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Life and Times of D. M. Stuart, D.D.

Chapter III. — His Native Hamlet

page 15

Chapter III.
His Native Hamlet.

The hamlet of Styx, in which Donald Stuart was born and passed the earlier years of his youth, was situate on the slope of the southern bank of the River Tay, with a northern exposure, and within sight of inspiring mountain scenery, which kindled the poetic sensibilities of the boy. Daily, wherever the children roamed, their eyes were refreshed and charmed with glimpses of the shining waters—the Lyon and the Tay—glimpses which they caught through breaks in the broad fringe of bush which lined the banks, and with clear, full view of Fearagan, Schiehallion, Ben Lawers, and Ben More—bold, out-standing mountains of the Perthshire Grampians. The Appin, on the northern side of the Tay, a farming district, was all under careful cultivation, while the lower slopes of the high country were occupied by an industrious agricultural and pastoral population.

The hamlet consisted of twelve families, each occupying a cottage of four apartments, built of blue stone, and slated. To each appertained a peat house (part of which was used as a dairy), and a garden which supplied the family with cabbage in summer and "curlies" in winter. A few beds of onions, leeks, and early potatoes, and carraway seeds (which were freely used in the home-made cheese), with a page 16few currant and gooseberry bushes and apple trees occupied all the space available for culture. Within the bounds of the garden there was always included the indispensable adjunct of a bleaching green. There was also attached to each house a croft of about three acres, exclusive of summer pastures provided for the cow. There was a hay field also, in which all the families had a common interest. The arable land belonging to Styx and to the adjoining hamlet of Croft Moraig formed only one field, the line of demarcation between the crofts consisting of only a grassy belt a foot in width. It was divided into four parts, in which were grown potatoes, barley, oats, clover, hay, and flax, and cultivated by a fixed rotation.

The district had, stretching away behind it, a reach of high land, let to a farming community of seven families, each of whom had a pair of horses, half-a-dozen milch cows, and young stock, which grazed on a hill common during summer. Besides cultivating their own holdings they ploughed the smaller areas of their neighbours in Croft Moraig and Styx, carted peats for them, and performed for them such other work as could not be done without horse power.

While all were industrious and economical, some were ardent educationists, and were warmly attached to the parish church, which they attended with regularity, travelling, in some instances, a distance of four miles. It happened there, as in most communities, that a few of the families were well represented at the Sabbath services for a few weeks page 17before, and about as often after, Holy Communion, which was then celebrated only once a year. On the remaining Sabbaths they rested—in winter by the fireside, and in summer lounged under the shade of the bush which adjoined their hamlet. "As a boy," Dr. Stuart testified, "I noticed that the families that attended church wet days and dry, summer and winter, were fresher for their work on Monday morning than their neighbours who spent the Sabbath in absolute idleness, or sleep, or unprofitable talk." The minister visited his parishioners, as a rule, once a year, but it was so formal a visit that it rarely stimulated them to church attendance. The hamlets were in the parishes of Weem and Dull, from which the broad and bridgeless Tay separated them, as well as three or four miles of travel. The people therefore worshipped in the Kenmore Church, to which they had access by an excellent road, on which noble trees-abutted, and parks that were stocked with cattle, sheep, and game.

Lying to the eastward of the hamlet there was a charming wood, rich in its varieties of forest trees (including alder, spruce fir, birch, elm, and larch, with occasional clumps of hazel and mountain willow), and vocal with the songs of its feathered denizens, for it was the bright and bowery home of the blackbird, yellowhammer, thrush, and finch, and its embankments were lively with colonies of wrens. "To the boys," Dr. Stuart said, "it was a very Eden, where we loved to wander at our will, and never failed to make discoveries which gratified either curiosity or taste. In the spring-tide, bird-nesting drew the page 18dullest to the bush. There was not a boy who did not know the birds that frequented the fringe and delighted in the sunshine, and those who luxuriated in its gloom and retirement; and when hunger pinched us we sought the brakes where grew the dog-rose, the wild rasps, the brambles, the trefoil, and the primrose, for the sake of the suckers, which we prized as choice and dainty morsels. As the summer advanced we feasted on rasps and blackberries; sometimes, too, on the black cherry, which a former Lord Breadalbane had planted in his woods, and, later on, the sloes and crab apples, which rewarded our eager and joyous search. Young, keen eyes found out everything that served to quench the cravings of appetite, and which our digestive apparatus never failed to overcome.

"The woods proved a school where we learned to distinguish their trees, and to know and appreciate their varied products. When we wanted hazel, or rowan, or alder, for whistles, we always knew where to lay our hands upon them. There was not a twelve-year-old boy in our clachan who could not name the trees in our woods, and the birds and beasts that sought shelter under their shadow."

The families of both hamlets were of sober and industrious habits, and, generally, were in the service of Lord Breadalbane. Some of them were pensioners of the Castle—men who, in return for long years of faithful service, received an annuity of £10, in consideration of which they were required to give daily a short day's labour, which was not unduly exacted from them. The younger men were tradesmen, bushmen, or carters, many of whom were constrained to page 19seek for work outside of their own parochial bounds, and were content to take it at a weekly wage little in excess of that which is daily paid to the labourer now.

