38 A HUNDRED YEARS 



ready in a corner, and a small boy or girl did nothing 

 else but keep these burning during the evening, so that 

 the women could see to card and spin and the men to 

 make their herring-nets by hand. I do not remember 

 hemp being grown, as it was, I believe, at one time in 

 special sorts of enclosures or gardens, and prepared and 

 spun for the making of the herring-nets. But it was 

 common^ done in the west. I do not think they grew 

 flax to any great extent, but on the east coast they grew 

 it quite extensively, and all the Tigh Dige sheets and 

 damask napkins and table-cloths in lovely patterns 

 were spun in Conon House, our east-coast home, and 

 woven in Conon village ! 



I shall now quote from my uncle to show what a good 

 housekeeper my grandmother was. He says: " I doubt 

 if there ever was a much better housekeeper than my 

 dear mother, or more busy and better servants than in 

 those times. They cheerfully put hand to work, the 

 very suggesting of which would startle the modern 

 ladies and gentlemen who serve us. A common sight 

 in the Conon kitchen after dinner was four or five women 

 all the evening busy spinning and carding flax for 

 napery, or putting wicks into metal candle moulds in 

 frames holding, say, a dozen, and pouring the fearful- 

 smelling tallow into the moulds. In those days I seldom 

 saw any candles but of tallow anywhere, unless in 

 chandeliers or against walls where they could not easily 

 be snuffed; so my wise mother made heaps of as good 

 candles as she could buy from the spare suet in the house. 

 Then, where could a storeroom be seen like my mother's 



