Ch. x. in Scotland and Ireland. 465 



Scotland has at all times been subject to years 

 of scarcity, and occasionally even to dreadful fa- 

 mines. The years 1635, 1680, 1688, the con- 

 cluding years of the 16th century, the years 1740, 

 1756, 1766, 1778, 1782, and 1783, are all men- 

 tioned, in different places, as years of very great 

 sufferings from want. In the year 1680, so many 

 families perished from this cause, that for six 

 miles, in a well-inhabited extent, there was not a 

 smoke remaining.* The seven years at the end 

 of the 16th century were called the ill years. The 

 writer of the account of the parish of Mont- 

 quhitterf" says, that of 16 families, on a farm in 

 that neighbourhood, 13 were extinguished ; and 

 on another, out of 169 individuals, only 3 families 

 (the proprietors included) survived. Extensive 

 farms, now containing a hundred souls, being en- 

 tirely desolated, were converted into a sheep- 

 walk. The inhabitants of the parish in general 

 were diminished by death to one-half, or, as some 

 affirm, to one-fourth of the preceding number. 

 Until 1709 many farms were waste. In 1740, 

 another season of scarcity occurred ; and the ut- 

 most misery was felt by the poor, though it fell 

 short of death. Many offered in vain to serve for 

 their bread. Stout men accepted thankfully two 

 pence a-day in full for their work. Great distress 

 was also suffered in 1782 and 1783, but none 

 died. " If at this critical period," the author says, 



* Parish of Duthil, vol. iv. p. 308. 

 f Vol. v\. p. 121. 

 VOL. I. H H 



