^34 



TJic Country Gcntlcnimis Magazine 



Avhom thirty v/ere learning to read English, 

 and paid is. a-quarter of fees ; twenty-five 

 were reading and writing, who paid is. 6d. 

 a-quarter ; and about fifteen were instructed 

 in arithmetic, book-keeping, and mathema- 

 tics, at such terms as could be agreed upon. 



The parish of Eckford, in which Cessford 

 Castle is situated, lies much lower than Bow- 

 den, but in 1793 it was not much further ad- 

 vanced, though cultivation had much improved 

 from former times. The English plough had 

 come into common use, and it was drawn by 

 two horses instead of four oxen and two 

 horses as formerly. Raising of turnips, with 

 the preparation of land for the crop, had 

 superseded fallowing. Barley and oats were 

 largely grown, and potatoes were planted to 

 an increasing extent. The growing of hemp 

 had been given up, and lint was grown in 

 less quantities than formerly. In the year 

 1776, a new kind of oats was introduced by 

 Mr James Church, farmer, of Moss Tower, 

 which fornied an era in oat-growing all over 

 Scotland. He raised them from sixty grains 

 of Polish oats, which he had obtained from a 

 friend, and which he planted in a corner of 

 his field on the 14th of June of that year. 

 Their produce turned out very considerable. 

 Every year afterwards they were sown on 

 the farm without any signs of degenerating, 

 but they grew best on dry land in good heart. 

 They were said to ripen a month earlier than 

 the common oats, though sown at the same 

 time, and on the same soil. They required 

 to be cut down early, being more liable to 

 shake than ordinaiy grain. They commonly 

 weighed about 28 stones the boll of 6 bushels, 

 and yielded 11 or 12 stones of meal. Their 

 reputation speedily increased, and they were at 

 length generally sown in the district, and then 

 over Scotland, some parts of England, and 

 even America. The enclosing of land had 

 now become general, which was done at the 

 expense of the landlord, the tenant paying 

 interest on the money. Rents were from 

 IDS. to 20s. an acre ; and the usual tendency 

 toward large farms was observable. One half 

 of the land was usually in grain, one-fourth in 

 turnips, and the rest in pasture. Oatmeal 

 sold for IS. 6d. a-stone ; beef, 3i4d. alb.; 



veal, mutton, and lamb, 3d. ; pork, 4d. ; 

 geese, is. 6d. each, stripped of the feathers; 

 ducks and hens, 8d. ; and turkeys, 2s. 6d. 



Wages paid to servants had risen with the 

 progress of agriculture. The ordinary wage 

 for a man was ;£i a- year, and for a woman 

 ;^2, I OS., with maintenance. Day labourers 

 had 8d., and women 6d. ; masons had is. in 

 summer and lod. in winter; and tailors had 

 8d. a-day with victuals ; turnip-hoers and hay- 

 workers had 8d. A man for harvest work had 

 IS., and a woman gd., with diet. Hinds, 

 who provided their own diet, were allowed a 

 free house, grass for their coav in summer, 

 with fodder in winter and spring, eight bolls 

 of oats for meal, two bolls of barley, one 

 boll of peas for family bread, and one firlot 

 of potatoes planted. Cottars usually paid 

 the rent of their house by harvest labour, in 

 return for which they had a small spot of 

 ground adjoining the house for furnishing 

 cabbage and pot-herbs, some potatoes planted 

 in the field, a quantity of lint sown, and 

 sometimes potatoes or barley, so far as the 

 manure they had collected during the year 

 would cover the surface. These cottars, with 

 their families, were eagerly coveted by farmers, 

 since they were ready for eveiy emergency ; 

 and employment was given to their children 

 from the age of eight or ten years and up- 

 wards, according to their respective abilities. 

 The cottages were valued by the masters at 

 one guinea per annum ; and the family, 

 besides the other perquisites mentioned, had 

 turf for fuel brought home by the master. 

 The schoolmaster's salary was ;^8, 6s. 8d. a- 

 year, with a small piece of enclosed garden 

 ground, 30s. for collecting poor-rates, school 

 fees at the rate of is. per quarter for reading, 

 IS. 6d. for writing, and 2s. 6d. for these, along 

 Avith arithmetic, 4d. for registering each 

 baptism, is. for proclamation of a- marriage, 

 4d. for an extract of a testimonial for a single 

 person, or 6d. in the case of a family, and los. 

 yearly for acting as session-clerk, besides 

 some casual perquisites. 



In the immediate neighbourhood of Kelso, 

 land, about the same period, let considerably 

 higher, none being under 15s. an acre, while 

 it ascended in a gradual scale to ;^2, ;^3, 



