THE SHEPHERD'S LIFE ON THE ISLE OF ARRAN " The relation of employer and employed was quite different there and then from now. There seemed to be far more conscience exercised. We never heard of a man shepherd or ploughman leaving his place before his time was up; in fact it would be bad for both parties if they should. The employed could hardly get another place without a proper recommendation, and the employer would be looked upon with distrust and would be likely to find it difficult to employ anyone. Many an one has remained in the same place all their lives and their sons after them. "Mr. Todd's lease of Upper Phawhope (pronounced Upper Falp) having expired, he leased three farms on the Island of Arran, my father and two oldest brothers being his shepherds. Arran is one of the western islands, belonging to the Duke of Hamilton, who was trying to introduce husbandry of a more advanced type, both in stock and cultivation. "The population was very dense small farms where the inhabitants have lived for generations and was 100 years behind much of the low country, and when the Duke leased the forms of fourteen or fifteen of theses small farms all to one man it made many families homeless and fishing, making small still whiskey seemed to be the only thing left for them, and of course those who came from the low country, as it was called, were looked upon as intruders. "The native inhabitants of the Island spoke the Gaelic language, but everything was being done to do away with it. The minister preached one sermon in Gaelic and one in English; the schools and school books were all English, but the scholars talked Gaelic on the play grounds. A low country shepherd married the daughter of the farmer nearest where we lived and it was cute to see the three little ones address their father in English and their mother in Gaelic. (Jan: So it was the Mother tongue!) "The north of the Island was rocky and mountainous, the highest being on the north end, was named Goatfell and was 2859 feet high. " The sheep native to the island were more like goats that Cheviot sheep. They were long in the neck and thin in the body, and wild. The shepherd dogs knew them at a glance, and when they had to give them a turn, they knew they had something to do. The (Raddeys) as the low country (herds) called them were very light in dressed weight, but the epicures in the cities paid fabulous prices for it on account of its quality which was said to exell anything in the shape of mutton, being made on heather and the sweetest grass that grows in the intervals. But the policy of the Duke and his farmers was to stock the Island with sheep of improved breeds so that the products of the Island would increase four fold. "There were two parishes in the Island and the churches well attended by very devout christian people. Altho' they made and drank in an immense amount of whiskey it is said there was not a drunkard in the island till they came from the low country. Many of the hills are covered with heather. It looks some like our sweet fern growing about the same height. They burn it in the fall if they can get it dry. It grows up tender and sheep eat it when snow covers the other grasses. Never knew of sheep being fed hay: they are often fatted on turnips. "There were often deep falls of snow but it soon went off. I remember of helping my father one night; it had snowed through the day and he had gathered the sheep to a sheltered place, but at dark the wind changed with every indication of a stormy night. The change of the wind made it necessary to change their position, so we started out wrapped up in our plaids. They were left in two flocks, the first was to be my charge, to move down hill, say a quarter of a mile to shelter near the burn (creek). The change of wind left them exposed; they were packed together. The snow was then say fourteen inches deep, and start they would not. " I went ahead and broke a track and then took eight or ten and by waiving plaid and bonnet and barking of dog forced them a few rods ahead, then went back and started up the flock; this operation was repeated several times but was a very slow process. Then I thought to go ahead and have Laddie bring them after me. He was a very intelligent dog, but we were both young and in no way could I get the idea into his head to bring the sheep after me. As long as I kept my face toward him, he would rave and bark and make believe he was going to tear them all to pieces, but the moment by back was turned he ceased all effort to get them along, so I was forced to break ahead; then turn around my face toward him and he would bring them up in short order, and in that way I got them all safe. "My father soon came with the rest of the flock. He did not come direct but kept on a ridge where the snow was blown off some, and his dog understood the whole matter. I could hear him barking long before they came. That was the first time I had acted shepherd in the dark and no one who has not been there can realize how weird and eerie the conditions were. "While we lived in Arran I went to school: the neighbors joined and had privates schools - went the last term to the Parish school, a distance of four miles by the road, but I took to the hills and went bee line every day. I was quite advanced for the times and place, was a good reader and writer, had wrote one set of bookkeeping (single entry) and in figures got as far as Euclids mensuration and surveying. I had then been more at school than my father, mother, and five older children all together had been. |
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Janice Brooks-Headrick is kindly sharing the writings in a scrapbook kept by her gr-grandmother Mina Hogg Brooks. © Janice Brooks-Headrick 2000 |
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