Topographical and Social. 11 



with a wedge. The "watlin," which, with the 

 cupple legs and binders, was quite visible from the 

 interior, carried the " divots," and these latter the 

 " thack," ordinarily fastened on with " strae rapes." 

 Each house consisted of a " but " and a " ben," with 

 little variation in the character or extent of accom- 

 modation embraced. 



In certain districts the style of building described 

 was known as " Auchenhalrig," from its having been 

 first used at a place of that name in Morayshire. Of 

 the Auchenhalrig walls and the mode of constructing 

 them, a detailed description informs us that : " This 

 work is built of small stones and mud, or clay, mixed 

 with straw. The proportions of these materials required 

 to make a rood of thirty-six square yards are . . . 

 about thirty cart loads of stones, ten cart loads of clay 

 or mud, and twenty-four stones weight of good fresh 

 straw." The straw and mud being properly worked 

 together, " twenty-two inches are sufficient thickness 

 for a wall of seven feet high if higher, they should be 

 two feet thick carried up perpendicularly the same as 

 other walls, and care should be taken never to build 

 more than two or three feet in height in any one part 

 in the same day ; if raised more, the wall is apt to 

 swell, for which there is no remedy but to pull it down 

 and rebuild." These walls were " equal to the weight of 

 any roof commonly put on mason work," and would, 

 " when properly built, and kept well under thatch, last 

 for more than a century." 



Here then, in our hamlet, we have a number, varying 

 from four or five to a dozen, of these homely yet toler- 

 ably comfortable houses, with their walls of rude 

 " concrete" some with their adjuncts of barn and byre 

 planted down in a miscellaneous sort of way, as if they 

 had dropt from the clouds, or been scattered broadcast 

 over the knoll by Titanic hands. A winding road, or 

 track rather, partly fenced in by round-headed " feal 

 dykes," not in the best state of repair, leads up to the 



