Scottish Life in the 17TH Century. 283 



in querns, with greens, or kail, occasional!) boiled in salt and 

 water. They seldom or never tasted animal food except the 

 <-arcases of such beasts as either died from stravation or disease; 

 it was a rare thing to slaughter even an old ewe for winter 

 provision. The common people had as yet acquired no luxuries 

 except tobacco, though the higher classes possessed a few. 

 Their chief drink was fermented whey, which they kept in barrels 

 sometimes for a whole year, or a kind of ale, which is said to 

 have been still manufactured from heather." 



To recur to our magisterial visitors from the city of St 

 Mungo, they inform us that: "In the county of Dumfries there 

 was not so much victual produced as was necessary for supplying 

 the inhabitants, and the chief part of what was required for the 

 purpose was brought from the sand-beds of Esk on tumbling 

 cars on the Wednesdays to Dumfries." One of the citizens 

 informed the Lord Provost that when the waters were high by 

 reason of spates, there being no bridges, so that these cars 

 could not come with the meal, he had seen the tradesmen's 

 wives crying because there was none to be got. The same 

 statement occurs in the letter of Mr Maxwell of Munches above 

 referred to. They mention, however, as a compensation for 

 the general poverty of the fare to be got at hostelries on the 

 way, that they were able to procure an abundant supply of 

 claret and French brandy at i8d a bottle. Scotland had at 

 that time a considerable trade with the continent, and large 

 quantities of wine were imported. Dumfries, however, fell 

 behind in this commerce because of the difficult navigation of its 

 river. Only some three small boats seem to have traded from 

 the Nith to France, Norway, and Sweden ; France supplying 

 wine and brandy, Norway wood, and Sweden iron. Kirkcud- 

 bright had most of the sea-borne traffic of these parts. 



In the passages which I have quoted nothing is said about 

 what has come to be regarded as the national drink — whisky. 

 But we know that it was manufactured in Scotland at that 

 time, not only for home consumpt but for exportation. An 

 Act of Parliament of date 1661 imposed an export duty of two 

 ounces of silver on every barrel containing ten gallons of aqua 

 vitfe, and an excise duty of two merks Scots per boll malt used in 

 its manufacture for home consumption. All aqua vitje or strong 

 waters imported from other countries was to bear a customs dutv 

 of 6s per pint; and an Act of 1663 expressly prohibited its im- 

 portation. And the disciplinary records of the Kirk Sessions shew 

 that it was a drink in common use in this district, for in the 

 frequent proceedings following upon drunken brawls we have 

 reference, in the Session records of Dumfries in the seventeenth 

 century, to indulgence in "strong waters." I have no doubt that 

 among both the Dumfriesshire and Galloway hills there were 



