HEATHER THATCH. 



churches, especially in Scotland, were too often barely 

 thatched with heath." 



Chalmers says that even as late as the sixteenth 

 century the churches were generally covered with 

 thatch. The cathedrals and abbeys, however, were 

 structures of great labor and expense, of magnificence 

 and taste, as the judicious eye may perceive in their 

 ruins. 



Logan tells us that many churches were for- 

 merly covered with Heather, some within his own 

 memory, the services from lands being often a certain 

 quantity of it for this purpose. Its only disadvantage 

 was in being heavier than straw or rushes. Heather- 

 covered churches were to be found in Carlyle's days, 

 who fondly refers to one as "the poor temple of my 

 childhood thatched with heath." 



It is recorded in Mclan's history of Clan Drum- 

 mond that on one occasion the Heather covering of 

 a church proved disastrous during an engagement with 

 another clan. The story goes : In the beginning of 

 the sixteenth century a feud arose with the Murrays, 

 who had intercepted the rents payable by the ten- 

 ants of Monievaird, on which William, then chief, and 

 Duncan Campbell, of Dunstaffnage, went against them 

 to compel restitution and punish them for their ag- 

 gression. Not daring to meet this force, the Mur- 

 rays retired to the church, and Drummond, respect- 

 ing the sanctuary, gave orders to retire; but as they 

 commenced their march a shot was unhappily fired 

 by which one of the Campbells was killed, when so 

 enraged were they at this cowardly act, that they im- 

 mediately returned, and, not taking the trouble of 



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