The Bad Rawest of 1782. 57 



tences " Temperance stern but friendly established her 

 reign on the solid base of necessity." But the pressure 

 of dearth went much deeper than this ; and but for the 

 importation of bread stuffs already spoken of, and which 

 took the shape, to a considerable extent, of grants by 

 Government of oatmeal and peasemeal, or rather of pease 

 to be ground into meal, there is no reason to doubt the 

 statement that "numbers would have perished." 



Neither of the two adjoining counties seems to have 

 suffered quite so severely. The parish reports asked for 

 and obtained by the Commissioners of Supply for Banff- 

 shire in the late autumn of 1782, led them to conclude 

 that " the condition of the crop was not so bad as was 

 apprehended." In Kincardineshire a portion of the 

 cereal crop was wheat, which gave better results compa- 

 ratively than the oat crop ; and the farmers ground it 

 in the ordinary corn mills, using it for porridge, while 

 they made cakes of the oatmeal and bearmeal. 



In country districts the distribution of these grants 

 of meal was a duty that fell to the Kirk-sessions, who, 

 as a rule, did their part with a creditable amount of 

 shrewdness and humane feeling. Here, in brief, are 

 the arrangements in a large parish in a central Aber- 

 deenshire Presbytery, and which may be taken as typical 

 of the county parishes generally. On Wednesday. 8th 

 January, 1783, a fast was observed according to the Pres- 

 bytery's appointment, and the occasion no doubt carried 

 with it more of a practical aspect than " fasts" frequently 

 do. On April 13th, the Session, " considering the de- 

 plorable situation of the parish through the dearth and 

 scarcity of meal, and being well informed that even 

 they who cannot properly be ranked amongst the poor, 

 find very great difficulty in getting meal even when they 

 have money to pay for it," resolved " to bespeak fourty 

 bolls of pease on their own account." They held a bond 

 of a principal heritor for a certain amount, and, he being 

 out of the country at the time, " the interest could not 

 be uplifted till his return ;" but several " generous and 



