The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

1 82 Ihe Highland Monthly.
It is said by Dr Somerville (p. 335 and p. 336), that
furnishings were inexpensive ; that amongst the lower
orders wood platters were mostly used, whilst in those of
country gentlemen " pewter was found, with china for the
second course, the dinner hour being sometimes twelve, and
never later than three. There were china tea cups and
saucers. The tables were oak as a rule ; but the tea tables
were also made of mahogany." The best bed often stood
just before the date we are dealing with in the drawingroom
; hand bells were exclusively used, anu the handmaids
answered the bell bare-footed, shoes and stockings
not being usually worn until 1760 to 1770,^ and not
unfrequently the servants were called by knockings on the
floor with the heel of the shoe, or striking it with the poker.
Carpets were then rare, and at one time there were only
two in Jedburgh—one at the Manse, and one in the house
of the Provost. Clocks were only seen in the best houses.
The fire-places of brass stood quite free in the centre of the
hearth surrounded by tiles, ornamented as a rule with
Scriptural characters in Dutch dresses.^ Turf or peat was
chiefly burnt, though I find in the Day-Book already
quoted," that at Branksome (the Border Keep celebrated in
the " Lay of the Last Minstrel"), coals were £i 4s lod per
ton,-* and even before this, though entries show that regular
supplies were laid in, they were not in general use. I have
been informed that at the beginning of this century
nothing was burnt in Yarrow but peat, and that when a
piece of coal, picked up on the road, was thrown on to the
grate, the mother of the Ettrick Shepherd looked amazed
when it took fire and blazed up.
But turning now to the condition of the employed, Dr
Somerville tells us that in 18 14 a man servant's wages was
from £16 to ;^i8, that of a maid from £y to ;^8 per annum,
whereas forty years before maid servants could be hired for
from ;^i 5s to £1 lOs the half-year, and a man servant for
^ Somerville, 336, 337.
» Ogilvie's Day-Book.
^ Somerville, 337.
* Ibid.