Social Life in Scotland
Chapter IX. - Arts and Manufactures

Ere the discovery of the metals, Caledonian chiefs wore ornaments formed of sea-shell, flint, and stone. Necklaces were formed of the perforated shells of the limpet, cockle, and oyster, which were strung together with a sinew or vegetable fibre. Ossian's heroes used cups of gem-studded shells. Perforated discs and plates of slate and flint were in primeval games used as table-men. Horse collars of trap and granite have been found in Aberdeenshire. ["Prehistoric Annals of Scotland," by Daniel Wilson, LL.D., Lond., 1863, 8vo, 2d edit., vol i. pp. 221-6.] In the circles and weems are to be picked up fragments of pottery, including portions of Samian ware. Gold and silver torcs were worn by the Scots and Picts, and the specimens of those preserved in the Scottish National Museum are certainly of native metal. As gold could be wrought without smelting or moulding, it is not improbable that it was in use in the Neolithic age. Armillas of pure gold formed into rounded bars and bent to suit the arm were in a cinerary urn found in Banffshire. Malcolm Canmore and his queen were served on plate of gold, and we learn from Turgot, the queen's confessor, that she granted to the Church many vessels of pure gold.

A search for native gold is noticed in a grant by David I. to the Abbey of Dunfermline in 1153 of a tithe of all the gold which should accrue to him from Fife and Forthrif. By Gilbert de Moravia gold is said to have been discovered in 1245 at Duriness in Sutherland. In 1424 Parliament granted to the Crown all the gold mines in Scotland; also all silver mines in which three halfpennies of silver could be found in the pound of lead.

During the reign of James IV. gold mines were discovered at Crawfurd Muir, for the working of which Sir James Pettigrew in 1511 and subsequently received numerous payments. In 1524 the gold of Crawfurd Muir was coined in the Cunzie House; and two years later the mines of that locality were, with the sanction of Parliament, leased to a, company of miners from Germany and Holland for the period of forty-three years. The project proved unsuccessful, and after a trial of five years was abandoned. In 1539 miners from Lorraine operated at Crawfurd Muir under the charge of John Mossman, royal goldsmith, and the produce was sufficient for constructing coronets for the king and queen; also other ornaments. The earlier coins of the reign of Queen Mary were of native gold.

In 1567 the Regent Murray leaving authorised Cornelius de Vois, a Dutchman, to work gold and silver in any part of Scotland, a, joint-stock company was formed, of which a portion of the nobility and certain opulent merchants became members. Under the company were employed in searching and washing 120 persons, each of whom in daily wages received fourpence. After some changes Bevis Bulmer, an English gentleman, obtained a patent in 1578 authorizing him to make a wide search. On his enterprise he entered with much ardour, and he succeeded in obtaining some auriferous deposits at Henderland, in Ettrick Forest. In recognition of his efforts he received the honour of knighthood.

The craft of jeweller or goldsmith was fully established in the reign of Queen Mary, and as money-lending at usurious interest was a portion of the business, members of families of rank were not unwilling to adopt and practise it. In 1593 Thomas Foulis, of the opulent family of Foulis of Colinton, in his capacity of goldsmith in Edinburgh, made a loan to the king of the sum of £14,594, a favour acknowledged by his receiving for twenty-one years the privilege of searching for gold, silver, and lead at Crawfurd Muir and Glenconnar or Leadhills. He was also appointed Master of the Mint. George Heriot, a relative of Foulis, was in 1597 appointed goldsmith to the queen. As royal goldsmith he accompanied the king to London on his accession to the English throne. He died in 1624, bequeathing £50,000 to erect and endow the hospital at Edinburgh which bears his name.

Unmindful of existing engagements James VI. in 1603 granted £300 to George Bowes to work for minerals at Wanlock Water; but his operations being interrupted by a storm, he in 1604 wholly abandoned operations. A gold nugget found at Wanlockhead, weighing between four and five ounces, is preserved in the British Museum. An attempt by James VI. to raise funds for the working of gold mines by creating those who furnished capital for the undertaking Knights of the Golden Mines, or Golden Knights, proved abortive. The latest royal searcher for bold in Dumfriesshire was Stephen Atkinson, who in June 1616 obtained the life privilege of working for gold and silver at Crawford Muir; he engaged to pay as a royalty one-tenth of the metal. During the Commonwealth the Council of State were informed of the discovery of gold in Scotland, and the subject was referred to a Committee, who made no report. In this country no effort in gold-mining has since been systematically made. Yet geologists and other competent persons aver that bold is diffused both in the southern and northern districts, more especially in the counties of Argyle, Ross, and Sutherland.

Silver shrines for enclosing the bones of saints existed in Ireland in the seventh century, and three, centuries later was exhibited at St Andrews a silver box inscribed with Latin verses, which contained copies of the gospels.

Silver was worked in Scotland at an early period, but the metal was obtained in moderate quantities. In 1606 it was discovered in considerable quantities at Hilderston, in Linlithgowshire. Of this discovery great expectations were entertained, the Lord Advocate reporting to the Privy Council in March 1607 that a profit of £500 might be obtained monthly. In 1608 Sir Bevis Bulmer was appointed surveyor, and at the king's cost miners were brought from Saxony. But after a trial, prosecuted for nearly two years, the result proved unsatisfactory. In 1613 James VI proposed to feu the mines to Sir William Alexander of Menstry; Thomas Foulis, goldsmith in Edinburgh; and Paulo Pinto, a native of Portugal, a tenth part of the ore being reserved as royalty. Some time prior to the year 1715 a silver mine was opened in the Ochils at Alva. Worked by Sir James Erskine, the proprietor, it was found after a considerable trial to yield insufficient profit. From a portion of the ore were formed the communion cups of Alva parish. A silver mine worked at Airthrey in 1760 was to the adventurers attended with loss.

In Scotland copper mining was conducted in the archaic age. In the island of Jura, Pennant remarked trenches in which both lead and copper had been worked by instruments which are unknown to the modern miner. Among archaic ornaments are bracelets and armlets of bronze, usually formed of three metallic coils, terminating in serpents' heads, each ordinarily weighing two and three pounds. Copper mines were in the Ochils worked in the sixteenth century or earlier. Mining operations, which were conducted extensively, were in 1807 finally abandoned.

The art of native coinage dates from A.D. 630, when a silver penny was struck at York by King Edwin, who founded Edinburgh Castle and have name to the city. Circular gold pellets, impressed with a cross or star, and slightly flattened on each side, were used as coins prior to the twelfth century hoards of these have been found in the western isles and elsewhere. A Scottish mint was established by David I., and in his reign public taxes were made payable both in money and kind. Agrarian offenders were amerced in the forfeiture of cattle, while burghal licences and penalties were made payable in sIiillinngs, pence, and farthings.

On the 10th July 1631 Charles I. authorized a coinage of copper farthings, which proving unacceptable, was substituted by the production of copper coins of greater value. That the new coinage might be properly prepared, Nicholas Briot, Master of the English Mlint, was sent into Scotland to initiate operations. At the suggestion of Sir William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, and with a view to the satisfying of his colonising claims, the Scottish Mint was placed under the control of John Alexander, one of his sons, who with the royal sanction mixed the copper with a baser metal. The coins so prepared were called turners, and as such were held in popular aversion. In defiance of the king they were in 1639 "called down" by the Privy Council, with the approval of Parliament. In a satirical epitaph on the Earl of Stirling, the cynical Sir James Balfour describes him as

"A coppersmith who did much evil,"

and, in allusion to his verse-making, travestied his family motto, "Per mare, per terras" into "Per metre, per turners."

