SCOTLAND. 



CHAPTER XV. 

 GENERAL SYSTEM OF LABOUR. 



HISTORY and fiction the last word being a curious 

 misnomer for what is, or should be, a faithful present- 

 ment, under assumed names only, of life and speech 

 and manners have combined to throw a great deal of 

 interest around the personality of the Scottish peasant. 

 Fiction may be compared to a series of cinematographs 

 of figures which owe their resuscitation to the skilful 

 pen of the novelist, who can infuse life into dry bones ; 

 but we are here concerned with living realities, and with 

 men and women as they are now moving and having 

 their being ; and for the subject of this chapter we 

 cannot do better than quote verbatim the very accurate 

 and interesting sketch published by the Board of Trade 

 a sketch which, we may say, covers the ground we desire 

 to traverse so completely that no apology is needed 

 for giving it in full. The report says : 



" In Scotland nearly all the farm servants are engaged 

 by the year or the half-year, and are given continuous 

 employment and a regular wage, payable if they are 

 prevented from working owing to weather, or if absent 

 on account of illness. Except when the farms are too 

 small to admit of special classes of work being assigned 

 to particular men, their work is denned, and they may 

 be classified as follows : grieves or stewards, horsemen 

 or ploughmen (' hinds ' as they are called in the more 

 southern counties), cattlemen (or ' byremen '), orramen, 

 and shepherds. On a large farm, where there is no regular 



