88 
FLORA OF FORFARSHIRE, 
a board in place of a window. The interior displays the 
most brilliant ebony hue, and is painted by the hand ot no 
common artist. A chimney and fire-place are luxuries un- 
thought of ; the fire is lighted on the floor, and an opening 
in the roof, at one end of the dwelling, is deemed quite suffi- 
cient for the egress of the smoke. If all is quiet without, it 
generally finds its way ; but otherwise, it would be perhaps 
better to submit to the consequences of a heavy shower out- 
side, than run the risk of having the eyes irritated, and the 
breathing embarrassed, by the smoke within. 
In such a place luxury in furniture is not to be looked for, 
the principal items usually being a heather-bed, a small 
wooden form, a turf-built sofa by the fire, termed a sunk , a 
little meal-girnal, an iron pot, a tin flagon, one or more 
wooden dishes called caps , and several horn-spoons. 
The food generally used by the shepherds is what in Scot- 
land is known by the name of brose , which is made by 
pouring boiling water upon oatmeal, with a little salt, then 
gently stirring with a spoon, and qualifying with butter or 
milk, as either may be obtained. The fuel used for boiling 
the water is either peats or birns (the withered stems of 
heath), and the pot is suspended over the fire by a chain 
from an iron spike fixed in the wall. Cheese and bread are 
also partaken of, but chiefly during their long and fatiguing 
rambles round the mountain-Wp^ms. 
After a long day’s scrambling among wild rocks, and wan- 
dering over trackless heaths, loaded with the treasures of 
Flora, when at evening’s hour, 
“ Keen blows the blast, and ceaseless rains descend,” 
with what earnestness does the botanical rambler exclaim, 
with Bloomfield, — 
“ O ! for a Hovel, e’er so small or low,” — 
and what soul- thrilling pleasure fills his breast, when, 
“No sooner thought, than see the structure rise, 
In some sequester'd nook, embank’d around, 
Sods for its walls, and straw in burdens bound.” 
To that little domicile he is always welcomed in the spirit of 
genuine hospitality. Though the accommodation be rude, 
and the comforts at command scanty, yet the cheerful 
health-beaming smile of the hardy mountaineer, and his kind 
open-heartedness, make up for all such deficiencies. On his 
