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This is the pen name of James Logie Robertson who over a number of years wrote a variety of essays on Scottish Life and Character.
I'm always looking for publications that go into good detail on various aspects of Scotland and several of his essays do that very well. I've decided to dip into his various books and extract essays that you'll hopefully enjoy and learn from.
The first essay I've extracted is "Herds" and here is how it starts...
FIFTY years ago the herd was a familiar, picturesque, and important figure on all farms, but especially hill-farms, or those that to low ground for agriculture added some high land, such as a portion of a hill, for pasture. About thirty years ago he began to disappear, and now he is seldomer seen than a summer robin, and is far more scarce. You will traverse entire parishes, indeed whole shires, and never once come across him. The introduction of fencing, or of a more complete system of it, has enabled the farmer to dispense with his services, and, like Othello's, his occupation is gone.
The sloe or hawthorn hedgerow, the drystone dyke, the paling, and the wire-fence have superseded him; these now-a-days discharge the duties erewhile undertaken by the ubiquitous herd.
It is the object of this paper to recall the character and occupation of the herd, to indicate his position in the economy of the farm, and his relation to other departments of farm life and work, and generally to describe his condition before personal knowledge of the subject has quite passed away with living memory.
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...rton/herds.htm
I'm always looking for publications that go into good detail on various aspects of Scotland and several of his essays do that very well. I've decided to dip into his various books and extract essays that you'll hopefully enjoy and learn from.
The first essay I've extracted is "Herds" and here is how it starts...
FIFTY years ago the herd was a familiar, picturesque, and important figure on all farms, but especially hill-farms, or those that to low ground for agriculture added some high land, such as a portion of a hill, for pasture. About thirty years ago he began to disappear, and now he is seldomer seen than a summer robin, and is far more scarce. You will traverse entire parishes, indeed whole shires, and never once come across him. The introduction of fencing, or of a more complete system of it, has enabled the farmer to dispense with his services, and, like Othello's, his occupation is gone.
The sloe or hawthorn hedgerow, the drystone dyke, the paling, and the wire-fence have superseded him; these now-a-days discharge the duties erewhile undertaken by the ubiquitous herd.
It is the object of this paper to recall the character and occupation of the herd, to indicate his position in the economy of the farm, and his relation to other departments of farm life and work, and generally to describe his condition before personal knowledge of the subject has quite passed away with living memory.
You can read this at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...rton/herds.htm