According to some writers, Julius Ceasar made the invasion of Britain with the view of fishing pearls. By the Venerable Bede we are informed that Scottish rivers abounded in shell-fish, in which were found excellent pearls of all colours, but chiefly white. Alexander I., who reigned from 1107 to 1124, was a noted collector of pearls, those which be treasured being both in respect of size and brilliancy celebrated in foreign countries.

Prior to the eleventh century drinking vessels were formed of horn; thereafter were used timber cups mounted with silver. During the reign of James III., mazers or goblets were used by the king and barons. A massive silver beaker in the shape of a lion is preserved at Glammis Castle, the ancient seat of the Earls of Strathmore. When the vessel, which contained an English pint, was placed before a guest, it was understood that he would drink its full measure of wine in honour of the host. By Sir Walter Scott the Glammis beaker is made the prototype of the Poculrum Potatorium of the Baron of Pradwardine. Sir Walter in a note appended to "The Pirate," describes another large drinking vessel preserved at Kirkwall, as the beaker of St Magnus. It was presented to each bishop of the Orkneys filled with strong ale, and if he was able to quaff the contents in a single draught, a portent was given that the next crop would prove to be abundant.

From the reign of David II. (1329-1370) the Crown jewels were held sufficiently important to be frequently pledged in security for temporary loans. The contents of the royal jewel-chest, catalogued in 1488, included collars, brooches, and fuser-rims, set with diamonds, pearls, rubies, sapphires and emeralds, also with the beryl and topaz. Among two hundred and fifty articles of jewellery belonging to Queen Mary, inventoried in 1566, are a, diamond cross, called "the Great Harry," a chain enriched with rubies and diamonds, several diamond necklaces and finger rings, a watch studded with diamonds; a small dial adorned with diamonds, rubies, and pearls, and a red enamelled ring presented to the Queen by Lord Darnley on the occasion of their marriage.

On a loan made by some inhabitants of Edinburgh to James VI., the Corporation of the city received in security one of His Majesty's jewels. A minute of Council, dated the 25th April 1584, thus certifies the transaction. "In presens of certane of the counsall and nichtbouris of the towne, Alexander Clerk of Balbirnie, provest, resauet in fra Jhonne Gib seruitor to the Kings Majestic, ane of His Majesties jewellis, to witt ane taiblett of gold in ane caise, and on the said taiblett ane dy omont stayne and ane emera,wlci stayne, cluhilk Aves dlelyuerit be the said Jhonne in His Maiesteis name to my lord provost, in name of the provest, bailyeis, and counsall of this burgle, in pledge of the sownle of foure tliowsand pund presentlic lent to his grace be certane nichtboures of the said burgh, as is mentionat in ane lettre of resaitt of the said jewell delyucrit to the said Jhonne, and subscryuet be the provost, liailyeis, and counsali, and on the bak thairof sul)scryuet be my lord provost, grantand his lordschip's resaitt of the said jowell. Siclyke my lord provest resauet the act of secreitt counsall."

To certain noble families belonged valuable jewel-chests. George, fifth Earl Marischal, died in 1623 his widow soon afterwards married Sir Alexander Strachan of Thornton, who, along with her and a confederate, was charged before the Privy Council with surreptitiously appropriating jewels which had belonged to the Earl. Among these are enumerated, "Portugal ducats and other species of foreign gold to the avail of twenty thousand pounds; thretty-sax dozen of fold buttons; ane rich jewel all set with diamonts, whilk the earl resavit as ane gift given to him the time he was ambassador in Denmark, worth sax thousand merks; the Queen of Denmark's picture in gold, set about with rich diamonts estimiat to five thousand merks; ane jasp stone for stenming of bluid, [Stones to which healing virtues were assigned were not uncommon.] estimat to five hundred French crouns; ane chenyie of equal pearl, wherein eves four hundred pearls great and small, twa chenyies of gold, of twenty-four ouce weight; ane other jewel of diamouts set in gold worth three thousand merks; ane great pair of bracelets all set with diamants, price thereof five hundred crowns; the other pair of gold bracelets, at sax hundred pounds the pair;" also various rings set in diamonds and precious stones, and other costly ornaments and coins.

So early as the twelfth century Scottish decorative art had made some progress. In the charter room of the Duke of Roxburgh at Floors is preserved the great charter which Malcolm IV., between 1153 and 1165, granted to the abbey of Kelso, and which in one general confirmation unites all previous benefactions. Of this charter the initial letter exhibits two crowned figures, seated, each surrounded by a gilt border---that on the left representing miniatures of David I., the king's grandfather, and founder of the abbey, holding in his right hand the sword of state, and in his left a globe—the figure on the left representing the king holding the sceptre in his right panel, and with his left touching the sword of state, which sheathed rests across his knees. The colours are scarlet, blue, green, red, brown, fawn and gold; and in the border are represented intertwined snakes. In 1327 John the Painter received the sum of 4s. 4d. by, command of Robert the Bruce. And for decorating and gilding the tomb of that sovereign, John of Lithgow, painter and sculptor, obtained in 1329 various payments. In 1373 the conservator of the Edinburgh mint is described as Andrew the Painter; his contemporary artists were John, painter at Aberdeen, and Friar Thomas Lorimer. Matthew, royal painter to James I. at Linlithgow, is named in 1434.

A zealous promoter of the arts, James III. befriended. several artists, of whom were Cochrane, an architect, Homyll, a robemaker, and Leonard, a worker in skins. A famous painting now in Holyrood Palace, and associated with the reign of James III.,—the altar piece of Trinity College Church, Edinburgh,—was the work of a Flemish artist. Sir Thomas Galbraith, an illuminator of MSS., David Peat, an altar painter, and other decorative artists, were employed or patronized by James IV. Queen Mary encouraged foreign artists, but of her portraits, the greater number were executed by the brush of John Alexander, an ingenious artist of the eighteenth century. Alexander's maternal ancestor, George Jamesone, imparted a new character to national portraiture. Studying in Antwerp under Rubens, he, on his return, was patronized by Charles I., and by several noble families till his death, which took place in 1644. The portraits of the kings in the gallery of Holyrood Palace were, on the commission of the Duke of York, executed by De Witt, a native of Flanders.

The Scottish wood-carver may be traced to that remote age, when craftsmen's implements were found equal to fashioning the timber quern and constructing and scooping the canoe. In the crannogs of Ayrshire have been dug up various articles in oak incised with concentric circles, and connected by running scrolls; also, with the earlier traces of interlaced knot-work associated with Celtic art.

