coronation, (A. D. 1249) reckoning the ancestors of "that king and his predecessors ad parentem usq. gentis "Gathelum." (Scot. Hist. Lib. p. 139.) It should seem, however, that the honourable distinction bards held at court, and among the great, declined apace; their name at length became a term of reproach, and the order treated not only with contempt, but actually classed with the very dregs of society. Thus, for instance, the old Cornish word bardh, a mimic or jester, or poet, (Welch) and bard (Gaelic albanach) bardas, (Gaelic, eirinach) a lampoon or satire, shews that the fraternity of bards fell latterly into disgrace; and accordingly we find them in our old acts of Parliament classed as out-laws. "Justice should "be done upon maisterfull beggars, and sorners, as vp"on theifes or reavers; feinzed fools, bairdes, or rinners "about, at last, after sundrie punishments, may be hang❝ ed." Jac. II. Parl. 6. c. 22. Jac. II. Parl. 11. c. 45. Jac. III. Parl. 10. c. 77. To our father's time," says a writer of the seventeenth century, " and ours, something “remained, and still does, of this ancient order. And

they are called by others, and by themselves, jockies, "who go about begging, and use still to recite their slug66 gornes of most of the true ancient surnames of Scotland, "from old experience and observation. Some of them "I have discoursed, and found to have reason and dis"cretion. One of them told me there were now twelve "of them in the whole isle; but he remembered when "they abounded, so as at one time he was one of five "that usually met at St Andrews." Vide Martin's State of the See of St Andrews, sect. 1. p. 3.

8

Save heath-spread ridges in some moss-clad mound.-P. 8.

It is the nature of some soils, when allowed to remain untilled for any length of time, to assume their original vegetation; hence we find that plats of heath-land, which had been cultivated with care, when suffered to lie in a lea state, are soon covered again with heather. It is observable in many parts of the highest inhabited districts, that ridges covered in this way can be distinctly traced near the summit of many of our most elevated mountains. Some suppose that such appearances of culture are referable to remote times, when, by reason of the valleys being overgrown with wood, which were the haunts of wolves, bears, and enormous snakes, made it necessary for safety to retire to the tops of the hills, and there cultivate those spots, which retain still the appearance of human industry. This conjecture, however plausible it may seem, is liable to many objections.

9

The GAEL be thence outcast as poor exiles.-P. 9. BEFORE the late alarming emigrations took place from the Grampians and Western islands, the population of those districts was estimated at two hundred thousand : one fourth of which number were supposed capable of bearing arms, or entering the navy as able-bodied seamen. Now, is it a matter of small consideration to a state, to be deprived of the aid of so considerable a portion of the community, in times of an indispensible war, or of threatened invasion? But this is not the only matter an able Government and prudent Legislature are to keep

steadily an eye on for the loss, for ever, of the ingenuity and industry of those who are ready to leave their mother-country through disgust, on the one hand, or allurements on the other, is that vital wound which is most to be dreaded: and, if a remedy be not speedily found out, and applied with skill and promptitude, must eventually prove fatal to the public weal.

10

To ancient usage, privilege, or right.-P. 11.

THE ancient usage, privilege, or right, of the Gael, which, simply considered, amounts to neither more nor less than inheriting, as they were wont time immemorial, their Duas, Duchas, or hereditary possessions in the order already specified, according to their proximity to the Chief, of whom the chieftains, heads of families, or principal tacksmen, sub-tenants, viz. small farmers, crofters, and cottars, held their lands and places of abode. The chieftains and principal tacksmen were in the rank of gentlemen. The sub-tenants, or small farmers, were half-gentlemen, (a term very well understood among the higher classes), the crofters and cottars, were what are called, by way of distinction, commoners, (another term very well understood among the highland noblesse) on whom devolved the lower employments of the field, fold, par, &c. Some of the chieftains who had not been provided with free possessions from their chief or common progenitor, were tacksmen, and held in lease a pretty considerable stretch of country, consisting of infield and outfield or arable land, common-moor, and hill-pasture; and those were let in lease again in smaller lots to sub

tenants, crofters, and cottagers. The ancient mode of computing the value of such possessions, was very simple and convenient; which was either in money, or in grain ; in the former case, lands were valued at pennies, halfpennies, farthings, clitings, placks, bodles, &c.; in the latter case sheaves, half-sheaves, &c. A principal tacksman possessed lands to the value of from twenty to forty or more pennies, for which he paid a yearly rent during the currency of his tack or lease. Of this extensive portion of land he sub-set a third part, and sometimes two-thirds, to small farmers, crofters, and cottars. Each farmer may possess one sheaf, one and a half, or two sheaves of valued land, or in Scots money, one farthing, one halfpenny, or one penny, according to the specific agreement of parties. A crofter has a small lot of arable ground called a craft or croft, on which he has a house or hut, a kail-yard, ground for raising as much crop as will keep a cow, which yields him milk and butter to his meal and potatoes. A cottar has only a cot or shed of the humblest sort, a kail-yard, and a small piece of ground for potatoes. This then was the order of the subdivision of land, according to ancient usage, privilege, or right, of the several classes of the inhabitants of the Hebrides and Grampian mountains, till within these forty or five-and-forty years; when those rights were disregarded; and the duchas of the tacksman which had descended from father to son for many generations, as a species of patrimony, sacred as the heritage of the proprietor himself, was entirely abolished. Before this, however, took place, the tacksmen lived comfortably as gentlemen the sub-tenants, or farmers, lived decently in

their huts, grouped, it is true, with but little regard to cleanliness, or much comfort, forming, as it were, a community, in which their privileges and rights were scrupulously respected and maintained; and while their livestock grazed in common beyond the head-dykes, and through the upland-pastures in summer and autumn, their arable lands were divided yearly by lot, as already noticed; and thus the whole demesnes of the chief, or common father, was apportioned, according to the rank or condition of each individual of the miniature commonwealth ;-a mode the most congenial with the patriarchal system; and the best adapted for a peculiar people, such as the Gael, or inhabitants of the Hebrides and Grampian districts. I am perfectly aware that the usage or privilege, here alluded to, obtained most likely under the feudal system; and continued till some time after the abolition of hereditary jurisdiction in North Britain, which took place in 1748; but if the subdivision of land thus pointed out, was found to answer so well under all the evils of feudal slavery, and the conflicts of the clans; how much more beneficial would such an arrangement, on an improved plan, operate on the rural establishments of those regions north of the Tweed, which are inaccessible in winter, by reason of heavy falls of snow, lying deep in the passes; or tempestuous seas, which rage around the insular situations, biding defiance to communication till the rigour of the season be past; or when occasional frost, or calm weather, suffer travellers to proceed to the place of their destination. Hence, therefore, the propriety of speedily adopting a practicable system, properly adapted to the local habits, customs, and manners peculiar to the inhabitants of those cheerless wilds, and remote islands.