Results of Cultivation. 43 



this time are very lamentable. It was represented in 

 Edinburgh in 1696, that if extraneous supplies of 

 victual were not speedily received in Aberdeenshire 

 " a good part of that and the next county [Banff] will 

 undoubtedly starve." This was in July, and George 

 Fergusson, a generous baillie of Oldmeldrum, and a 

 member of a family long well known in that region, 

 with Alexander Smith, writer in Edinburgh, proposed 

 to purchase 1000 or 1200 bolls of corn and bear, to 

 sell to the people at a price to be fixed by the autho- 

 rities, they having no desire of profit, " but allenarly 

 the keeping of the poor in the said shire from starving." 

 They wished their cargo protected from the risk of 

 French privateers on its way to Aberdeen ; and the 

 Privy Council agreed to recommend their petition to 

 that effect to the Lords of the Treasury. 



" These manifold unheard-of judgments, " says 

 Patrick Walker, the Packman, " continued seven years, 

 not always alike, but the seasons, summer and winter, 

 so cold and barren, and the wonted heat of the sun so 

 much withholden, that it was discernible upon the 

 cattle, flying fowls and insects decaying, that seldom a 

 fly or cleg was to be seen our harvests not in the 

 ordinary months ; many shearing in November and 

 December ; yea, some in January and February ; 

 many contracting their deaths, and losing the use of 

 their feet and hands shearing and working in frost 

 and snow ; and, after all, some of it standing still and 

 rotting upon the ground, and much of it for little use 

 either to man or beast, and which had no taste or 

 colour of meal." 



" Meal became so scarce," adds Patrick, " that it was 

 sold at two shillings a peck ; and many could not get it. 

 It was not then with many, 'Where will we get siller?' 

 but ' Where shall we get meal for siller V" " Deaths 

 and burials were so many and common that the living 

 were wearied with the burying of the dead. I have 

 seen corpses drawn on sleds. Many got neither coffin 