The modern art of Scottish wood-engraving was derived from the Flemings. Among the earlier specimens are the exquisitely carved oak screen and canopied stalls of King's College, Aberdeen. In rearing that structure which was founded in 1494 foreign artists were employed. The gracefully sculptured stall-work of Dunblane Cathedral was executed at the cost of the Dean, Sir William Drummond, by his relative, John Drummond, of Auchterarder, the King's master of works. By John Drummond were designed the oak carvings of the new palace at Stirling, the carver being Andrew Wood, one of his workmen. Each of the carvings occupied the centre of a square compartment, into which the roof of the Presence Chamber was divided. All represented human heads or full-sized figures; among those recognised are portraits of James V. and of his second queen, Mary of Guise. Others are believed to represent such royal and notable persons, as James IV. and his queen, King Robert the Bruce, and the patriot Wallace. In 1777 some of the carvings have become detached, an order was issued from the War Office that the walls should be stripped. In executing this order, the workmen allowed the carvings to be borne off as firewood, but a few were preserved. The chief protectors were General Grahame, the deputy-governor of the castle, and his wife (sister of Susan Ferrier, author of "Marriage"), who had all the carvings they could secure sketched and engraved. [See "Lacunar Strivilinense: A Collection of Heads etched and engraved after the Carved Wort, which formerly decorated the Roof of the King's Room in Stirling Castle" [by Edward Blore], Edin., 1817, 4to; also Lord Strathallan's "History of the House of Drummond" passin.] The originals have since been deposited in places of safety.

The weapons of archaic times have been described. On the slopes of ancient daisses, or hill terraces, and in lake bottoms, have been picked uh bronze swords, resembling those subsequently formed of iron, and of patterns still in use. These may be assigned to the seventh and eighth centuries. The ancient Scots used oak targets, covered with bull-hide; also long shields, narrow below and broad above, formed of oak or willow, and girt with iron. Subsequently shields were constructed of iron, each weighing about twenty pounds. Each chief had an armour-bearer, who preceded him in war, and was his follower in peace. Sir James Douglas of Dalkeith, in his testament executed in 1300 and 1392, mentions "belts, a lair of plates," and "suits of armour," one of which was adapted for a tournament.

At the combat which in 1396 took place on the North Inch of Perth between the clans Kay and Glenquhattan, were used bows, axes, swords and daggers; also the long Scottish spear. To the monks of Cupar, their tenants in 1475 and subsequently became bound to provide themselves with armour for personal and national defence. That armour was to consist of "jakkis" or loose coats of stout leather, "hattis and splentis," or plated armour for the head and legs, "bowis and schawis," or bows and arrows, and `'swurdis, bukklaris, and aksys," or swords, bucklers, and battle axes. The abbey tenants were also required to plant and rear young ash trees to be used as oars and handles. Among the family treasures of Sir Colin Campbell of Glenorchy, inventoried in 1640, are included field-pieces and hackbuts of copper and iron, muskets indented with pearl and gilded bone, and engraved with "the laird's armes;" also "cut-throat pistols of copper," a two-handed sword, the handle "overlayed with velvet;" steel and cork targets, corslets and head-pieces, "ring craiges" or throat protectors, gauntlet gloves, shoulder pieces, and other military appliances.

During the fifteenth century the principal tenants of Cupar abbey bound themselves to be in readiness to attend the district weaponshaws, held four times a year. Scottish yeoman and burgesses were appointed to be armed with bows and sheaves, swords, bucklers, knives, and spears; also in lack of a bow, with a Lochaber axe. Burghers wore bright steel caps, and were compelled to attend the weaponshaws, under their bailies or aldermen.

Iron was used in Britain at the time of the Roman invasion, but the legionaries materially advanced the manufacture. There are traces of early forges at Carlinwark Loch, Kirkcudbrightshire, Dalziel, Lanarkshire, and Blair Athole, Perthshire. Many localities, both in the Highlands and Lowlands, retain names which in Gaelic connect them with the forge or the blacksmith's dwelling. By native smiths were constructed the ancient chariots, also the iron handbell used alike by Druidic priests and the earlier missionaries.

The iron handbell was fashioned out of a plate of hammered iron, the ring which forms the handle projecting internally, so as to produce a loop for suspending the clapper. The hammered bells of the Druidic age are from 2½ to 4½ inches in height. Those used at the wattled fane for summoning the brethren to meals and the neophytes to devotion, are in length from 10 to 12 inches. Named in honour of ancient saints they were in Wales and Ireland, also among Scottish tribes, used for receiving the oaths of the uneducated. To the iron bell of St Fillan, a saint of the seventh century, was ascribed a miraculous efficacy, for when placed in a pool it was believed that any one labouring under lunacy, who was thereafter dipped in the water, would experience cure. During the tenth century and subsequently, many iron bells were enclosed in brass and silver shrines, decorated with Celtic ornament.

So long as iron was rare, it was worked by the same artificers who operated in the more precious metals. The iron-working of native smiths in the fifteenth century is singularly ornate in door locks, keys and hinges; also in rails and balustrades. On the 23d April 1585, the Town Council of Edinburgh having purchased for £55 the clock of Lindores Abbey, employed a smith at Blantyre to erect it in the tower of St Giles' church, also "for dressing of the sam with twa hands."

Prior to the eighteenth century iron was produced sparingly. In 1686 John Meikle had secured to him by the authority of Parliament the privilege for nineteen years of casting balls and cannon. The first iron-smelting furnaces on an important scale were the Carron Works, established in 1760, but the demand for manufactured iron so rapidly increased that before the close of the century seventeen great furnaces were established. These were built chiefly in the counties of Lanark, Ayr, and Fife. Iron nails were substituted by joiners for wooden pins, while of iron were fabricated ploughs and harrows, and other agricultural implements previously constructed of timber. Iron ship-building which was commenced on the Clyde in 1818. This since become a vast national industry. But a chief use of iron has been found in uniting, by means of the railway system, the outlying parts of the country with the centres of commerce. The first Scottish railway was in 1812 constructed between Kilmarnock and Troon; the second in 1831 between Edinburgh and Dalkeith. On both of these horses were employed.

By the invention of the hot-blast in 1827, and of the steam-hammer in 1839, the production of iron and its adaptation to economic uses have been marvellously facilitated. During the year 1883, 1,129,024 tons of pig-iron were produced in Scotland. The manufacture of steel lately introduced is, in the western countries, advancing with an amazing rapidity. Lead was discovered in Scotland by the Romans. At Leadhills it has been worked since the beginning of the sixteenth century. At Wanlochhead, in the same neighbourhood, the ore is mixed with silver, which, by the process of smelting, is extracted.

On the 7th January 1635, Charles I., with advice of his Privy Council, granted to James Colquhoun, citizen of Glasgow, licence for the period of twenty-one years "in working, casting, moulding, and frameing of all sorts of works of lead, fitt not onlie for theiking, covering, strenthening and decoreing of all sorts of housse work and structurs, therevnto belonging, as weel for vse or ornament and decencie, as also of all conduit pypis for conducting and raising of watters for many necessarie vses." In continuation the royal letter bears that the patent had been granted mainly in consideration that "the said James Colquhoun, by his long experience in searching out the secrets of that trade, hath fund out a peculiar way, never heretofore practized, wherby he will mak a scheet of lead weying twelff stane weght to be more vsefull, of longer continuance, and to abyd greater extremiteis of wind and weather, nor any select of lead vsed heirtofore weyand saxteen stane weicht, in regard to his artifice of making thairof more solide, less poris, and consequintlie more voyd of all cracks, holls or popill, and speciallie in the exact squairring and proportioviing of the evennesse to the thickness of the saidis scheets."

