The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Scenes of Long Ago. 351
The operations of the tacksmen were usually conducted
on safer principles. They had capital, which most of the
drovers sadly lacked. In seasons when prices fell off
towards autumn, their loss would probably be represented
by the value of the summer grazing, and so it was not felt
acutely.
This traffic gave employment to many, and circulated a
considerable amount of money throughout the country.
Along the great routes traversed by the drovers on their
way South, there were stances at stated intervals, appointed
by the authorities, where cattle and sheep could get food
and rest for a night at fixed prices, and hostelries in con-
nection with these stances where the drivers in charge got
lodging and bread and cheese. The stance Vv'as an
extensive tract of unenclosed moor, and the hostelry, a low-
roofed establishment, consisting of two rooms and a . closet
below, and two rooms and a closet above, with a farm
steading attached. The lower of the two smaller apart-
ments was known as the cellar. It was always kept locked
until a gill or mutchkin vv^as called for by one or other of
the noisy groups that filled the house.
Tacksmen and extensive drovers delegated to trusted
subordinates, called topsmen, the sole superintendence of
their herds on the road to the tryst. These topsmen gave
directions to the drivers whom they engaged and paid, and,
riding hither and thither during the march with eident
eye upon the straggling multitude, maintained a sharp and
wary look-out in the interest of their master. They had,
of course, to provide suitable quarters each night of the
journey for the men and beasts temporarily under their
charge. So great was the trust reposed in them that should
an extraordinary opportunity occur, some topsmen, though
without any special authority, might summarily dispose of
the whole drove, and in lieu thereof meet their employers
with a bundle of bank notes and a canvass bag filled with
coin of various colour.