TRIAL OF PATRICK SELLAR. 199 



was blackened accidentally by the fire. By the Court Witness did not 

 observe that the blanket which was round Margaret M'Kay was burnt, 

 though he saw it when she was passing. 



8th, John Burns, farmer in Auchavurrisdale, in Caithness. Witness 

 was at Badinloskin on the day of Chisholm's ejection, having accom- 

 panied Mr. Sellar there ; arrived in the forenoon. When they came in 

 sight of Chisholm's house, part of it was already unroofed ; they stopped 

 at about seventy yards' distance from the house. When Mr. Sellar 

 came here, the people met him, and asked him not to destroy the 

 house ; Mr. Sellar answered, that he could not avoid doing so, for if 

 he did, the tinker would not go away. He sent for the tinker and 

 spoke to him, and Mr. Sellar said he would turn him out, pile up the 

 wood, and burn it. The officer then came up, and Mr. Sellar desired 

 him to go on with his business. The people said that they could not 

 carry away an old woman who was there. Mr. Sellar advised them to 

 take her to Rossal ; he said there was a truck, and they might easily 

 make a bed of it for her, and take her out. The people, after this, 

 observed, that there was fire coming from the house. Mr. Sellar, upon 

 this, started up ; he desired the people immediately to take out the fir- 

 wood, for it belonged to the tinker. The men said that the woman 

 had been previously removed to a small house. The woman was 

 removed before Mr. Sellar and witness came up, and before Sellar 

 ordered fire to be set to the house. There was no complaint of 

 furniture, or bank notes, being burnt that day. 



9th, James Fraser, residing at Golspie ; was a witness to the 

 removings ; came to Badir.loskin about one o'clock ; the party came 

 from Langdale, and met Mr. Sellar at Badinloskin. Chisholm was 

 unroofing his house when the witness came ; Mr. Sellar came about an 

 hour after ; when about sixty yards distant from the house, he called 

 for the officer, and gave orders that the furniture should be removed 

 with as little damage as possible ; he then paid for the moss-fir. 

 Before they arrived, witness heard that there was an old woman there, 

 and he himself saw her removed by her daughter-in-law to a small house 

 at a little distance ; this was before Mr. Sellar came up. Witness saw 

 no burning then, the old woman was on a shake-down in the byre-end 

 of the house ; she was removed, and all the furniture also, before the 

 burning took place ; there was no unnecessary cruelty ; the tinker took 

 the money for the moss-fir, and made no objection. The value of the 

 house, &c., was nearer twenty shillings than twenty pounds. Witness 



