96 SCOTLAND AT THE MIDDLE OF LAST CENTURY. PART VII. 



period. 1 They left the bog unreclaimed and the swamp 

 undrained. They would not even be at the trouble to 

 enclose lands easily capable of cultivation. There was 

 no class possessed of any enterprise or wealth. A 

 middle rank could scarcely be said to exist, or any 

 condition between that of the starving peasantry and 

 the impoverished proprietary, whose available means 

 were principally expended on hard drinking. 2 Mr. 

 Brown, an East Lothian farmer, said of the latter 

 class, that they were still too proud, and perhaps 

 too ignorant, to interest themselves about the amelio- 

 ration of their own domains. 3 The educated class 

 strictly so called was as yet extremely small, and dis- 

 played a general indiiferentism on all subjects of social, 

 political, or religious interest, which some regarded as 

 philosophic, but which was only an exhibition in another 

 form of the prevalent national indolence. An idea of 

 the general poverty may be formed from the fact that 

 about the middle of the century the whole circulating 

 medium of the Edinburgh banks was only 200,000/., 

 which was found amply sufficient for the requirements 

 of trade and commerce, which had scarcely yet sprung 

 into existence. 4 Even in East Lothian, which was pro- 

 bably in advance of the other Scotch counties, the 

 ordinary wage of a day labourer was only h'vepence in 



1 Miss Craik, in describing the 

 difficulties which her father (William 

 Craik, of Arbigland) had to contend 

 against in introducing agricultural 

 improvements in the county of Kirk- 

 cudbright, about the middle of last 

 century, says : " For many years the 

 indolent obstinacy of the lower class 

 of people was almost unconquerable. 

 Amongst other instances of their lazi- 

 ness, I have heard him say that, upon 

 his first introduction of the mode of 

 dressing the grain at night which had 

 been thrashed during the day, all the 

 servants in the neighbourhood refused 

 to adopt the measure, and even 

 threatened to destroy the houses of 



their employers by fire if they con- 

 tinued to insist upon the business. 

 My father speedily perceived that a 

 forcible remedy was required for the 

 evil. He gave them their choice of 

 removing the thrashed grain in the 

 evening, or becoming inhabitants of 

 Kirkcudbright jail; they preferred 

 the former alternative, and open mur- 

 murings were no longer heard. "- 

 * Farmer's Magazine,' No. xlvi. (June, 

 1811), p. 155. Art. : ' Account of 

 William Craik, Esq., of Arbigland.' 



2 See the 'Autobiography of Dr. 

 Alexander Carlyle,' passim. 



3 Brown on 'Rural Affairs,' Vol. I., 

 p. 58. 4 Ibid. 



