80 HATCHING HOUSE DESCRIBED.  ([Cnar. V. 
one of what Scottish cottages were a few years ago, 
but which now, happily, are among the things that 
were. My new friend’s cottage was no exception 
to the general rule: bad fitting, loose, creaking 
doors, paper windows, dirty and torn ; ducks, geese, 
fowls, dogs, and pigs in the house and at the doors, 
and apparently having equal rights with their 
masters. Then there were children, grand-children, 
and, for aught that I know, great-grand-children, 
all together, forming a most motley group, which, 
with their shaved heads, long tails, and strange 
costume, would have made a capital subject for the 
pencil of Cruikshank. 
The hatching-house was built at the side of the 
cottage, and was a kind of long shed, with mud 
walls, and thickly-thatched with straw. Along the 
ends and down one side of the building are a number 
of round straw baskets, well plastered with mud, to 
prevent them from taking fire. In the bottom of 
each basket there is a tile placed, or rather the tile 
forms the bottom of the basket ; upon this the fire 
acts, — a small fire-place being below each basket. — 
Upon the top of the basket there is a straw cover, 
which fits closely, and which is kept shut whilst 
the process is going on. In the centre of the shed 
are a number of large shelves placed one above 
another, upon which the eggs are laid at a certain 
stage of the process. 
When the eggs are brought, they are put into 
the baskets, the fire is lighted below them, and 
an uniform heat kept up, ranging, as nearly as I 
