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414 Gaelic Society of Inverness.
.£49,400. 6s. 8cl. Scot. King William III. gave the family,
instead of money, the perpetual privilege of distilling from grain
raised on the estate for a small composition in lieu of excise.
It was known much abroad, and one author says it produced as
much whisky as all Scotland put together, and the licence was
withdrawn in 1785, and a compen.sation of £21,500 paid. The
greatest sufferers were the Ding^vall lawyers, whose business and
support mainly depended on defending smugglers and redding
quarrels from that district.
Time will not permit me to refer at length to all the occupations
of the Highlander, and his various devices for |)roviding for
his daily wants. The merchant and commercial traveller provides
him with cheaper articles if not so good ; but I think his life has
lost much of its pictui-esqueness, and his ingenuity and readyhandedness
seems in a large measure gone or in abeyance. In
these olden times there was ever ready at hand light, agreeable
tasks to fill up his time. His long evenings were taken up making
his brogues, a lock, ropes, fishing tackle, and hunting gear.
Now everything is purchased, and when not actually engaged in
regular employment, the Highlander spends his time in idling
about his doors, or the useless and delusive task of discussing
politics, his rights and his wrongs, which, by the way, in mj ex-
perience, he knows far better than his duties. The result of all
this is that the Highlanders of the West Coast do little for their
own comfort, and it is consistent with my own knowledge that the
amount of food and luxuries brought into the Islands is far in
excess of what they Nvei-e 30 years ago, and that the natives
seem to make less use of the articles ready to hand than they
formerly did. For instance, a Highlander does not kill his pig
and cure it for his family, using all the portions to the
best advantage. He sells it cheap and imports cui-ed hams
at a high rate. He does not use his poultry, but sells all his eggs
by V>arter to little merchants, and purchases tea and sugar and
coffee to use in his family instead. He does not make soup and
cook the shellfish so plentiful on the coast, but exports them for,
after all, a small return, and I cannot regard it as a good sign of
the times, when everything is imported and little done at home.
For instance, in the case of the rope made of the moss roots, it
was a substantial article, and sufficiently good for its purpose, and
when asked why he did not always make and use such, his reply
was, " Ach, it's too much bother, we can buy a hemp one easier."
No doubt this is true, but is it wise? During the long winter
nights, the time wasted might be profitably occupied by these