10 Notes and Sketches. 



indispensable functionary. And we now and then find 

 in the lists such people as the " tinkler," the " homer," 

 the "pewterer," and more rarely the "pyper;" designa- 

 tions which sufficiently explain the occupations of those 

 who bore them. 



Let us attempt to sketch the general features in the 

 outward aspect of one of these hamlets, or " clachans," as 

 they were called in the Highlands. The site of the ham- 

 let had at first been determined, perhaps, by the presence 

 of a gushing spring of " caller " water, or the vicinity 

 of some " wimplin burnie ;" or by the fertility of the soil 

 at that particular spot ; for men did not then ordinarily 

 resort to such artificial means as the use of the suction 

 pump to supply them with one of the essentials of life, 

 nor did they contemplate setting themselves deliberately 

 down to reclaim barren moors and hillsides for the 

 sake of the other. They rather chose those situations 

 where it was likeliest that bread would be given them 

 without extra toil, and where their water would be sure 

 so long as perennial fountains, fed in hills and heights, 

 should seek the gladsome daylight where undulating 

 hollows and rifts in earth's surface allowed it. It 

 thus came to pass that the hamlet, in respect of site, 

 had frequently a fair share cf the elements of natural 

 beauty ; and in time, these came usually to be en- 

 hanced by the presence of some goodly trees clustering 

 about the place. 



The walls of the straw-thatched cottages or huts 

 were composed, in the upper part at least, of " feal " or 

 turf; or it might be " heather and dub," or mud and 

 straw. The roofing " cupples," firmly embedded in the 

 walls at bottom, were fastened with wooden pins 

 a-top to a short cross bar, the roof-tree extending from 

 end to end of the house over this bar, and between the 

 points of the cupple legs. Stout binders, formed of 

 saplings sawn up the middle, were placed horizontally 

 down the rib of the roof, and over these again trans- 

 versely the " watlin," consisting of smaller sticks split 