The ordinary products of native and other metalworkers are to be remarked in the Commissariot and other registers. In the third volume of the "Regatlity Register of Dunfermline" in 1650 is exhibited the Inventar of ane Burges airschipe which is the best of ilk sorte of all moveable goods or gear the defunct had pertaining to him the tym of his deceas within his dwelling house." In the "inventar" are named among articles of gold and silver "ane Portugal ducate of the best peice of gold, or money commonlie called ane purse pennie; ane silver gwhissell an silver pyke tooth; a piklug; ane house knock [clock]; in timber-work, "the standard of ane bassone called the knaive;" in iron, "ane streatching goose," "ane iron for costing of egges," and "ane bullet for breaking of coalls;" and in brass, "ane hinging chandler of brass with flowers, commonly hung in the midst of the hall," "ane pair of the best candle scheeres" [snuffers], "ane broo [broth] pott, and ane litle porno [posset] pott, ane biroo plaitt, ane dozen of tin plaitts; ane dozen best truncheris, and saceris, an inamblet stourpt, ane tin flaccot." Among articles of napery are included "ane pair of spremzed [embroidered] bed plattis; ane dozen of the best servitors [napkins]." With other articles of armour are quoted "the best two-handed suord, the best capper or short suord, ane steel bonnet, ane corslet with taisellis, and ane ganifllet gluve."

The early history of coal-miring has been described. It was held, both by statute and canon law, that labourers in mines and saltpits were "necessary servants," and as such were bound, with their children, to work in mines and bits in perpetual servitude. This rule serves to explain an advertisement which, in the Caledonian Mercury of the 6th March 1661, appears in these words:—"If there be any ingenious spirits that would improve their fortunes by the trade of coal and salt, let them come to George Thomson's over against Blackfryer-Wynd, on the north side of the street, where the gentleman shall be found to treat with them touching a bargain of a flourishing coal, in the parish of Tranent, and five salt-men in Prestonpans: these things rightly considered will undoubtedly prove advantageous to the undertakers."

In 1775 an Act with the following preamble was added in the statute-book, "That whereas by the law of Scotland, as explained by the judges of the courts of law there, many colliers and coal-bearers, and salters, are in a state of slavery or bondage, bound to the collieries or salt-works where they work for life, transferable with the collieries and salt-works." In this Act it is stipulated that coal-workers under twenty-one years should be liberated in seven, and those between twenty-one and thirty-five in ten years. By a further enactment passed in 1799, it was declared that all colliers in Scotland were henceforth free.

The manufacture of oil from bituminous coal and shale, which for thirty years has been conducted as an important industry, was at a former period unknown.

The glass beads and amulets found in mounds and cairns were probably brought into the island by Phoenician traders. Among the more curious trinkets are glass rings, known as glan naidyr. Half the width of modern finger-rings, but of greater thickness, they usually present a green colour. Others are blue, or variegated with wavy streaks of blue, red, and white, and the whole are of exquisite workmanship. According to Adamnan, the Picts used glass drinking vessels.

Glass was manufactured in Northumberland so early as A.D. 674; it is mentioned by the Venerable Bede. But glass was not used for windows till the fifteenth century. And even in royal palaces in 1661, the principal apartments only had windows of glass. The stained or painted glass windows of ancient churches, which exhibit in their fragments bold handling and rich colouring, were, it is believed, brought from Venice and Flanders.

As a native industry, the manufacture of glass was unknown prior to the reign of James VI. By that sovereign a patent was granted to George Hay, empowering him to work in glass for a period of thirty-one years. Hay opened a glass manufactory in a cave at Wemyss, but the concern proved unremunerative, and was abandoned. A glass manufactory was established at Leith in 1682, and subsequently at Prestonpans. Glass painting as a native art been in Scotland so recently as 1830.

Of ancient stone-pits there are few traces. When in house-building, mud and timber were the chief materials, stone was undisturbed. The principal quarries are not older than the sixteenth century. Those of freestone more approved are situated at Craigleith, Redhall, Binnie, and Hailes, near Edinburgh; at Dunmore and Plean, Stirlingshire; at Grange, near Burntisland; and at Wishaw, in Lanarkshire. Granite is worked in the counties of Aberdeen, Inverness, and Kirkcudbright. For roofing purposes slate has been used since the beginning of the seventeenth century; it is chiefly obtained in the island of Easdale, and at the great quarries of Ballachulish, Aberfoyle, and Dunkeld.

The production in Scotland of fictile ware dates from the age of bronze, when cinerary urns and other clay vessels were formed simply by the hand. Urns were constructed and baked at the same fires which consumed the bodies of which they were to contain the ashes. Articles of earthenware were subsequently fashioned on the potter's wheel, and marked by a modelling tool of wood or bone. Urns had now assumed sizes varying from one to two feet in height, and in which could be gathered together and preserved the ashes of a household. Next followed the more artistic work of the Roman potter, with the embossed Samian ware, also the glazed urns in which were deposited the ashes of bodies cremated towards the close of the Druidic age. These latter vessels are formed with projecting ears and rims, and provided with lids.

If, as is generally supposed, the manufacture of fictile ware was discontinued from about the eighth till the beginning of the eighteenth century, then we are driven to the conclusion that the tiles, plain and glazed, with which were paved the greater churches, must have been imported from foreign countries. In the thirteenth century, Germany produced enamelled wares remarkable for a fine green glaze. But the Scottish trade was chiefly conducted with Delft in Holland, of which the ceramic production were, in the sixteenth century, known and valued for their fantastic designs, bright colours, and exquisite enamel, tinged with blue.

The lack of earthenware factories was in 1703 found to occasion "the yearly export of large sums of money out of the kingdom;" also to cause many house-hold articles to be sold at "double charges of what they cost abroad," therefore Parliamentary authority was granted to two enterprising persons at Edinburgh to set up a "pot-house, and all conveniences for making up laim, purslane, and earthenware," and for bringing from foreign countries workmen skilled in the manufacture. In order to their encouragement, Parliament granted to the adventurers an exclusive right of producing fictile goods for the space of fifteen years. The undertaking was partially successful, but no other pottery was ventured upon till 1748, when a delft ware manufactory was established in Glasgow. China was first manufactured in Scotland in 1777, at a pottery which in that year was established at Verreville, near Glasgow. The Garakirk terra-cotta works were erected about half a century ago.

To the origin of native woollen manufactures no precise date may be assigned. Our Caledonian ancestors, when they ceased to clothe themselves in undressed hides and sheep's skins, prepared garments from fleeces. Wool was certainly woven in Scotland in the eighth century, while, four centuries later, David I. introduced in the principal towns, from England, wooldressers, dyers, and weavers. Under royal sanction, wool was at the same period largely imported; and in the reign of Alexander III., a century later, it was exchanged with Flemish merchants for linen, silks, and broadcloth.

During the fifteenth century, both male and female garments were prepared by men, the mantua-maker being unknown. Robert Spittal, who fashioned the garments of Margaret, Queen of James IV., attained considerable opulence. He erected a stone bridge across the Teith, and founded and endowed the hospital at Stirling, which bears his name.

Woollen manufactures were largely conducted at Galashiels so early as 1622, while articles of hosiery were, in 1640, produced at Hawick. An attempt by an English company to manufacture woollen fabrics at Haddington in 1681 proved unprofitable, and was abandoned.

