CHAPTER II 



Highland Laird 



WE have run over some of our favourite books 

 on the country, and now we are tempted to 

 try some random sketches of one or two of our 

 familiar country friends. Take the Highland laird 

 to begin with. His ancestors down to his grandfather 

 were always hard up for cash, though they were lords 

 of a wide extent of barren acres. His lands lie along 

 one of the most lovely of the winding sea-arms on 

 the western coast ; and fifty years ago, or even less, 

 the wreaths of blue peat-smoke might have been seen 

 curling up from the hamlets or clachans in half a score 

 of glens. The people who eked out the scanty produce 

 of their crops by the profits of " the fishing " sat at 

 small rents for the best of reasons. A considerable 

 portion of the rent was paid " in kind " in chickens, 

 in peat-cutting, and other services ; and in an un- 

 favourable year, when the crops had failed, or the 

 fishing, the pecuniary transactions were chiefly the 

 other way. The laird had not only to forgive his 



people what they owed, but to feed them into the 



28 



