CHARACTER OF THE PEASANTRY. 



47 



As one instance, in recent times, of the extraordinary strength and stature 

 for which the ancient Borderers were so generally famed, it may be mentioned, 

 that the late Mr. Bookless, schoolmaster of Hutton, was seven feet four inches 

 high. He was a man of mild and amiable disposition, and fond of social 

 intercourse; but being extremely sensitive, and shrinking from the idea of 

 being considered a spectacle, his delicate mind was often wounded by the 

 intrusion of curious individuals. The strength of his constitution, also, Httle 

 corresponding with his stature, he fell an early victim to disease, from which 

 his herculean frame seemed at first to have promised an exemption.* 



In some parts of Berwickshire, there are persons still living who remember 

 when, in the farmers' houses, one knife and fork for the master's use were all 

 the carving apparatus introduced at table, and when the whole parish of 

 Westruther could only boast of three tea-kettles. It is needless to add, that 

 the latter utensil is now to be found in every cottage ; and that the farnlers' 

 table of the present day presents a liberal specimen of modern luxury and 

 domestic comfort, enhanced by that hearty spirit of hospitality which distin- 

 guished their forefathers. 



The peasantry in general are intelligent and acute ; few of them are without 

 a small collection of books— mostly those old manuals of chvinity, which, by 

 prescriptive right, have been so long their favourites, and by wliich their 

 religious principles are habitually fostered and confirmed. A taste for reading, 

 and the facihties for its indulgence, are gradually on the increase ; and with 

 their sober, moral habits, and sound modes of thinking, it can hardly fail to 

 produce a salutary influence on the minds and habits of the people. Crimes 

 are seldom heard of amongst them : in the parish of Hutton, for example, not 

 one instance in the memory of the oldest inhabitant has occurred, where an 

 individual was tried on any capital charge. The prevaihng offence, and to 

 which their frontier position gives many tempting facilities, is against the game 

 and excise laws— oSences which nothing short of some new legislative enactment 

 can wholly prevent. 



Of their religious feelings and deportment, one of their pastors, many years 

 resident among them, offers the most pleasing testimony. The great majority, 

 he observes, are attached to the Established Church, and regular in their 

 attendance on its public ordinances. The Sabbath is observed with reverence, 



• Bookless seems to have had a contemporary in Melcliior Thut, a native of Claris, in Switzerland, who 

 measnreil seven feet three inches; and in 1801, the period at which Dr. Ebel saw him, was considered as 

 the last descendant of a race of giants, whose bones are still occasionally found in the valley of Tavetsch, 

 the highest habitable point of the anterior Rhine. 