Prior to the reign of Queen Mary carpets were unused. And till two centuries later, even the better class of dwellings had their floors covered with mats and rugs, more frequently with rushes, even when the walls were clothed with tapestry. The first Scottish carpet manufactory was, in 1777, established at Kilmarnock. The tweed trade now extensively conducted in the border towns arose in 1830. Consisting of fabric in which two or more yarns of different colours are intertwisted, it was originally called tweel, but owing to the misreading of the final letter by a London dealer, to whom early specimens were transmitted, tweed became the appellative. The wool now used in the Scottish manufactures is chiefly imported from Australia, New Zealand, the Cape, and Buenos Ayres.

In Scotland, the manufacture of cloth from flax was understood in the thirteenth century, but the art may have been practised earlier. Originally flax was grown, dressed, spun, and woven upon the farm or croft: latterly it was converted into cloth by litsters. Towards the close of the seventeenth century companies for the manufacture of linen were formed and with a view to their promotion, the Parliament of 1686 enacted that the bodies of deceased personas should be swathed in linen only. By a further enactment the exportation of lint was prohibited; it was also to be imported duty free.

In 1725 linen manufactures were commenced at Glasgow. Seven years earlier, damask weaving was started at Dunfermline. Imported by a manufacturer at Dundee in 1822, jute was not converted into yarn as a separate product till twelve years afterwards. In 1847 the first Scottish floorcloth manufactory was established at Kirkcaldy. Cotton was manufactured in Scotland in 1641., but the first cotton mill was erected in 1778 at Rothesay in Bute.

A baler manufactory was attempted in 1590 without success; but in 1673 a paper mill at the Water of Leith, in which French operatives were employed, proved fortunate. An important manufactory for producing writing and printing papers was erected at Edinburgh in 1695, which was followed in 1709 by the great works at Penicuik. The principal in Scotland are those conducted in the counties of Aberdeen, Lanark, and Midlothian.

In Scotland, book printing commenced about thirty years after the art had by Caxton been introduced in England. On the. 15th September 1507, James IV. appointed Walter Chepman and Andro Myllar, booksellers, his royal printers. By their patent they were empowered to print "the bukes of our lawes, acts of Parliament, croniclis and mass buikis." Their premises were situated in the Cowgate, then called the South Gaitt, and near the spot now spanned by George the Fourth's Bridge. In 1509 Chepman printed on his own account. In 1509-10 he produced in two volumes the breviary of Bishop Elphinstone. [In the Advocates Library are preserved a number of tracts issued by Chepman and Myllar; these were, in 1827, reproduced in facsimile. A copy of Elphinstone's "Breviary," printed by Chepman, is preserved in the same library.] In gratitude for his commercial success, Chepman founded and endowed two chaplainries, which he connected with altarages in the cathedral of St Giles. In 1541 some recent Acts of Parliament were printed by Thomas Davidson, the King's printer. The Catechism commonly known as Archbishop Hamilton's was, in 1551, printed at St Andrews.

The Act of the Estates, passed on the 19th March 1543, and which provided that all might read the Old and New Testaments in the mother tongue, was followed by an extensive importation of English Bibles. Knox remarks that "there mycht have been seen the Bybill lying upon waist every gentlemannis table." Yet the Scriptures were not printed in Scotland till many years later. The proprietors of the first Scottish issue were the printers Thomas Bassandyne and Alexander Arbuthnot, who, in 1576 completed in folio a verbatim reprint of the Geneva version. Undertaken under the sanction and encouragement of the Regent Morton, every parish was by the Privy Council, called upon to advance the suns of £4, 13s. 4d. in payment of a copy. The Bassandyne Bible was rare in 1610, when Andrew Hart, printer at Edinburgh, produced his folio issue. Hart's edition in its turn became scarce, since we find that in 1695 the Kirksession of Crail, in providing a Bible for the church pulpit, despatched to Holland the sum of sixteen pounds for a copy.

In 1582 Alexander Arbuthnot printed a folio edition of Buchanan's History. Robert Leprivick, printer to James VI., established printing presses at Edinburgh, St Andrews, and Stirling; he produced at each some important works. Among the other printers of the reign of James VI., the more conspicuous are Nefield, Waldegrave, Raban, and Bryson. Robert Young, printer to Charles X., produced in May 1637 the celebrated "Service Book," which, though otherwise censured, was admired for its elegant typography. During the Commonwealth, Evan Tyler, who had as King's printer been associated with Young, conducted printing under the sanction of the Protector. He was followed by Christopher Higgins, an Englishman, who, in connection with a company of London stationers, was followed by Patrick Ramsay, a native of Scotland. In 1671 Andrew Anderson, formerly of Glasgow, having induced the various printers at Edinburgh to associate with him in a sort of co-partnership, obtained a patent as King's printer, which was to subsist for forty-one years. He died in 1679, and the privileges of his co-partners being surrendered to his widow, she in 1683 asserted her right to a printing monopoly.

James Watson, merchant in Aberdeen, who had aided with money Charles II. during his exile, was in acknowledgment of the favour appointed printer to the King's household; in 1684 he opened a press at Edinburgh. Dying in 1687, he was succeeded by his son, of the same name, the author of the "History of Printing." The Scottish contemporaries of the younger Watson were Robert Freebairn, and Thomas and Walter Ruddiman. Freebairn had as a silent partner David Graham of Orchill, a Perthshire landowner. In possession of this gentleman were found at his death in 1724, two hundred and fifty-nine copies of the collected edition of Buchanan's Works, edited by Thomas Ruddiman, and which Freebairn had printed in 1715, in two folio volumes.

In 1740 the afterwards celebrated press of Messrs Foulis was established at Glasgow; and the national reputation which it induced was subsequently maintained by the elegant issues of the Ballantyne press. In 1763 six printing offices existed at Edinburgh; in 1790 the number had increased to sixteen; it is now a principal industry of the city.

By the widow of Andrew Anderson, King's printer, was maintained a sole right of printing and publishing the Scriptures, while those who contravened her privilege were rigorously prosecuted. At length the Privy Council, in consideration of the numerous inaccuracies in her Scriptural issues, cancelled her monopoly. A monopoly in printing the sacred volume existed in Scotland up to our own times; the privilege was enjoyed by Messrs Blair & Bruce, two opulent landowners. When in 1837 their patent expired, an attempt was made to gain the monopoly for the Universities. But this proposal was resisted, and while by legislative authority the right of producing copies of the Scriptures was conceded to the general public, those who dreaded that such unlimited permission might conduce to textual errors, were tranquillized by the provision that Bible-printers should be licensed by the Lord Advocate, and their issues revised by a Board. The system of licensing is continued, but the duties of the Bible Board have ceased to be onerous.

A newspaper, Mercurius Caledonius, was started at Edinburgh on the 8th January 1661, but it stopped after the ninth weekly issue. By the Privy Council in December of the same year Robert Mein, Keeper of the Letter Office at Edinburgh, was authorized "to print and publish ane diurnal weekly for preventing false news which may be invented by evil and disaffected persons." But the proposed journal, though sanctioned by the public executive, was not ventured upon. In 1680 a newspaper was started as the Edinburgh Gazette; this speedily collapsed, but it was followed in 1699 by a journal bearing the same name, which existed eight years. The Edinburgh Courant, a small print issued thrice a week, was commenced in 1705, and in 1710 was placed under the editorship of the celebrated Defoe; but its existence was ephemeral. The increased prosperity of the country, based on a settled government, and the prosperity, commercial and agricultural, which followed the Union, at length justified journalistic adventures of a Higher order. The Edinburgh Evening Courant, commenced in December 1713, was followed by the Caledonian Mercury about two years later. Weekly journals at the same period were permanently established at Glasgow.

