Vagrant Life. 167 



themselves particularly obliged to their brethren in 

 Aberdeen." On this particular point, another Forfar- 

 shire minister (Kescobie) gives a statement of fact and 

 an opinion : " Perth," he says, " usually furnishes out 

 a pretty large quota ; but there is no place sends forth 

 such legions of these itinerants as Aberdeen, meaning 

 the county as well as the town of that name. The 

 county is extensive, fertile, and populous ; the town 

 commercial and opulent. What harm would there be 

 in giving Aberdeen a hint that it would be both credit- 

 able and recommendable in them to take measures, as 

 they ought, to provide for their own poor at home, 

 rather than set them off, like a flight of locusts, to prey 

 upon their neighbours, who are under no local obliga- 

 tion to receive or relieve them." But if Aberdeen and 

 Aberdeenshire sent off hordes of vagrants to the annoy- 

 ance of other places, a sufficiency of the same class were 

 still left at home apparently. The Old Statist for Peter- 

 culter parish, for example, says : " This country is 

 often infested with vagrants of various descriptions, 

 who by threats or otherwise, compel people to give 

 them money and the best vivres their houses afford. 

 They likewise pick up poultry, apparel, and what they 

 can lay hold of. Their exactions are oppressive, their 

 numbers often formidable, and it hurts the feelings of 

 the humane to see so many young people trained up to 

 the same pernicious courses." 



The vagrant class embraced two distinct sections. 

 There was the mere beggar, of the higher or lower 

 degree, and there was the thorough-paced " caird." The 

 male caird, to the extent of his industrial inclination, 

 assumed the profession of "tinkler" homer, or such 

 like, as already indicated, leaving the details of ordinary 

 foraging largely to his female companions. And then 

 in the business of "sorning," pure and simple, there 

 were degrees. Apart from the privileged bede, or blue 

 gown men, known to certain localities in Scotland, 

 there was a more generally diffused class of beggars, 



