Year: 1868

O0~~ "'s*~s'ttsV't+
/" "BUNDLiNG' - IN !, sCOTLIANO
Depeaved Customs of scottish Lads
and Lassies-As Royal Commission


Investig a tes the subject. s '-'


A London correspondent writes: Some
extraordinary statements have just been
made public respecting the immortality
of the Scotch peasantry. The papers
have not noticed them, being too much
occupied with election affairs, but they
give such strange picture of class
supposed by some to be so peculiarly
privileged with religious instruction, that
| have. decided to place some of them
before you:


Hear the story of DIR. Strahan. who
has practiced for nearly forty years as
physician and surgeon in the Scotch
county of Stirlingshire. His attention
was first drawn to the subject in conse-
quence of observing the very great ex-
tent of immortality among the working
classes, not only as evidenced by the
large number of illegitimate children,
but also by the still larger number of
marriages after the woman was with
child, and the number of children born
within eight months of wedlock. He
found, to his astonishment, that among
the working classes-that is, the
agricultural laborers-nine out of
ten women, when married, either
had had illegitimate children, or
were pregnant at the time of marriage.
81 have" he says, ga large midwifery
practice, and L very rarely attend a
woman with her first child and where
the child is not born within few
months of the wedlock, or else she had
an illegitimate child BEFORE" He be-
lieves it is very common for women to
allow themselves to be seduced in the
hope of being married. They go on till
they are enciente, and then, if the young
man is at all decent fellow, the friends
interfere and the marriage is hurried on.
The sketch which DIR. Strahan supplies
of Scotch courtships explains all this
part of his observations. Young men
and young women meet together at
night, and the ordinary time is the mid
die of the night, when every one else is
in bed. But let me quote his own words.
This is DIR. Strahan's report to royal
commission: y, $40


It is universal among the working
classes to have this manner of court
ship of which / speak; there is no court
ship in any other form; the fathers and
mothers will not allow their daughters
to meet young man in the daytime;
the young man never visits the family,
but the parents quite allow this; they
have done it themselves before, and
there is no objection to it. The young
man comes, makes noise at the win
dow; the young woman goes out; they
go to some outhouse; or perhaps the
young man is admitted to the young
woman's bedroom after all are in bed,
and there is an hour or two of what is
called courtship, but which would more
properly be called Irritation, because it
is not necessary that there should be
any engagement to marry in these cases.


Lord gLyyeden: Do. these meetings
take:place at particular periods, such as
harvest time, or is it over the whole of
the year? The whole of the year; very
commonly the young man visits the
young woman once week.


Lord Chelmsford: In England that
would be called keeping company. 1t
is very extraordinary mode of keeping
company when the parents allow their
daughter to go out with the young man
at midnight, or the young man to come
into her bedroom? Yes; the parents
know no other way of doing it. 1 have
reasoned with the parents often, when
attending a case of illesitimate birth,
pointing out to the parents how it is they
have been led on; but they cannot i'm
agine any other way of doing it; their
daughters must have husbands, and there
is no other way of courting.


Mr.. Justice O'Hagan: Does it prevail
generally in Scotland? Universally
among the agricultural laborers


Mr.. Dunlop: Do these young men live
under any kind of supervision and
knowledge of the master, or can they go
out and in as they please? Plowmen,
for instance, very often live in bothies
or in the farmhouse; they go out after
all are in bed-out of the window, or. if
they live in bothie. without any trou-
bic. They go to the neighboring farm
house, they knock at the window, the
girl comes to the window, and, if she
knows the young man, or after little
parley if she does not know him, she
either comes out and goes with him to
an outhouse or he comes into her bed
room. You must remember that they
have no other means of intercourse.


That is. the point you press so much2
Yes; young woman cannot see either a
sweetheart or an acquaintance in any
Q her way. I believe if it was not for
fear of being out at night the girls would
visit one another in the same way; they
have no other means of visiting; the
customs of the country are such that a
young man could not be seen going in
daylight to visit his sweetheart.


Mr.. Justice O'Hagan: If the father
knew that the young man was coming
into the house, and knew that he was
with his daughter, would he not inter,
fere2 He would lie comfortably in his
bed. knowing his daughter was in an
clubhouse or barn with young man for
perhaps two hours, shutting his eyes to it
in the same way that person in the
higher ranks would shut his eyes to his
daughter going out for walk wit h a
young man. -.-