52 A Century's Changes. 



lias so persisted in man all through his history, and what so per. 

 sists in him still, as his love of money ? His love of woman alone 

 can take rank beside it. Our smuggler carried samples of his 

 "stufT" about with him in a bladder, and he sometimes boasted 

 that he had sold of it to the best " quality " in Annandale. At 

 all events, he got into possession of money by his sales — moi'e 

 money than his lawful occupation could have yielded to him. 

 The present blacksmith here is in possession of his " worm." I 

 have seen it, as A. K. H. B. might say, " with these eyes." 



A hundred years ago there were bad times for the poor. Tliere 

 was not the same statutory provision for supporting then 

 as there is now ; and their staple food, oatmeal, was dear. 

 In 1795, when there was a bad crop, "a general meeting 

 of the Freeholders, Justices of tlie Peace, and Commis- 

 sioners of Supply for the County was held in Dumfries, 

 being desirous to adopt some general rule to secui-e a sufficient 

 quantity of oatuieal for the support of the manufacturers 

 and labouring classes of this county ;" and the parish ministers 

 seem to have been requested to take steps for having the objects 

 of the meeting carried out. The minister of Hutton, Dr Nisbet, 

 f'ot a letter from the Clerk of the Commissioners, asking him " to 

 convene the whole heritors and tenants within the parish to 

 ascertain as nearly as possible the quantity of meal that will be 

 necessary to supply the abo\e description of people till Michael- 

 mas next. And to ascertain further whether the heritors and 

 tenants would be willing to raise the sum necessary to make up 

 the deficiency, either in money or meal, in the option of the 

 contributors." There is no record whether the suggestion of tlie 

 Commissioners was carried out in this parish ; but that they 

 probably were may be inferred from the fact that in 1800 a 

 heritors' meeting was called " to inquire into the state of the 

 poor, and to consider the proper and necessary measui'es to be 

 taken for their relief at the present time, when the indispensable 

 article of oatmeal is come to the highest price ever known in this 

 and other countie.s of Scotland." And in 1S17, another dear 

 year, the heritors expended £162 odd in buying meal and barley 

 for the poor. "They were brought from Edinburgh and Dal- 

 keith, the farmers in the parish having no grain to sell, and the 

 public markets in the neighbouring villages being almost equally 

 deficient." The meal was sold at a reduction of from Is 6d to 

 2s 6d per stone, which left tlie Committee in a deficiency of £53, 



