GULCH'S RECOLLECTIONS OF SCOTLAND
Written about 1896
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Robert Hogg
A prosperous and progressive
West Chenango farmer,
known to Reporter readers as "Gulch"
"I am asked to write something relating to my early
recollections of shepherd life in Scotland. My life commenced
in 1818 in the Parish of
Ettrick, Selkirkshire at a place called Upper Phawhope. I being
number six in a family of nine.
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"The land under my father's charge reached to the water
shed on Annan
water on the northwest, and on the Erk on the south and to a certain
burn (creek) on the east and Ettrick water on the north, containing,
I
have no idea of how many acres, probably somewhere between ten and
thirty hundred acres of wildest and most unproductive hills and
mountains remote from everything; no dwelling place in sight, no road
at
that time came near our house.
"It will be hard to picture to the mind of the reader to-day (Jan:
!!!! This was written about 1896: 104 years ago) the perfect isolation
of the situation in which the first five years of my life was spent.
The
word economy we inhabitants of to-day do not know the definition of
- to
feed, to clothe, and educate so large a family on the bare wages of
a
shepherd, say about twenty pounds or two hundred dollars a year, seems
incredible to us, yet it was done and in all the world cannot be found
a
more intelligent, robust and conscientious people that among the
shepherds on the hills of Scotland. The inhabitants of cities, towns'
manufacturing places and fisheries were very different, but bear in
mind
I knew nothing about them.
"In looking back, I wonder how a mother who provided much of the cloth
and all the clothing, except the knitting which was generally done by
the shepherds, could accomplish so much. It could not have been done
if
the fair had not been of the simplest kind, generally oatmeal pudding
and milk for breakfast, (Keal) Mutton soup with oatmeal cake for dinner,
and (Champies) potatoes beaten up fine and seasoned with a piece of
butter for supper.
"I don't know what chance for schooling the older children had but they
could all read and write, and I was sent to school while we lived in
Ettrick and was boarded with an old couple near the parish school six
miles distant, and afterwards our nearest neighbor joined in having
a
boy to teach the children of the two families for a little while.
"The country was divided into parishes and each had a church and a
school house. I cannot say how either of them was supported. I know
the
minister and schoolmaster were in for life.
" I attended Sunday School when boarding near the Kirk. It was kept
after the service of the day by the minister's man/ There was a great
sameness pervading everything. At that time every minister had a man
who
took care of his garden and his horse. Now this one, our S. S. teacher,
was a common lad about seventeen, who led in all the exercises of
singing, praying, hearing recitations and remarks enforcing the teaching
of the several texts recited. Much that I learned at that school with
all its simplicity is retained on my memory for a period of
seventy-eight years, and while the thoughts and doings of yesterday
are
forgotten, I recall with pleasure many of the incidents of that time
of
my life. I wonder how many of our boys of to-day would hire our to be
the minister's man and teach the school as he did. GULCH
END HOGG SCRAPBOOK #5
