Ayrshire > Volume 1

THE SOCIAL MARCH OF THE SHIRE 335
is to be regretted that a proper respect to religion
should ever be diminished ; it gives ground to suspect
that there is not a real regard to it. If this increases
and becomes general ; the consequences will be dreadful."
Whisky was not looked upon as a genteel drink in
Kirkmichael, the general beverage among the farmers
being good porter, " which they find to afford nourish-
ment, as well as cheerfulness, when moderately used."
The language was a mixture of Scotch and English, and
it was spoken, at least in the ears of the minister, without
any particular accent. For forty years prior to 1794,
there had been neither " putrid fever " nor " flux " in
Kirkoswald. For the first half of the forty years, a
fever had prevailed every six or seven years, accompanied
with considerable inflammation, " but by the application
of the accustomed remedies "of bleeding, and taking
great quantities of weak diluted drink, it was not very
mortal, notwithstanding its infectious character."
During the second twenty years, the fevers had been
" of the slow, nervous kind," but they were neither very
prevalent nor very mortal. This change for the better,
the minister thought, might have been largely due to
the introduction of tea and sugar, which had come to be
used in the family of almost every farmer. The people
were respectable and religious, and refined in dress and
manners. This refinement, the minister was ingenuous
enough to recognise, may have been due to the smuggling
that prevailed. . The smugglers had to go abroad to get
their wares ; and " persons of this description, being
obliged to enter much into society in their own country,
thereby acquired a turn for entertainment and hospitality
at home." Withal, they had preserved their sobriety
of demeanour and decency of Christian character, and
they were a marked improvement on their forefathers
in the beginning of the previous century who, according
to the Session Records, violated the Sabbath by fishing
and openly selling the fish in the Maybole market, while
others winnowed their corn, washed and dried their
clothes, got drunk, and even fought in the churchyard