Results of Cultivation. 47 



Alloa, and there was a crust of ice even at Queens- 

 ferry. The Thames in that year was covered with ice 

 as far down as Billingsgate, and a fair was held on the 

 ice. A bad summer followed. The inclemency of the 

 season brought about failure in the crop and distress 

 on the common people, leading to bread riots in Edin- 

 burgh and Leith the populace attacking certain 

 mills, granaries, and meal shops and the necessity of 

 " large contributions" " from the rich to keep the poor 

 alive." At this time day-labourers and others in 

 Aberdeenshire, " stout men," thankfully accepted 

 " twopence each per day in full for their work." 



A natural consequence of these years of famine was 

 to throw agriculture backward by utterly impoverishing 

 a large proportion of those of the tenant farmer 

 class who had managed to escape extermination. 

 The civil wars of the previous century had been very 

 adverse to agriculture in Scotland ; and now, in 1700, 

 at the close of the " seven ill years," the landowners 

 were fain to bribe tenants of substance with a yoke of 

 oxen, or other part of the farm furnishings, to extend 

 their holdings by leasing one or more adjoining farms 

 that had become vacant. Sometimes they obtained 

 tenants in sufficient number ; sometimes not. And 

 in the latter case arable areas, here and there, went 

 again into a state of nature ; to remain so for an 

 indefinite time, as testified by traces of " baulk " and 

 " burrel " rigs in various places not under the plough 

 within living recollection ; nor indeed in exceptional 

 instances until this day. And of so little value was 

 land in Aberdeenshire at the period under notice, 

 that there were instances of " considerable tracts of 

 corn lands being so totally abandoned as to be allowed 

 to pass from one proprietor to another merely by a pre- 

 scriptive title of occupancy for upwards of forty years 

 without a challenge." 



