HEATHER THATCH. 



there is wind, they would come down and knock peo- 

 ple on the head." 



Johnson himself, in his "Journey to the Western 

 Isles," remarks as follows : "Such rafters as can be 

 procured are then raised for a roofj and covered with 

 heath, which makes a strong and warm thatch, kept 

 from flying off by ropes of twisted heath, of which the 

 ends, reaching from the center of the thatch to the 

 top of the wall, are held firm by the weight of a large 

 stone." 



Conditions of building in the Highlands have not 

 materially changed since Johnson's days. In the 1901 

 edition of Professor Geikie's admirable work on "The 

 Scenery of Scotland," dealing with the influences of 

 topography on man, he says : "The houses, built of 

 boulders gathered from the soil, and held together 

 with mere clay or earth, are covered with frail roofs 

 of ferns, straw, or Heather, kept down by stone- 

 weighted ropes of the same material." 



This method of construction applied equally to 

 church and cabin. Dunbar, the poet, who was also 

 a traveling friar, centered his ambition in a house of 

 worship so covered. He says: 



Grait abbais graith I will to gather 

 But ane kirk scant covert with hadder; 

 For I of lytil wad be fane, 

 Quilk to consider is ane pane. 



Dunbar was led to utter this modest plaint be- 

 cause "in Papist times the cathedrals absorbed the 

 money and the genius of the day, and the parish 

 66 



