356 A FARMER'S YEAR 



whom I can very well remember, and who died at the age of 

 ninety, used to tell a story of how, when she was young, she drove 

 across the Gibbet Common while these bones were still swinging in 

 their cage, and noticed that a robin or a starling — I forget which— 

 had built its nest among the vertebrae. Some folk from Shipdham, 

 it is said, came and took the young birds from their grizzly 

 brooding-place. Another tale which I have heard in the village is 

 that certain relations of the deceased, who lived upon the borders of 

 the Common, were so disturbed by the constant creaking of the 

 chains on windy nights that at last they cut the cage down and 

 buried it. If so, to judge from the worn condition of the gallows 

 hook, they must have borne the noise with patience for very many 

 years. These remains of a barbarous but still recent age are now 

 in the Norwich Museum. 



From where we sat eating our frugal luncheon by the huge 

 boulder that did not interest Mr. Bosvvell the view of Coll is very 

 striking, and to all appearance arid. Beneath us lay thousands 

 of masses of ice-rounded gneiss spotting the plains and hills in 

 every direction, while beyond stretched the blue sea, and rising 

 from it here and there, dimly outlined in the mist, the fantastic 

 shapes of other islands. Also there are many ruins of stone 

 houses which once were occupied by crofters. The most of these 

 crofter folk were got rid of in the year of the great famine, or 

 afterwards ; indeed, it is said that the Laird of that generation 

 half ruined himself by the cost of shipping them away to America. 

 In those days the population had increased beyond the capacity 

 of the land to support it, and life was hard ; indeed, old folk who 

 can remember something of them say that many a time have they 

 been driven to seek their food among the mussels and limpets of 

 the seashore. But all this is part of the Crofter Question, which 

 is too large and intricate a subject for me to attempt to discuss 

 here, even had I the necessary knowledge of its details. The 

 gist of it seems to be, at any rate in the Highlands, and 

 I have observed the same thing among the natives of South 

 Africa, that the population has a tendency to increase to the 



