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264 Gaelic Society of Inuerness.
pane of confiscatioun of the whole wynes so to be caiyed and
sauld in the His aganis the tenour of this proclamatioun. or els
of the availl and pryceis of the same to his Maiesties vse."
" These repressive measures," the author continues, " deprived
the Hebrideans of the wines of Bordeaux, but did not render
them more temperate. They had recourse to more potent beverages.
Their ancestors extracted a spiiit from the mountain heath
they now distilled usque-beatha or whisky. Whisky became a
greater favourite than claret, and was drunk copiously, not only
in the Hebiides, but throughout the Highlands. It did not become
common in the Lowlands until the latter part of the last
century. The Lowland baron or yeoman who relished a liqour
more powerful than claret formerly used rum or brandy."
Whisky was little used among the better classes for upwards
of a hundred years after this. " Till 1780," says the same author,
" claret was imported free of duty, and was much used among the
middle and upper classes, the price being about fivepence the bottle.
Noblemen stored hogsheads of claret in their halls, making them
patent to all visitors, guests received a cup of wine when they
entered, and another on their departure. The potations of those
who frequented dinner-parties Avere enormous persons who could
;
not drink remained at home. A landlord was considered inhospitable
who permitted any of his guests to retire without their requiring
the assistance of his servants. Those who tarried for the night,
found in their bedrooms a copious supply of ale, wine, and brandy
to allay the thirst superinduced by their pi-evious potations. Those
who insisted on returning home were rendered still more incapable
of prosecuting their journeys by being compelled, according to the
inexorable usage, to swallow a deoch-an-doruis, or stirrup-cup,
which was commonly a vessel of very formidable dimensions."
That claret was the favourite drink among the better classes
to the end of last century is remarkably corroborated by Burns's
song of " The Whistle "—
" The dinner being over the claret they ply.
And every new cork is a new spring of joy."
The competitors having drunk six bottles of claret each. Glen-
riddle, "a high-ruling elder, left the foul business to folks less
divine." Maxwelton and Craigdarroch continued the contest and
drank one or two bottles more, Craigdarroch winning the whistle.
Burns is said to have drank a bottle of rum and one of braiuly
during the contest. There is a Highland story which would make
a good companion to the foregoing Lowland picture. The time ia
;