Scottish Burghat, Lifk. 9i) 



safe iii-g-atheriiig may in this connection raise a smile. But we 

 must bear in mind that the state of the corn crops was at that 

 period a matter of the most vital concern to the whole community. 

 Deficiency meant not simply the possible inconvenience of a sliglit 

 rise in price ; but, if the shortcoming- were serious, it involved 

 literal famine. There was no potato croj) on which to fall back ; 

 foreign countries could not redress the balance by sending of 

 their surplus ; and the means of internal communication were so 

 limited and slow that a supply would be obtained with difficulty 

 even from other parts of our own country which nn'ght have been 

 less affected by an adverse season. In these circumstances 

 periods of scarcity, more or less general, were of frequent 

 occurrence in both Scotland and England. No wonder, then, if 

 the community were devoutly thankful that for one year at least 

 they were free from fear of dearth. 



This was the last of a series of fat years. In 157 'J the lean 

 cycle began with a rise to sixpence. By 1.595 the price had 

 trebled, the pint then selling at twelvepence. Scarcity and high 

 prices, operating on human cupidity, had the usual effect of 

 leading those who had supplies to hold them back in the hope of 

 reaping- still larger profit from the greater extremity of the 

 community. Penalty clauses were inserted in the annual Ale Act 

 to check this practice. The minute of 1559, for example, directs 

 that " na f)istlar reteine aill in their liuss abone ane galloun, but 

 sell the same to all nychtboris, gude and sufficieni, under the same 

 pane [£5], deiling of the aill at the croce [giving it away, that 

 is, to the populace], and discharging [that is, forbidding them] of 

 forther brewing." Those years of distress synchronise with a 

 similar experience throughout the country. The year 1597 in 

 particular is emphatically characterised by Professor Thorold 

 liOgers, in his valuable book on " Work and Wages," as one of 

 '•fearful famine" throughout England; and tht following year 

 was remarkable in Scotland for the general blighting of the 

 crops. 



FKEQUENT OCCUKEENOE OF " THE PEST." 



A terrible accompaniment of recurring famines was " the 

 pest," or plague. There was in the burgh an hospital known as 

 " the Pest-house." We find the Council on the alert to prevent 

 the introduction of the malady from other places. On 22nd 



