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Old Highland Industries. 403
web till, bruised with the rough usage and blackened witli the dye,
he is ghul to make his escape from the hands of tlie furies.
LiNKN.—The growing of lint, which had formed a valuable
and extensive feature amongst the peasantry, came to an end some
30 or 40 yeare ago, and, except as an experiment, it is never grown
now.
It was introduced some 400 or 500 years ago, and was universally
cultivated tliroughout Scotland. The first I have an
account of in this quarter is at Portsoy, where lint was first grown
in 1490. In 1G86, to promote the use of linen, an Act was passed
ordaining that no corpse of any person whatsoever be buried in
any shirt, sheet, or anything else, except in plain linen, the cost
not exceeding 20 shillings Scots per ell. The nearest deacon or
elder of the parish, with one or two neighbours, were required to
see that this was complied with.
The cultivation of lint or flax became a national industry, and
lint was grown on almost every farm in Scotland, and it was to
j)romote the linen trade that the British Linen Company was commenced
in 1746 —it is now, as you are aware, entirely a banking
company. Factories were established in every district. We had
an extensive trade in Inverness, and mills were built at Cromarty,
Spinningdale, and as far north as Kirkwall and Stornoway. Pennant
gives a statement of the various quantities manufactured in
each county and town, and accordingly we find that Inverness,
when at the height of its prosperity in 1770-71, produced 223,798
yards, at an average price of 6d. per yard, or a total value of
£6425. 5s. 2d. I can remember the Citadel buildings and Factory,
now Albert Place,* tilled with handlooms; but Forfarsliire seems to
have been the gi-eat seat of this trade in Scotland. In my early days,
in Forfarshire I used to see the lint grown and steeped in pools, or
" lint pots" as they were called, and every village and clachan had
its handloom weaver, and from whom as boys we used to beg a
bunch of threads, or " thrums," as they were called, to make cords
and strings, and every old wife span the lint to supply the household
linen. Much of this old linen still remains in old families,
and my grandmother's entire family linen was home-made.
The quality of this linen was very superior, and the beauty
of the patterns and artistic character of the designs is surprising.
I have been favoured with some very fine specimens from Mr
Rodei-ick Maclean, of Ardross. These I show you were gi-own at
Redcastle and Conan in the years 1810-20, and woven by hand-
* These latter buildings, I am informed, were used for cotton thread
spinning—not linen weaving.