THE DWELLINGS OF THE SCOTCH PEASANTRY. 
590 
RURAL AFFAIRS. 
ARTICLE XIII. 
A DESCRIPTION OF THE HOUSES OF THE PEASANTRY IN THE 
WESTERN HIGHLANDS, AND NORTHERN PARTS OF SCOTLAND. 
BY THE BRICKLAYER’S LABOURER. 
Having determined upon seeing Jolinny O’Groat’s I threw aside 
the hod for a few weeks, and visited North Britain in the year 1826; 
so the following is no second-handed account of the houses of the 
peasantry in that part of the country, but that which came under my 
own observation. 
I arrived at Wick in the fishing season, where all was hurry and 
confusion. I hastened into the country, where I was greatly disap¬ 
pointed to find there were no forest trees whatever, nothing larger than a 
willow or apple tree, and one or two others. The face of the coun¬ 
try presented a bare, bleak appearance to one who had seen the 
beautiful scenery of England, and that of the South of Scotland. 
The gardens appeared very scantily furnished with fruit trees; pears, 
apples, cherries, gooseberries, currants, &c. were chiefly all the fruit 
they grew. I saw no peaches, or melons, or any other of our choice 
fruits in any of the gardens which I had visited, nor any hothouse 
plants worth mentioning; kitchen garden vegetables of every descrip¬ 
tion were, however, in great abundance. But to my subject:—The 
following observations do not extend to the towns, which, upon the 
whole, are very tastefully built with a kind of blue, hard stone. 
The houses of the small farmers and peasantry, and the manner 
of erecting them, astonished me more than anything. 
The site being chosen, (which by the bye is seldom a good one,) 
and the trenches for walls being excavated to the depth of two feet, 
round stones are gathered from the surrounding fields, with which 
the foundations are laid. The walls are carried up to about three 
feet with these stones, which are locally termed whinstone, and bound 
together with clay .mortar instead of lime. The walls are then car¬ 
ried up to their respective heights (and two feet thick,) with heavy 
turf prepared for that purpose. Half-dressed boughs or limbs of 
trees (imported from Inverness and Ross-shire) are joined together 
with wooden pins, (such as are used in the building of ships,) to 
form the scantling of the roof. The rafters form a segment of a 
circle from the casings, and are continued down the ground on each 
