their true tartans, gracefully displayed in natural folds on the person. The portraits were painted by a veritable Highlandman, an .artist of the true stamp, who was familiar with the whole subject — dress, weapons, armorial bearings, crests, etc. ; while the accompanying descriptions and historical memoranda of character, manners, customs, mode of life, folk lore, etc., are by Mr. James Logan, a Celtic scholar of recognised authority.
These Two Volumes are now reproduced in One Volume, crown 8vo size, con- itaining two plates of Coats of Arms, and Seventy-two finely-coloured illustrations Df representatives of the clans, with the addition of suitable tail-piece illustrations.
The letterpress is printed without alteration, paged continuously, and carefully
|
[>maexea, reierence oemg inus renaerea mucn more conven eni. LIST OF CLANS ILLUSTRATED. |
||||
|
uchanans. |
Grants. |
Mac Donalds of |
Mac Kays. Mac Raes. |
|
|
pamerons. |
Grants of Glen- |
Glenco. |
Mac Kenzies. |
Mathesons. |
|
Campbells of |
moriston. |
Mac Donalds of |
Mac Kinnons. |
Menzies. |
|
I Argyle. |
Gordons. |
the Isles. |
Ma Lachlans. |
Munros. |
|
Campbells of |
Gunns. |
Mac Donalds of |
P.Ta Laurans. |
M arrays. |
|
1 Bread albane. |
Kennedys. |
Clan Ranald. |
Ma Leans. |
Ogilvies. |
|
Khisholms. |
Lamonds. |
Mac Donnells of |
Ma Leods. |
Robertsons. |
|
]>olquhouns. |
Logans. |
Glengarry. |
Ma Millans. |
Roses. |
|
Cumins. |
Mac Allasters. |
Mac Duffs. |
Mac Nabs. |
Rosses. |
|
Davidsons. |
Mac Arthurs. • Mac Dugals. |
Mac Nachtans. |
Shaws. |
|
|
|)rummonds. |
Mac Aulays. |
Mac Gillivrays. |
Mac Nicols. |
Sinclair*. |
|
iarquharsons. |
Mac Beans. |
Mac Gregors. |
Mac Niels. |
Skenes. |
|
ergusons. |
Mac Colls. |
Mac Innes. |
Mac Pharlans. |
Stewarts. |
|
orbeses. |
Mac Cmimins. |
Mac Intires. |
Mac Phees. |
Sutherlands. |
|
rasers. |
Mac Donalds of Gara- Macintoshes. |
Mac Phersons. |
Urquharts. |
|
|
j rtemes. |
gach and Keppach. |
Mac Ivors. |
Mac Quaries. |
DAVID BRYCE AND SON, GLASGOW
A QUID SCOTCH DICTIONARY.
NEW EDITION OF CLBISHBOTHAM'S DICTIONARY OP THE SCOTTISH LANQUAQB.
Edited by JOHN INGRAM, F.S.A. Scot.
Containing every word of any importance used by Ramsay, Fergusson, Burns, Scott, etc.
Size, 6£ inches by 2f inches. In full leather or Tartan binding.
Price 2s. 3d. net.
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