The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-01-08 00:00:00

A HIGHLAND CHRISTMAS.

A Correspondent of the St. James's Gazette, after referring
to the trains embedded in the snow in Scotland during
Christmas week, gives his personal recollections of a
Christmas night which he once spent whilst on a journPy
from Perth to the Highlands. We give the following
extract :

The ground had been covered with soilie inches of
snow; the snow-flakes were whirling wildly around
the carriage windows, while a " gurly " wind with
ominous "sough" was howling through the rime.
laden boughs in the plantations. Nevertheless, per-
sonally, I never doubted for a moment that I should
sit down to my Christmas dinner in due course, in the
hospitable Highland home I was bound for. It was
somewhere under the bleak "Braes of Athol" that
the shadow of the darkening storm-clouds began to
flit across my cheerful expectations. The wind was
heaping the snow unpleasantly wherever there was a
bit of bank to arrest its progress ; and the " bite "
of the carriage-wheels was perceptibly slipping on the
inclines, and after many stoppages and departures,
the train was brought to a dead standstill in a cutting.
Guards, engine-driver and stoker, assembled in sullen
conclave, pronounced that we were there for the
" nicht, and maybe mair." In fact we had driven
right into a dense snow-storm which had been
drifting down from the Grampians for some four-and-
twenty hours. Just then it was post meridianhalf-past
five, and the heavens and the atmosphere were murkier
than ever. Nothing for it but to make the best of a
wretched bargain. Was there any place to shelter one
within reasonable reach? " De'il an inn," said the
guard, "on this side o' Haltweary, and that wad be
a matter o' half a dizzen o' miles or mair " adding
the almost unnecessary assurance that there was "a
good chance of our being smoored or ever we got
there. It appeared, however, on cross-examination
that there was "a bit o' a kirktoun ayont the hill :"
meaning, presumably, a hamlet of scattered cottages
that had sprung up around the parish church. But it
followed that where there was a kirk there must be a
manse; and there was such a chance as the minister
might never have. again of practising the Christmas
virtue of hospitality. A strange procession we were
as we wended our way towards the kirktoun of
Ballogie. A constellation of lights, in the shape
of carriage-lamps, showed fantastic figures wrapped
in rugs and carriage-carpets, throwing their shadows
on the illuminated sides of the cuttings; while
the upward glare formed reflections overhead, dancing
in circles on the whirling snowflakes. We kept first
to the windward side of the line, and afterwards to
the sheltered side of the kirk-road that branched off
from a crossing, otherwise progress would have been
impossible. As it was, there were women of all ranks
in tow of the men, labouring well-nigh knee-deep in
the drift. The men had volunteered to take charge of
the children, and they carried them in their arms or
pick-a-back, according to age and size. Now and then
came a collapse in the drift, and a rescue; but on the
whole there were few mishaps as we toiled along in
the wake of our leader.

It was a welcome sight all the same whon, at a
sharp turn of the road, we emerged among the twink-
ling lights of the kirktoun. A " rug "at the bell of
the manse brought the minister to his door. No
wonder the worthy man started back at what must
have seemed to him like a troop of ghosts conjured up
from under the stones in the neighbouring churah-
yard. The breath was pretty well out of our bodies;
not a footfall could be heard on the snow; and, more-
over, we stood silent in anxious expectation. But
when the guard had set forth the situation as spokes-
man and master of the ceremonies, astonishment
changed to Highland cordiality. As we crowded
into the little lobby, blinking like owls through ice-
fringed eyelashes, it gradually became evident that we
had lighted en our feet. The rubicund face of the
middle-aged minister beamed with satisfaction and sup-
pressed mirth. It really seemed as if we had been ex-
pected. Great fires of peat and coal were roaring
everywhere. -clouds of vapour rose from the ills-
solving snows, as we shook ourselves out of successive
casings. The minister, who turned out to be a
bachelor, implored us te "pay no heed "to his furni-
ture or carpets. He assured us with emphatic pro-
tests that he received us as visitants conducted by
Providence; while we were pleased to find that by an
almost miraculous dispensation a Christmas table had
been ready spread for us in the wilderness. "Saw
anybody ever the like of that! " our entertainer
ejaculated in broad Lowland Scotch. "And I who
had just been tempted to grumble that some brethren
of the presbytery who had been coming to dine had
been kept back in their upland glens by the storm."
He presented to us the only member of his dinner-
party who had arrived, in the venerable person of a
Mr. Donald McGillivray, his head elder and right-
hand man. He counted his unexpected guests
simply with a view to making sufficient provision
for them Seven-a.nd-thirty of us all told were
a somewhat formidable invasion. No matter.
The minister whispered with the burly McGillivray,
who forthwith plunged out into the darkness,
for his farm-steading happened to be but a
quarter of a mile away. In an incredibly short
space of time the eider returned, followed by a train
of his household folk and of the villagers, bearing
chairs, benches, and sacks of provender. Sufficient
table-accommodation for the party was squeezed
somehow into the different rooms and the kitchen.
We sat down, and an oddly assorted party we were.
There were bluff farm-labourers and sickly mechanics,
a lady or two in fur-trimmed robes, worthy goodwives
in rough woollens, professional men, and small shop-
keepers. Soon the viands in profusion were smoking
before us, and most of us in our hearts must have said
a hearty " amen " to the minister's blessing. The
reaction from despondency passing into despair rnade
us rorges uur cusappointment and all we might have
missed. Seldom has there been a happier Christmas
group when we drew our chairs in a wide circle round
the fire, with toddy for all and tea for those Who liked
it. Never was there a merrier man than the minister,
"within the limits of becoming mirth ;" his friend
McGillivray ran him hard in jest and tale and local
legend; and when our entertainers had fairly started the
ball, there were sundry of the guests who helped to keep
it rolling. Beds or shakedowns had been improvised
somehow for the women and children, either in the
house itself or the neighbouring cottages. And as for
the men, many of them had a new experience when
they were " happed " in rugs and blankets and
trusses of sweet-scented hay in the stable-lofts at the
manse or at McGillivray's farm. Next day the snow
had luckily ceased, and the line was reopened by the
snow ploughs; but when I bade a grateful adieu to
my magnificent host, I could thank him for one of the
'pleasantest Christmas nights I have ever passed.