14G The Glenkens in the Olden Times. 



of them from the rafters to dry and be smoked. For drink they 

 put up whey into barrels in summer until it fermented. This they 

 mixed with water, and drank after being kept nearly a year. A 

 very little of this quenched their thirst. Tea was then known, 

 but it cost thirty shillings a pound. 



The dress of the inhabitants was very rough and homely. 

 The men wore ivaulked plaiden or kelt coats made of a mixture of 

 black and white wool in its natural state. Their hose were made 

 of white plaiden sewed together, and they wore rude single-soled 

 shoes. Their Kilmarnock bonnets were either black or blue. 

 None had hats except the lairds. In general neither men nor 

 women wore shoes except in winter, and their children got none 

 until they could go to church. Shirts they scarcely knew, and 

 those used were of coarse woollen, and seldom changed. The 

 women dressed untidily in coarse gowns, shaped in the most un- 

 couth manner. Farmers' wives wore toys or hoods of coarse linen 

 when they went from home. When young girls went to church, 

 fairs, or markets they wore linen mutches or caps. At home they 

 went bareheaded, and had their hair snooded back on the crowns 

 of their heads with a string used as a garter. 



Agricultural operations were very awkward and inefficient. 

 Ploughs were heavy, and badly made. Both oxen and horses 

 were generally yoked to one plough, perhaps four oxen and two 

 horses. Where no oxen were used four horses were. yoked. A 

 woman or a boy was employed to walk backward and lead the 

 animals. One man held the stilts of the plough, and another man, 

 called the Gadsman, regulated the depth of the furrow by pressing 

 down or raising up the beam of the plough. Harrows were light 

 and coarsely made. The teeth were of wood hardened by being 

 tied up to the smoky rafters of the dwelling-house, but they 

 required to be often replaced. There were no carts then made. 

 Manure was taken to the fields on cars, or in creels slung over a 

 horse's back. The women also carried out manure on their backs 

 in creels of a smaller size. Corn and hay were conveyed home in 

 trusses on horses' backs, and peats in sacks or creels. Heather 

 was often cut on the hills for firing. 



In spring working horses and oxen became so lean and weak 

 from want of sufficient food that they sometimes fell down in the 

 drauo-ht. The land was in crop for four successive years, and 

 after that lay four years fallow. The yield was miserably poor. 



