48 * SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



and instances of its desecration by idleness or dissipation, very rare. The 

 labouring classes are generally well acquainted with their Bible, and habitually 

 accustomed to its perusal.* Deriving their religious knowledge from that 

 pure and holy source, they are for the most part well informed concerning 

 the principles and duties of Christianity ; and in all the leading doctrines of the 

 church, their notions are sound and correct. Their religious faith is practical 

 and salutaiy in its effects, and demonstrates its excellence by the influence it 

 produces on their lives. Many of them still attend to the ancient and whole- 

 some, but too much neglected, duty of family worship ; and devote the 

 Sabbath evenings to the instruction of their children in the elements of christian 

 truth and moral duty. Their religion affords them support and consolation 

 amidst the hardships of a laborious condition ; and under the trying vicissitudes 

 and afflictions of life, they feel it is their best friend, and the only source of 

 true happiness. 



Of the customs and amusements more or less peculiar to this county, it may 

 be mentioned, that, some years ago, the barbarous practice of cock-fighting 

 was indulged in for the celebration of Fasten's eve ; but this, like other 

 characteristics of a rude age, has been happily exploded for more humane 

 pastimes. Football was a healthy and exhilarating game, well calculated to 

 preserve the ancient border character, and occasionally summoned upwards 

 of two hundred combatants to the field ; but this, also, is passing into obHvion, 

 and the thinking man in the present day has taken precedence of the athletic. 

 Penny-weddings, the scene of so much rural mirth and festivity among the last 

 generation, have been interdicted by the ecclesiastical courts ; so that, vnth 

 the exception of local fairs, the labouring classes have few, if any, stated 

 amusements to which they may look for a day's relaxation and diversion ; 

 but along with the means, the desire of such indulgence seems also to have 

 Vanished, or given place to objects of higher ambition. 



In the earlier history of the Upper districts, primitive simplicity of manners and 

 superstition seem to have been closely allied ; the latter was particularly evinced 

 in all that related to the preservation of their cattle. In almost every stable, 

 stones which had any natural hole in them, were suspended as amulets; and 

 it was not unusual to see a herd of cattle grazing in the field, each with a 



• There are few children above eight years old, even in the rural districts, who cannot read ; and with 

 two or three exceptions in a parish, all the adults can do so, — as well as write. They fully appreciate the 

 benefits of education, and are anxious to educate their cliildren in a manner suitable to their circumstances 

 — a duty never neglected, unless under the most pressing hardship. Ample means of education are 

 happily provided, parish libraries are generally established, and children of the poorest class educated 

 gratuitously. 