Stereotyping, or block-printing, was invented by William Ged, whose hapless career has been denoted. Originally a goldsmith, he, in order to carry out his invention, abandoned his craft; but his efforts to introduce his art were resolutely opposed by master and journeymen printers both in Edinburgh. and London. In 1741 he refused an offer made to him by Dutch printers to settle among them, preferring that his own countrymen should mainly profit by his discovery. He died in 1749; his invention improved by Tilloch and Professor Alexander Wilson, and perfected by Lord Stanhope, is now in universal use. The father of Scottish letter-founders, Professor Alexander Wilson, a native of St Andrews, opened in that city a type-foundry conjointly with a fellow-townsman named Bain. After two years, the partners removed in 1744 to Camlachie, near Glasgow, where by constructing types for the edition of the Greek classics issued by Messrs Foulis, Dr Wilson much added to his fame. In 1760 he was appointed Professor of Practical Astronomy in the University of Glasgow; he died in 1786 at the age of seventy-two.

The white cattle which roamed in Caledonian forests, and which when Sir Robert Sibbald wrote about the close of the seventeenth century wandered upon the mountains, were in south-western districts early domesticated. A portion of the breed subjected to culture in the enclosures of Galloway were during the sixteenth century remarked for their large size, handsome shape, and well-flavoured flesh. Introduced to the rich pastures of Carrick, their existence is depicted in the rhyme:-

"Kyle for a man,
Carrick for a coo;
Cunningham for butter and cheese,
And Galloway for woo'."

The celebrated Ayrshire cattle derive from a union of the Carrick breed with a race which early in the eighteenth century was imported from the Western Highlands. Ayrshire milk is on large dairy farms manufactured into cheese, which, in general use at home, is largely exported.

Leather was worked at Edinburgh in the middle of the sixteenth century, and at Perth early in the reign of James VI. tanning on an important scale was largely conducted.

The navigator Pytheas, a contemporary of Alexander the Great, who visited Britain B.C. 330, remarks that the natives used a liquor prepared from wheat and honey. From the mountain heath the Picts derived a species of liquor, which they fermented with sugar. Their breweries, known as kist vaen, are those pear-shaped enclosures, found resting on southern hill-slopes near clear, swift-running streams. Kist vaen are common in the counties of Wigton and Kirkcudbright, abounding largely in the parishes of Minnigaff and Kirkmabreck in the latter province. Each kist vaen or kiln is about sixteen feet in length, by eight at greatest breadth, the side wall being about three feet in height. The liquor prepared in the kist vaen was latterly known as mead.

The practice of brewing of or ale from grain or malt, derived from the Saxons, was conducted by women. By the Leges Burgorum of the reign of David I., a licence duty of fourpence a year was imposed on "broustaris." By another burgh law it was provided that "what woman that evil brew ale to sell sall brew al the yhere thruch eftir the custume of the toune; and gif scho dois nocht scho sal be suspendit of hir office be the space of a yhere and a day. And gif sho makis ivil ale, and dois agane the custome of the toun and be convykyt of it, scho sall gif til her mercyment viii s. or than thole the lauch of the toun, [The origin and object of the kukstule, the pioneer of the civic pillory and ecclesiastical repentance-stool, is here plainIy set forth. Placed upon it, the offender was exposed to public derision, that is, "the lauch of the toun."] that is to say, be put on the kukstule, and the ale sill be gyffen to the pure folk the tua part, and the thyrt part sent to the brethyrn of the hospittale. And rycht sic dome sal be done of meide as of ale. And ilke broustare sal put hir alewande ututh hir house at hir window, or abune hir door, that it may be scabill commonly til al men, the whilk, gif scho dois nocht, scho sal pay for hir default iiijs." The alewande was known in England as the ale-stake, latterly as an ale post. During the reign of David I. ale was sold at one halfpenny per gallon. According to Wyntoun, the death of Alexander III., in 1286, which much affected the national prosperity, raised the price of ale as of other commodities. The chronicler writes:

"Quhen Alysandyr, oure Kyng, was dede,
That Scotland led in luwe and le',
Away wes sons of ale and brede,
Off wyne and wax, off gamyn and gle,
Our gold wes cliang'yd into lede
Cryst, born into virgynyte
Succour Scotland, and remede,
That stad [is in] perplexyte."

From Germany, in the fourteenth century, was derived the mode of manufacturing bier or beer. From ale it differed, inasmuch that the product contained hops. Beer was at first imported, but in the fifteenth century brewers from Germany planted themselves in the principal towns. The quality of beer was regulated by a public taster, and the prices fixed by the district magistracy. On the 12th May 1495 the abbots and monks of Cupar granted to certain tenants the right of brewing; in the same lease is named "the common ailhous perteyning till our myl of Ketlak." A specified measure of ale was allowed to the brethren, also to the workmen, as their daily portion. In the Rental Book of the abbey are mentioned "convent ale," "better ale," and "drink of the masons."

In Kinross-Shire, "the browst" which the gudewife o' Lochrin produced from a peck o' maut, is commemorated thus:

Twenty pints o' strong ale,
Twenty pints o' sma',
Twenty pints o' hinkie-pinkie,
Twenty pints o' plooman's drinkie,
Twenty hints o' splitter-splatter,
And twenty pints eves waur than water."

In the eighteenth century ale was usually brewed in three qualities—described as ostler ale, household ale, and strong ale—the last being reserved for holiday times.

As an ordinary beverage, mead had, prior to the fourteenth century, been discontinued. But ale or beer prevailed as a universal beverage till about a century ago, when the general use of tea, tended naturally to lessen the consumption. Prior to 1784, a brewery existed for every hundred persons. "Drink money" or "drink silver" is an item included in the Burgh Records of Edinburgh and Aberdeen in connection with tradesmen's claims; it meant the usual allowance of beer. The universality of the consumption, and its vast extent, induced the Town Council of Edinburgh in 1690 to impose on the manufacturer a tax of 2d. per pint; this in 1723 produced no less a revenue than £7939. But half a century later, the demand had so diminished that the produce of the tax in 1776 was only £2197.

A century ago household ale was retailed at 2d. per pint, hence the liquor was popularly known as twopenny. In "Tam o' Shanter," Burns writes:

"Wi' tippenny we fear nae evil."

The inhabitants of Nairnshire and other northern counties regaled themselves with a species of liquor derived from the birch. Writing in 1669, Pennant remarks that while with the bark of the birch Highlanders tan their own leather, "a great deal of excellent wine is extracted from the live tree." The process was conducted in spring, when on the birch being punctured the liquor flowed copiously. In Shetland the peasantry used a beverage called bland, and which they prepared by pouring hot water into churned milk.

