CHAP, iv.] THE COMMISSAKIAT DEPARTMENT. 173 



her whole house, and so the two benighted travellers from the 

 east were accepted, at the instigation of the aforesaid Mr. 

 Douglas, in lieu of them. Taking possession of our lodgings 

 at once, we formed ourselves into a committee of supply, 

 which resulted in a prompt expenditure of a sum of six shil- 

 lings and threepence, the particulars of which, for the benefit 

 of my readers, and to show how primitive we had all at once 

 become, I beg to subjoin namely, bread, 7d. .; mutton, 2s. 4d. ; 

 butter, 6 ^d. ; tea, 6d. ; sugar, 3d.; milk, Jd. ; herring, 2d. 

 This sum, with eighteenpence added for whisky, threepence 

 for potatoes, and one penny for a candle, represented the total 

 commissariat expenses of two persons in Corry for five whole- 

 some but homely meals. Our bed cost us one shilling each 

 per night, and our attendance and washing were charged at 

 the rate of a shilling a day, so long as we used the Hotel 

 Macalister, but even this did not very much swell the grand 

 total of the bill, which, at such rates, was by no means heavy 

 at the end of our holiday ramble over Arran, especially when 

 it is considered that the Arran season does not very greatly 

 exceed one hundred days. Our quarters were certainly primi- 

 tive enough namely, half of a thatched cottage, or rather hut 

 we may call it, consisting of one apartment containing two beds, 

 four chairs, a small table, and a little cupboard. The beds 

 were curtained by a series of blue striped cotton fragments 

 of three different patterns of an old Scotch kind, and the walls 

 were papered with five different kinds of paper ; but the low 

 roof was the greatest treat of all it was covered with old 

 numbers of the Witness newspaper, at the time when it was 

 edited by Hugh Miller, and these had, no doubt, been left in 

 the cottage by previous travellers. The floor was covered with 

 fragments of canvas laid down as a carpet. Many tourists 

 would perhaps turn up their noses at this humble cottage, but 

 to my friend and myself it was a delightful change. 



I have not space in which to particularise all the beauties 



