Red and white book of Menzies

410 THE "RED &> WHITE" BOOK OF MENZIES. [a.d. 1792.
"The price of grain varies — the average conversion is about 15s. the boll,
Linlithgow measure. What grain can be spared has a ready market among
the inhabitants of the hill-country.
" Fuel. — There is a great scarcity of fuel here. Peats are bad, scarce, and at
a great distance. No trials for coal have been made in the parish. It is much
to be wished that some exertions were used to discover whether coals can be
found in this part. If the experiments prove successful, it would be a rich
treasure to the proprietors, and a vast advantage to the country at large.
" LABOUR. — The price of labour has risen much within these few years. Farm
servants eat in the house. The wages allowed to a man who can plough, sow, &c,
is £6 sterling, together with shoes and clothes : he is allowed 4 pair single shoes
commonly called Brogues, 2 Pair of Hose, 4 Yards of Tartan for a
Phellibeg or ' little kilt,' and a short coat and vest of some coarse kind of
cloth. A woman receives .£3 sterling for the year.
" Ecclesiastical State, School, Poor. — The money stipend is £30, 5s. 4d.,
victual stipend, 67 bolls and 3 sirlots, Linlithgow measure. Of this last 32 bolls
are payable half oatmeal, half barley, and the remainder is paid from the
priory of St Andrews, 50 miles distant. The glebe consists of 1 1 acres. The
king is patron. It would be improper here to pass over in silence the praise that
is due to the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. In this
parish four of the schools are established, and here their labour has not been in
vain. At three schools about 400 children are taught to read and write and
understand the common rules of arithmetic ; much attention is paid to their
religious instruction, and every violation of moral rectitude is punished with the
utmost severity. By these means good principles are instilled into the minds of
the children in their infant years. To this laudable and pious institution the
rapid progress of improvement in the Highlands may in a great measure be
attributed. There is also a school supported by the heritors at the village of
Dull, at which about 100 children are taught : such as choose may there receive
the benefit of a classical learning. Hitherto it has been superintended by men
who received a liberal education, but as the salary is only £80 Scotch and the
perquisites and school fees very low, it is to be feared that young men of this
description will not consider it as an object worth their attention.
" The number of poor upon the roll in the whole parish is 40. What money
is expended for their support is collected in the church on Sundays, which annually
amounts to .£24, or thereabouts. Particular attention is paid only to the cases of
such as are bed-rid. All who are able to go about to ask charity receive
very little from the parochial funds. It must be confessed that hitherto this part
of our constitution has not been sufficiently attended to ; if this, however, and
the neighbouring parishes, were to support their own poor, there is good reason