44 Transactions. 
Fifty vears ago dykes in Colvend (the fences are all dry-stone 
dykes)——could be built, the very best, 44 feet high for 1s 6d a 
rood. A rood is 18 feet. I have built some hundreds of them. 
Now the same height of dyke could not be built under 4s 6d. 
The dykes in Colvend are not built of such trifling stones as are 
to be seen in some neighbouring parishes, but of great granite 
stones or blasted boulders, some of them half a ton weight 
Such a dyke may be seen on the farm of Nether Clifton on the 
road up to the Southwick Churchyard. 1 remember passing the 
field which the dyke in question now encloses, but which was then 
but partially reclaimed, covered with great boulders everywhere 
sticking up their heads. An old farmer, Mr Gibson of 
Auchenlosh, himself a great improver in his day, directing my 
attention to the state of the field, said, with an expression of 
contempt either for the farmer or his landlord, or for both— 
“Did you ever see such a debauched field?” The boulders have 
long since been unearthed and blasted, and now form one of the 
strongest dykes in the parish. 
The next point which, in speaking of the changes which have 
taken place in Colvend, calls for special remark, is the number 
of cottages which, at the beginning of the period were in the 
parish standing occupied, compared with what there are now. 
At the time when I came to the parish, the parish was dotted 
over with cottages. Every little oasis among the hills, every 
sheltered neuk by rock, or stream, or shore, had its cottage, with 
garden adjoining. Many of the cottages were solitary, removed 
to a distance from any neighbour. Some were pitched around 
or near the dwelling-house of the farm on which they were built, 
and some few were grouped together in twos and threes. Many 
of the occupants held their cottages from the farmer on whose 
land they stood, and to him they paid rent or rendered service. 
A few cottages were of the nature of crofters’ dwellings, and had 
attached to them an acre or two of arable or pasture land. 
These they held direct from the landlord. But the cottages, 
whether of the nature of crofts or simple dwellings with gardens 
attached, and in some cases a cow’s grass added, have all, with 
scarce an exception, disappeared. I can myself recall fifty at 
least which have so disappeared, in most of which I have 
baptized, married, and conducted such religious services as the 
occasion required, and of these hardly a vestige remains to mark 
the spot where they stood. In some few places where the 
