44 Transactions. 



Fifty years ago dykes in Colvend (the fences are all dry-stone 

 dykes) — could be built, the very best, 4 J feet high for Is 6d a 

 rood. A rood is 18 feet. I have built some hundreds of them. 

 Now the same height of dyke could not be built under 4s 6d. 

 The dykes in Colvend are not built of such trifling stones as are 

 to be seen in some neighbouring parishes, but of great granite 

 stones or blasted boulders, some of them half a ton weight 

 Such a dyke may be seen on the farm of Nether Clifton on the 

 road up to the Southwick Churchyard. I remember passing the 

 field which the dyke in question now encloses, but which was then 

 but partially reclaimed, covered with great boulders everywhere 

 sticking up their heads. An old farmer, Mr Gibson of 

 Auchenlosh, himself a great improver in his day, directing my 

 attention to the state of the field, said, with an expression of 

 contempt either for the farmer or his landlord, or for both — 

 " Did you ever see such a debauched field 1 " The boulders have 

 long since been unearthed and blasted, and now form one of the 

 strongest dykes in the parish. 



The next point which, in speaking of the changes which have 

 taken place in Colvend, calls for special remark, is the number 

 of cottages which, at the beginning of the period were in the 

 parish standing occupied, compared with what there are now. 

 At the time when I came to the parish, the parish was dotted 

 over with cottages. Every little oasis among the hills, every 

 sheltered neuk by rock, or stream, or shore, had its cottage, with 

 garden adjoining. Many of the cottages were solitary, removed 

 to a distance from any neighbour. Some were pitched around 

 or near the dwelling-house of the farm on which they were built, 

 and some few were grouped together in twos and threes. Many 

 of the occupants held their cottages from the farmer on whose 

 land they stood, and to him they paid rent or rendered service. 

 A few cottages were of the nature of ci'ofters' dwellings, and had 

 attached to them an acre or two of arable or pasture land. 

 These they held direct from the landlord. But the cottages, 

 whether of the nature of crofts or simple dwellings with gardens 

 attached, and in some cases a cow's grass added, have all, with 

 scarce an exception, disappeared. I can myself recall fifty at 

 least which have so disappeared, in most of which I have 

 baptized, married, and conducted such religious services as the 

 occasion required, and of these hardly a vestige remains to mark 

 the spot where they stood. In some few places where the 



