OS LA'S WEDDING. 315 



native breed at from two to four shillings ; and a lamb 

 as low as one shilling, or even less. Geese were from 

 eightpence to tenpence each ; chickens and fowls from 

 fourpence to tenpence a pair ; and eggs three-halfpence 

 to twopence a dozen. Now, there are in the islands 

 many good-sized arable and sheep farms, cultivated and 

 managed according to the Scotch system. Excellent 

 crops of turnips, oats, bear, and hay are raised ; im- 

 proved breeds of store cattle and sheep have been 

 introduced, and large numbers are annually exported, 

 and fetch prices in the southern markets equal to 

 those of animals of their class bred and reared in 

 any other part of Scotland ; and the prices of other 

 articles above mentioned have risen proportionally 

 since those markets have become accessible. A man's 

 wages used to be tenpence to one shilling a day, and 

 a woman's fourpence to sixpence; and the wages of 

 domestic servants were twenty-five to thirty shillings 

 a year. Now they all approximate to those in the 

 south. 



Further, many of the old, and in some respects very 

 peculiar social customs, which had come down from 

 the remote times before the islands were annexed 

 to the Scottish crown, have passed, or are fast passing 

 away. Altogether, modern enterprise and material 

 progress have nowhere made more rapid advance- 

 ment or effected more striking changes than in those 

 " melancholy isles of furthest Thule." 



Osla Manson was an exceedingly pretty, bright, blue- 



