166 Notes and Sketches. 



another we have the information that M'Pherson was 

 " one night " at his house along with others of his 

 class, and " drank with the rest, and danced all night;" 

 a sufficiently characteristic glimpse of gipsy life on its 

 social side. 



Various writers near the close of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury describe Scotland as sadly over-run by vagrants, 

 including, in some cases, Irish people, who, it seems, 

 came over under pretence of visiting their relatives ; "a 

 duty," says one narrator caustically, " to which, it must 

 be allowed, they are particularly attentive." The Old 

 Statistical writer for the parish of Kinnettles, in Forfar- 

 shire, speaks thus of his locality : " We have bands 

 of sturdy beggars, male and female or, as they are 

 usually called, tinkers whose insolence, idleness, and 

 dishonesty are an affront to the police of our country. 

 These persons are ready for prey of all kinds : every- 

 thing that can supply them with provisions or bring 

 them money is their spoil, if it can be obtained with 

 any appearance of safety. They file off in small parties, 

 and have their places of rendezvous, where they choose 

 to billet themselves for at least one day ; nor do they 

 fail generally to make good their quarters, as the farmer 

 is afraid to refuse to answer their demands, or to com- 

 plain of the oppression under which he labours." 



It had been a practice of long standing for the Aber- 

 deen Baillies to have evil-doers, including notour 

 vagrants, " banischit the toun ; " and they had occa- 

 sionally the distinction of an official drumming out as 

 far as the Bow Brig.* "Their honours the Baillies 

 were always humane enough," says a local chronicler, 

 " to send their vagrants all south, and for which com- 

 pliment the authorities in the south no doubt considered 



* The Bow Brig spanned the Denburn at Aberdeen between the 

 Green and Windmillbrae, about the precise point where there is 

 now a latticed iron foot bridge over the line of the Great North 

 Railway. The Brig was at the southwest side of the town : the 

 spot it occupied is now, as near as may be, in the centre of the ex- 

 tended city. 



