The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1875-06-29
The People of Lewis Island, in
the Hebrides.

The "bee.hive" hut in which they live
has neither window nor chimney the
constant rsat fire does not prevent the
damp from soaking into the turf fcovered
wall-hence all manner pfague and rheu.
matism. Year by year the family multi.
plies by birth and marriage, and the same
spot Of poor land is supposed to support
the ever-increasing demand on it. 1t is
this excessive poorness Of the land that
should make people cautious in condemn.
ing the Highland proprietors who see
without concern, or who frankly encour-
age, considerable emigration going on
from year to year. Where land will grow
nothing but rushes, where the free offer
Of a holding to the son Of crofter who
has just got married is only a piece Of
satire, seeing that all the kings horses
and all the kings men could not drain it
into cultivation, and where the only pos.
sible use of the land is to turn it into a
sheep farm, which demands large ezpen.
diture Of money, the peasantry who per.
sist in adhering to their particular bit Of
half cultivated farm, while the family
members increase year by year. must sink
into proportionately increasing misery.
The fact is, they have neither the money
nor the patience to drain and cultivate
the unproductive morass which covers
five.sixths of such an island as Lewis,
even if it were presented to them as a
gift. On the other hand, there is scarce.
y any spectacle in modern life so dis
tressipg as The departure of a band Of
emigrants- old women weeping and
wailing, the children frightened, the mid
dle.aged men aud women more cheerful,
perhaps, but still looking back to the old
family place, The old folks, indeed, never
get reconciled to the change. Even when
they see how their children and grand.
children are getting ON in the Glasgow
workshop or warehouse, when they find
that they themselves have good food,
warm shelter, and comfortable clothing,
they still look back with an inettaceable
regret and longing to the old life among
the moors, to the damp hovel filled with
smoke, to the wet winters, the scanty
clothing the insufficient food the constant
rheumatism, the grumbling over the
tyranny Of the trackman, and the pay
ment of the airgiod.cearc (hen money!.
and they never cease to remind their
children of the cruel sacrifice they, the
old folks, have had to make in order 10
satisfy this modern craving for living in
big towns.
To return for a moment to the bee hive
hut of these people. The absence of a
chimney is considered necessity. The
hut consists of thick wall Of unmortared d
stones and turf, rising about six feet from
the ground. The roof is constructed Of
spars of wood, which serve as rafters
ard these are thickly covered over with
masses Of straw, which again has an upper
covering Of slices of turf. Inside, peat
fire is always burning or rather when
it is not being used for cooking, shoulder
ing- and the hut is almost always filled
WIN q vut-a, PuuEv"., '...~ o
smoke, strong enough to make the eyes
smart Of the stranger who ventures into
the dusky dwelling. Now it is the object
Of the occupiers Of these novels 10 prevent
by every means the escape of the smoL @,
which from day to day goes on slow y
saturating the straw Of the roof until that
is as black as the peat itself. This satu'
rated straw forms an excellent manure
for the farm. At the proper time the
peasant farmer proceeds to pitchiork the
roof off his house, and have it carried
away to be distributed over his fields
Hence it is not likely that the efforts tC
get the Lewis peasants to put chimneys
in their huts-at least in the interior o
Of the island, where the sea-tangle doe.
not offer a substitute for the saturated
straw-wll succeed. Even the busine 81
of bribing the peasants to put window
in their huts leach person being alloweC
half crown for glass; Does not 60 OF
rapidly. The wall is exceedingly thick
and is made up of all sorts Of loose anC
heterogeneous materials, in which it il
not easy to place the framework even O
one pane window. For the rest, it hu'
been pointed out that these huts of the
Lewis peasantry are almost identical witt
the huts Of the Esquimaux. - william
Black, in Harper's Magazine for JWly