Whisky, that is uisge-beatha, or water of life, was manufactured in the fifteenth century. In 1495, Friar John Cor received from the Exchequer eight bolls of malt ad faciendum aquavitae. At first used as medicine it was dispensed only by persons specially authorized. In 1505 the Town Council of Edinburgh provided "that na persoun man nor woman within this burgh mak nor sell ony aquavite within the samyn, except the saidis maisteris brother and friends of the saidis craftis [surgeons and barbers] under the paine of escheit of the saulyn but favouris." By the magistrates of Edinburgh in 1557, Ressy Campbell was ordered to cease from whisky-making, also from selling it, except upon the market day. The manufacture was, in 1579, restricted by Parliament on account of the scarcity of grain—those who contravened the statute being punished by a confiscation of the liquor and other penalties. But persons of substance were allowed to manufacture whisky for use in their own families.

Writing in 1598, the traveller Fynes Moryson remarks that the inhabitants of the western parts of Scotland carried into Ireland red and pickled herrings sea-coals, and aqua vitae," in exchange for yarn and cowhides. In enumerating the articles of food and drink used in the great highland hunt of 1618, Taylor, the water poet, remarks that with different sorts of wine there was "most potent aquavitae." During the seventeenth century occur in the Kirksession records cases of discipline, inflicted upon those who had got drunk on whisky. To check the consumption, which had become mischievous, a duty of one pound sterling her gallon was, in 1707, imposed on all spirits distilled within the kingdom. lies stringent policy essentially failed, for malt made in Morayshire was shipped at Findhorn and illicitly received back, distilled into gin. To restrain this new evil, a legislative measure was passed in 1742 recalling the high duty and substituting one merely nominal. But a taste for foreign spirits having been created, home-made liquor ceased to be in demand. Smuggling became a species of trade, preferred by many tenant-farmers on both coasts to irksome labour in the fields. From the time of the Union till the close of the century, contrabandists stood high in popular esteem. Commended for venturous daring, they were regarded as benefactors by lessening the price of commodities; also by defying "our auld enemies of England," as the shirking of the excise duties was supposed effectually to do. On this account, the uneducated from a delusive patriotism, and the educated from strong self-interest, were ready to aid the law defiers, and by every means to deceive the exciseman. Referring to the smuggling trade at Dundonald, on the Clyde, Professor Walker in his "MS. History " remarks: "This demoralizing trade was carried on so extensively, and with so little disguise, that the principals constituted a sort of recognised corporation, claiming a rank second only to that of the landowners, and bearing themselves as the petite noblesse of the community. In church they occupied as a body the front pew of the gallery, which was spoken of as `the smuggler's loft,' and this not sneeringly, but with a feeling of respect. The illegality of their employment was forgotten or disregarded in a neighbourhood where persons of all ranks were openly and unscrupulously their customers..... The smugglers dwelt in excellent houses, wore fine clothes, rode showy horses, and exercised a cordial hospitality."

From Fifeness to Peterhead on the eastern seaboard, and on south-western shores from the Solway Firth to the Clyde, smuggling was practised at every sheltered creek. Those who by sea conducted the traffic were persons lawless and desperate, whose characters and aims have, in "Guy Mannering," been accurately portrayed by Sir Walter Scott, in the representation of Dirk Hatteraick. In running to strand their luggers laden with kegs of gin, brandy, and rum, also with chests of tea, and other contraband stores, the adventurous seamen were guided by special signals from the shore. These by day consisted of white sheets or shirts, suspended as if to dry, on cottage roofs or corn-stacks, or other elevations. By night the signals were bonfires kindled upon the cliffs, and at which was conducted a rude merriment, as the watchers thrust each other roughly into the flames. In connection with these rough modes existed a superstition that jostling by midnight fires perpetuated the rites of an earlier faith.

When the lugger crews had brought their vessels to the shore, the fires were extinguished and each watcher have active aid in the work of disembarking. In less than an hour chests and kegs were borne from the hold to the shore, whereupon the lugger at once bore of. Next were the goods transferred to the nearest caverns, or if caverns were distant, to holes dug into the sand, or by the sea-margin. From thence at the earliest opportunity all were borne inland on wheelless waggons, to be placed in smuggling depots improvised in shady nooks or infrequented solitudes. Some places of concealment were guarded by superstition. On the coast of Carrick, mischievous apparitions were supposed to linger; at night they had been known to attack the too adventurous gauger. Aged women who received and concealed contraband stores were content to be reputed as witches, so that their premises might be uninvaded. Near such beldames' dwellings were supposed to be seen at nightfall, coffins carried on the backs of demons; at times by the Evil One himself, surrounded by a retinue of his uniformed retainers. About a century ago Kate Steen, a reputed sorceress, flourished at Kirkoswald; she was so popular among the tenant-farmers as to be sustained by their beneficence. In her one-roomed house was contained a deep hold in which the contents of many a smuggling lugger found a temporary depositure. Over its entrance, covered with brass and rushes, she sat at her spinning-wheel. Her existence in association with Kirkoswald traditions suggested to the poet Burns the witch-scene in his tale of "Tam o' Shanter."

In every smuggling district the inhabitants were bound to secrecy. No one, the writer was informed by an aged gauger, ever informed upon the smugglers, save those who had been employed by them and were dismissed for practices as dishonest as their own.

Contraband goods were purchased readily. Even the leading merchants of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, Dundee, and Aberdeen were not unwilling, with half mysterious air, to inform their customers that their articles of tea and foreign liquor had not paid the statutory duty. Smuggler's became rich. Some estates in eastern Fifeshire were thus acquired by the families of the present owners, and not a few persons on south-western shores prospered in like manner. The smuggler was popular in proportion as the vigilant revenue officer was disliked. But there were excisemen everywhere who willingly were bound and fettered till the contents of the lugger were disembarked. In the year 1800, about 10,000 gallons of foreign spirits were smuggled into the country every month. Contraband traffic at length fell by judicious legislation. The commutation law of Mr Pitt, by reducing the duties upon exciseable articles, assailed the contrabandist with his own weapons, and ultimately overwhelmed him. When the smuggling of foreign goods was suppressed, the demand for liquor other than native gradually ceased. At the same time illicit distillation was revived. Unlicensed stills arose in highland glens and on lowland muirs; also in the back-yards of hamlets and in ordinary farm-courts. The process of distilling was so simple that the crofter's wife could conduct it in a booth, while her husband laboured on the farm.

Those who would have disdained to over-reach a, neighbour were from early association not reluctant to plunder the public purse. When peculation was effected with outward decency, the conscience of the pilferer was quiescent. As the pious minister of Rosneath early in time century was remonstrating with a parishioner, who acknowledged that he distilled without licence, he was met with the rejoinder—"I alloo nae sweerin' at the still, and everything's dune dacently and in order; I canna see ony harm in't."

At length in 1806 illicit distillation was made time subject of a stern enactment, which was rigidly enforced, with eminent benefit to the revenue. The duty derived from spirits in Scotland in 1777 was £8000; in 1806 it increased to a quarter of a million.

To the Celts are we indebted for our sailing vessels in their earlier forms. The hide-covered canoe survived the Roman occupation, and was in occasional use up to the ninth century. By native workmen were in the eleventh century constructed sailing vessels, which in shape and rigging resembled the galleys of the Norsemen. Of these vessels the chief promoters were churchmen, for foreign merchandise was initiated by the clergy and the monastic orders. By David I. and his royal successors were members of the religious houses exempted from customs in connection with their shipping.

