WEAVING AND A VILLAGE OF WEAVERS. 2$ 



they became the merest rags, and were precious even then. 

 Some of the weavers possessed not a few books, such as 

 John's master, and these were not allowed to gather dust 

 on their shelves ; but a taste for general reading was not 

 common even amongst weavers. The parish school then 

 stood, as now, at the upper south end of the village, and 

 was taught at that time by Mr. Charles, a worthy, old- 

 fashioned man, who, in 1820, six years after Duncan left, 

 became minister of Garvock, above Laurencekirk, and died 

 in his hundredth year, tended to the last by his old house- 

 keeper, of about the same age, that had been with him in 

 Drumlithie ; and the elements of education were, as a whole, 

 fairly prized by the community. 



The above picture, which is a simple statement of facts 

 gathered from eye-witnesses and participants, reveals a state 

 of rural society creditable to the country and the age, self- 

 supporting, well-conditioned, hardworking and comfortable, 

 with valuable social elements that have greatly passed away 

 with the decay of village communities and the overgrowth 

 of city centres. To some of these elements it may be well 

 and wise for us, as a nation, once more to return. One 

 thing, at least, the most sceptical will allow tastes and 

 habits then were much simpler, and in many ways healthier, 

 than they are now. As put by one of my aged informants, 

 who was a boy in the village when the century began, 

 " Fowk didna need a' the pleasures then that they need 

 noo." But whether, as he maintained, " no half the 

 mischief was dune then that is noo," and whether our fathers 

 were better men than their children, are other questions 

 open to both positive and negative replies. 



