EARLY PREMIUMS. 105 



what would be proper branches to be estabHshed in the 

 Highlands ; and on same date, £4 4s. were awarded to 

 Katherine Munro, Portskerry, Reay, Sutherland, for the 

 second best sample of woollen cloth. Quite a family 

 industry is exemplified in the next three premiums of this 

 class. On 2nd January 1795, £6 6s. were awarded to Mrs 

 Mackay of Bighouse for the best sample of woollen cloth ; 

 £^ 3s. to ^liss Alexandrina Mackay of Bighouse for the 

 best parcel of worsted stockings ; and £$ 3s. to Miss 

 Johana Mackay of Bighouse for the best parcel of worsted 

 yarn. Still greater advance is shown by the recipients of 

 the next award. A sum of ^^15 15s. was voted on 4th July 

 1796 to Misses Ann, Eliza, Barbara, Jean, and .Mary 

 Steuart for establishing at Pittyvaich, in the upper district 

 of Banffshire, a thread manufactory. The Directors also 

 resolved to recommend the Misses Steuart to the Board of 

 Trustees for Manufactures, as deserving of further en- 

 couragement. A sum of £y 7s. was voted on 7th March 

 1806, to John Robertson, stocking weaver, Edinburgh, for 

 a machine for weaving fishing nets. 



Operations on a larger scale are evidenced in the sums 

 voted on 24th June 1808, when i^2i was voted to Dugald 

 Kennedy, smith in Glasgow, and Robert Mackay, machine 

 maker there, and ;^5o to Daniel Clark, merchant, Camp- 

 beltown, for constructing machinery, and introducing it into 

 different parts of the Highlands, for teasing, carding, and 

 spinning wool, and making the same into cloth. Messrs 

 Kennedy and Mackay first conceived the idea of erecting 

 a mill for carding and spinning wool at Killarow Water, in 

 the district of Kintyre, of which adventure the above Mr 

 Clark was also a partner, and afterwards carried it on for 

 his own behoof upon an improved scale for the manufac- 

 ture of cloth. Messrs Kennedy and Mackay, upon giving 

 up their shares in the first adventure, erected another 

 carding mill at Knockriock, in the same district, and in the 

 neighbourhood of Campbeltown, and also a similar mill in 

 the district of Islay. On 26th June 1809, £21 were voted 

 to William Ferguson, Arrochar, for constructing machiner}' 

 and building a mill for carding wool, and to enable him to 