As a place of shipbuilding Inverness enjoyed so early as the thirteenth century a considerable reputation. Two centuries later ship - carpenters prosecuted an active trade at Aberdeen and Leith. In 1475 the citizens of Aberdeen fitted out, at their own cost, three ships for the royal service. And in 1511, according to Lindsay of Pitscottie, there was built for James IV. at Newhaven, near Leith, a large ship named the Great St Michael, which in its construction gave employment to all the timber-workers of the kingdom for the period of a year. Measuring 240 feet in length, by 36 feet across the beams, the walls were 10 feet thick, while the material used in the construction exhausted the oak forests of Fife, besides all the timber which had been imported from Norway. On completion the Great Michael was provided with powerful cannon, manned by 120 gunners; it also received on board 300 sailors, and could also have accommodated one thousand soldiers. Placed under charge of the admirals Sir Andrew Wood and Robert Barton, it was found too costly an acquisition, and so for 40,000 livres was transferred to Louis XII. of France.

Scottish Fisheries, which had made some progress in the reign of David I., proved in that of Alexander III. a considerable source of revenue. In Alexander's reign the Isle of May had become the headquarters of a flotilla which for fishing purposes resorted to the Forth from all parts of Scotland and England; also from the coasts of Holland and Flanders. The chief ports whence fish were imported were Berwick and Aberdeen. The former is in "Lanereost's Chronicle " set forth as "the Alexandria of the north," and from another source we learn that its customs were in the reign of Alexander III. farmed for a sum equal to upwards of a quarter of the marine revenues of England. When in 1081 Edward I. prepared to invade Wales, he purchased at Aberdeen one hundred barrels of sturgeons as part of his commissariat stores. At this period Aberdeen had so high a reputation for curing that its fish was in demand at the great English fishing port of Yarmouth, while from Greenock on the Clyde, were the herrings of Lochfyne despatched to several foreign countries. Prior to the fourteenth century fisheries on the eastern sea-board were carried on in the small villages which studded the coast from Buchanness to Eye-mouth. Luggers, wherries, and cobles, rarely exceeding in burden 100 tons, were usually employed.

On the 26th May 1424 Parliament enacted, under the authority of James I., that "there be paid to the king, for custom of ilk thousand of fresch herrings sauld, of the sellar ane penny, and of the list of herrings barrelled foure shilliiigs; and of ilk thousand red herrings made in the realm, foure pennies." And by a Parliament of James III. it was enjoined in 1474 that "Lordes, Barrones, and Burrowes, gar make schippis, muscles, and great pinck boasts, with nettes and all abuilzements for fishing." In 1488 James IV. enacted "that strangers buy na fish but salted and baralled, nor buy nane other merchandice but at free burrowes, and then pay their duties and customes, and take their cocquet as effeiris, and that they make in, merchandice at the Lewis, nor other places, but at free burrowes" This Act was extended in 1491, when it was ruled that "townes and burrowes have the schippes and busches according to the substance of ilk town;" also, that "the least of the said schippes and busches be of twentie tun."

In 1540 it was ruled that the prices of white and other fish should be fixed by the magistrates of burghs, and that white fish should not be exported, yet resident foreign merchants might for ready money obtain supplies. Cadgers who conveyed provisions to the country were in the markets to be supplied in the morning, other purchasers in the afternoon. Further, it was ruled that "ane binde and measure be made, for salmounde, herring, and kieling; and that ilk cowper have ane burning iron of his marke to marke ilk barrel," while unmarked barrels were "to be escheit." In 1573 each barrel of herrings was fixed to contain nine gallons "striveling measure."

Early in the seventeenth century Scottish seamen began to accompany Dutch fishermen to the deep sea fisheries. By a royal letter dated, 25th October 1626, the Commissioners of Exchequer were empowered by Charles I. to grant to Mr John Archibald a lease for five years of the excise duty on all white fish "taken within the seas and laiks . . . . from Pentland forth to the Mull of Galloway . . . togeddir with all others of assyse dewtis, . . of all herring to be takin within the landis of the Lewis, Orkney, and Zetland, and within Murray firth and other northern parts."' A Royal Commission, which in 1630 was appointed under the direction of Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling, to inquire into the state of the fisheries, led to the establishment of a great fishery in the Hebrides. Scottish fisheries, discontinued by Cromwell, were resumed by Charles II., who in 1669 established the "Royal Fishing Society," which, including £5000 which he personally subscribed, commenced with a capital of £25,000 sterling. The Royal Society enjoyed immunity from custom and excise duties; also an exclusive right of fishing upon the coasts, and of granting fishing licences to others.

Notwithstanding statutory impediments, the coast fisheries continued a source of revenue to those landowners whose estates skirted the sea-board. In 1696 three fishermen on the Don were by the proprietor of Foveran claimed as "addicti glebae," and incapable of rendering service on fisheries other than his own. But the Court of Session found that there was no law restricting fishermen to the ground where they were born, and that the custom was not general but confined to particular localities. And the custom was by the Court condemned as unlawful, and tending "to introduce slavery, contrary to the principles of the Christian religion and the mildness of our Government."

The Scottish fisheries derived a new impulse by the creation, on the 12th July 1727, of "The Board of Trustees for Manufactures and Fisheries." This Board owed its existence to a provision in the Treaty of Union, whereby, in return for certain duties then first imposed upon Scotland, the sum of £2000 was granted as an annuity for improving the national manufactures and fisheries. Of the sum so granted, a moiety was applied to the sleep-sea fisheries. From 1808 to 1839 the grant was administered under a separate trust, but in the latter year the Board of Fisheries was amalgamated anew with that of Manufactures. In August 1882 a "Fishery Board for Scotland" was constituted by Parliament, charged with the duties of superintending and inspecting the whole herring; and salmon fisheries of North Britain. Scottish whale-fishing commenced in 1730, when, however, only a single vessel was despatched to northern waters.

To Scottish enterprise steam navigation owes its existence, also its rapid development. After experimenting for some years with double and triple vessels propelled by paddle-wheels worked by manual labour, Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, on the 14th October 1788, had on Dalswinton Loch a boat propelled by Symington's steam-engine. The boat was twenty-five feet long by seven in breadth, the wheels being driven at the rate of five miles an hour. Further experiments were in 1801 conducted by Mr Symington on the Forth and Clyde Canal, and in 1812 Henry Bell, after much patient labour, and incurring the imputation of being a lunatic or as visionary, demonstrated by his "Comet" which sailed upon the Clyde, the possibility of steam navigation. In 1816 an adequate steamboat plied on the Moray Frith; and in 1860 chiefly through Scottish enterprise was established the Cunard Line of steamers between Liverpool and New fork.

In surmounting some early difficulties arising from a financial controversy between the Governors of the Royal Bank and the Bank of Scotland, the Board of Trustees for Manufactures were much indebted to the judicious counsel of the patriotic Lord Advocate, Duncan Forbes of Culloden. The Board for many years offered premiums for discoveries in connection with the national industries. In 1543 it was in a pleasure reconstituted, the funds being rendered chiefly applicable to the advancement of the fine arts. Under the direction of the Board have buildings been erected at the cost of £100,000, for the accommodation of the Royal Institution and of the National Gallery.

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