Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1884-12-23
How the Crofters Live.

From the St James Gazette.
will describe typical Idrlgil house. which
is occupied by the aged daughter and three
grown-up grandchildren of a fisherman named
John Macdonald, vino has been dead for MANY
years. The croft upon which it stands slopes
southwark toward the bay of zig. and is one of
some $50 that belong to Major Fraser of Kill
muir. 1t is about two and a half acres in ex-
tent. and pays nominal rental of rather more
than f5; a temporary reduction of 25 per cent
off that sum having. however. been conceded
during the last two or three years by the pro-
prietor. Near the center of the croft is a sea of
sticky mud: and amid the slough are two very
small stacks Of corn. each about nine feet high
by six in diameter, carefully matched, and COW
cred with old nets TO prevent their being scat
tered to the winds. Close at hand is the
house-a building OF rough unmortared stone,
measuring perhaps ten feet bv twenty and very
thIckly rooted; first with ''divits' of turf then
with close thatch of heather. and finally with
fragments OF coarse netting weighted with
Jumps of gray trap. The door is broken. and
Will not shut properly; there is no chimney;
and the sole window. consisting of a single
pane OF glass. has an area of not more than
three square feet. From the DOORWAY and
from small hole in the low roof, volumes of
peat smoke escape; and when entered the hut
L could not for several minutes dstn-
guish anything within, owing to the
dense tunes that rose from scanty fire smou-
dering on the floor In the middle of the gloomy
room. At last my eyes became accustomed to
the semi darkness and | was able to make out
the forms or the inmates of the howell. They sat
hudded together on a low black settle warm
ing themselves, and greedily watching bat
tered pot that. suspended from an improvised
tripod above the fire. contained ouantity of
thin broth; the main ingredients of which were
as | afterward discovered, potatoes and fish, |
shared the poor people meal of broth and oaten
10 Okp cd III uardo md
beneath the roof in an impenetrable cloud; the
whole making. with the festooned fishng-nets
and the tattered Oilskns on the walls. an in
terror which Teniers would have delighted to
paint, if there had been any jollity in the scene
There was no table; but at one end of the room
there was a shaky dresser on which was ar
ranged poor display of cracked crockery and
rusty tins. The inside of the house was divided
by means Of rotten partitions about six feet in
height, into three small chambers; one being the
living-room, second a bedroom. and the third
a lumber and store room. In the bedroom the
clothes were simply old rags and sacking. barely
sufliclenttO cover poor humanity; and the floor
throughout was formed. SO far as could see,
OF the hard earth. Yet this house of the Mac
donalds was palace in comparison with some
of the huts l visited elsewhere. One had neither
door nor window. l crawled into it through
an irregular aperture less than three feet high,
and found myself among some ducks that were
picking up scraps from amid the garbage with
tenant of this hOvel was an old woman who had
a hacking cough. In another hut the rain-water
dripped from the broken roof and flooded the
only room, in which seven people sat crouching.
One might reasonably expect to find that the
people who live in such wretchedness are stunt
ed and evil-looking. But they are not. They
are thick-set intelligent race; and some of the
girls are models of buxomness, although before
middle-age all the women become withered.
They are long-lived too. Their faults are that
they are idle and saturated with superstition
and prejudice. In only one out Of at least
score OF crofters houses which entered did
see any sign that the inmates regularly devoted
themselves to remunerative home employment
In that one, two women were weaving home
spun tweed and capital cloth they made on their
awkward loom. / am glad to be able to say that
most of the Skye landlords wear this tweed when
they can get it; but if there were q wider de-
mand there would be larger supply, and the
islanders would be proportionately benefited.
Until quite recently there were weavers In al
most every township. and the art might be easily
revived. The crofters can now get cheaper ma |
terial for themselves from Manchester, and It Is
almost exclusively the richer classes who use |
tweed OF the island.