"The mothers and daughters of our hamlet," the Doctor wrote, "were models of industry and management. They had always a handful of meal for the beggar, and hospitable welcome for visiting friends. During the winter months they spun the flax for sheeting and shirting, and when the web came home from the weaver they bleached it to the whiteness of snow—availing themselves, for the purpose, of the chemical action of pure water and sunshine, and of the ammonia yielded by the manure of the cattle yards. And so highly was skill in the use of the needle prized, that there was not a girl of fourteen years of age who could not make a shirt for her brother, and a shroud for use when death required it. The tweed for the clothing of men and boys, and the blankets for family use, were also prepared from the wool—the weaving and dyeing being the only work that was done outside. During the winter evenings the cottages were the scene of cheerful labour of one sort or another. A Highland lad of fourteen years of age, in my day, could make beehives of straw, woven with split bramble, and potato creels with strong ribs of hazel kept in position by native willow; he could make wooden bowls, ladles, spoons, and butter prints with such simple tools as a gouge and spokeshave; as a rule, he could knit stockings and mittens, and darn them, and as emigration to Canada was the outlook of 75 per cent, of the young men, their far-page 20seeing mothers taught them the elements of plain cookery, such as gruel and porridge making."

But life amid the shining waters and vocal woods of that lovely Perthshire vale had its beauty and poetry, and brave, heroic side, as well as its weary toil and drudgeries. Its earnest and wisely-directed industry was lightened and relieved by instrumental melody and story, and dance and song. There were two fiddlers in the Styx—Duncan M'Dougal and John M'Kerachar, both of whom purveyed for the amusement of the people on winter nights. M'Dougal attracted around him the more thoughtful part of the community, whose hearts were in touch with his chivalrous and lofty strains, while M'Kerchar, whose skill was exhibited in the rendering of the popular strathspeys, gathered around him the younger folks, who delighted in the frolic and excitement of the mazy dance. "These men," the Doctor said, with what cramped and narrow souls would call a perilous outspokenness, "I regarded as benefactors, for they gave cheerful entertainment to the grown-up folks, who, generally, in winter evenings had work in hand, such as making potato creels and putting peat barrows in good repair; the young women also, who were engaged in spinning usually from 6 to 10 o'clock, found healthful relaxation in an hour's music or dancing on one or two nights in the week. I have often recalled the custom since I reached man's estate, and found myself defending it as socially, and physically, an advantageous thing."

The families of Croft Moraig had M'Gregor—Lord Breadalbane's piper—living among them, and page 21he was as ready as the Styx fiddler to entertain his neighbours weekly during the long winter nights.

"As a rule," the Doctor said, "our young people were not readers, but they were splendid listeners. The gifted story-teller or singer secured most attentive hearers. I was familiar with the romance of history before I knew that the thrilling tales were to be found in books. Songs in the ballad form were very popular, and especially when they had a ringing refrain. My father had an excellent memory, and a way of chanting ballads which never failed to entrance us though they were often recited.

"M'Dougal, our best fiddler, was wont to receive a copy of the Scotsman from his son in Leith—the only newspaper that reached the hamlet. When I was able to read with some ease, I was employed by the M'Dougals to read the newspaper to them. The task was a welcome one. They were Conservatives of the purest water, and their direction to me was to read the speeches of Peel, and of Wellington, and to pass over the idle talk of Brougham and Russell. I got into the way of emphasising the points of the latter, and interpolating on my own account, and reading out as if it were a parenthetical statement in the report, 'Great applause.' As a rule, McDougal would interject the remark, 'Are you sure that these words are printed? If they are, they should not be. Why don't the printers put "Great cheers" after the wise words of the braw Duke?' I have since often repented of my playfulness, which caused annoyance to my benefactor, but it greatly amused me to see the strong party feeling which animated him. I some-page 22times added, 'Lord Breadalbane sides with Russell.' 'What of that,' he would reply. 'He is a lord, and learned and great, but the printers are like ourselves. Why should they have opinions on the great things of Parliament?' McDougal's Scotsman was one of my schoolmasters. James MacIntyre, accounted the most irritable man of our hamlet, had a few modern books, which, as I did not join the thoughtless in provoking him, he put at my service. Among these was 'Hervey's Meditations,' on the starry heavens, on the tombs, and flowers. His writings threw a glamour over my mind, and I read them aloud to myself at intervals with the greatest pleasure. Our neighbour proved to me a friend and teacher in lending me his prized treasures.

"It is unnecessary to say that the ways of our own house powerfully impressed me. My grandfather, who had an apparently endless stock of ditties, proverbs, and short stories, used to take my brother and me on his knees, and sing for us ditties which formed a sort of dialogue, and which greatly delighted us. The literature of our home consisted of Brown's Bible—a folio edition, illustrated, and well bound—the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' the 'Crook in the Lot,' the 'Scot's Worthies,' 'Ballads,' 'Burns's Poems,' and such like. But the written literature was extensive, and became ours through the ear. My mother's favourite Psalms were the penitential, which she chanted in Gaelic. Her ballads were all in the minor key. But as my father's and grandfathers' stock were of the heroic and active sort, I have often said to myself that the different tastes, and page 23the moulding influences of those tastes on my heart and life, have proved helpful and educational to me."

Such were the wholesome home influences that insensibly shaped the character of the boy—such the natural and social surroundings of his earlier years, and the moral and intellectual forces that operated on him from every side, with quickening and expanding effect upon his higher faculties, lifting his wondering thoughts to other realms where spiritual and poetic ideals, only yet dimly perceived, presented themselves to his mental vision, awaking within him impulse and aspiration after a higher and wider life and nobler activities than his native hamlet, with its narrow horizon and limited conditions, could ever offer him.