Herding on the Moor. 1 1 



sometimes half frozen, forced to spend his whole day 

 out of doors, and coming back at night to the sorry 

 comfort of an unlighted loft, presents a rather pitiful 

 picture to the imagination. Hardy and courageous 

 as he seems to have been, he could not help feeling 

 this a bad beginning of providing for himself. 



From the place just described he went to a Mr. 

 Thomas Young, occupying a moorland farm, called 

 The Logach, in the parish of East Kilbride, Lanark- 

 shire. Here both master and mistress were more 

 considerate. He was four or five years altogether in 

 the service of Mr. Thomas Young and his son, Mr. 

 John Young, who had a neighbouring farm called 

 Ardochrigg. During that time he was in succession 

 cow herd, quey or heifer herd, and sheep herd. It 

 was with the son that he was promoted to be sheep 

 herd, when he was between ten and eleven years of 

 age. The farm was small, and the flock was not a 

 large one, but none the easier to. manage on that 

 account, more particularly as the whole flock was 

 sold off every season, and the farm re-stocked with 

 wethers, or hog-lambs, as the farmers called them. 



The lambs, when first brought to the hill, were 

 very difficult to herd for a time, till they got wonted, 

 that is, accustomed to their new quarters. The first 

 thing in the morning by break of day they would be 

 up and away, and always with the wind in their 

 faces. Many a night, when a fresh flock had been 

 recently brought to the farm, the young herd never 

 got to bed, but had to lie on the haystack with his 

 plaid about him for fear of sleeping in. After a time 

 the sheep would become more settled. Still, as the 



