twelfth day of January. There are excellent clubs, as they are termed, and funds in this place, as indeed now in most towns and villages in Scotland, for the support of the widows and children of deceased members, as well as of decayed members themselves. The laws and bye-laws of these institutions are in general excellent, and not only have already done, but promise to do much good. There is also a certain sum given to the widow when her husband dies, and she has an annuity for life; in some institutions ten, in others twenty, and in some of them thirty pounds sterling. There are also tontines in various towns and villages in Scotland, but I do not know that it is common with gentlemen in Scotland, as it is in England and Ireland, to raise money among their tenants and others, by way of tontine, to improve their estates. Could Scotch proprietors, who have much outfield and improveable land, and not much money to spare, be induced to adopt this method, it might be attended with highly beneficial consequences to themselves, and the country at large; as it is certain that the money they would borrow, as a tontine, at ten per cent. upon being laid out in improving their waste lands, (such lands being security for the annuity to the lenders), might fetch twenty per cent. at least. Thus, if ten men lend me one thousand pounds at ten per cent. per annum, and I pay a hundred pounds a year to ten, to nine, to eight, seven, or any number of them, so long as any of them shall live, if this thousand pounds laid out on my waste ground, which there is no doubt but it will do, produce one hundred pounds yearly more than it otherwise would have done, at the death of the last of them, I, or my heirs, are a hundred a year richer than we should have been; and so on in proportion; and the lenders were well paid for their money. In former times, this county, which is fertile, and, in general, notwithstanding its increased population, exports, at a medium, twenty thousand bolls of grain, or about fifteen hundred quarters annually, was much exposed to the depredations of the chieftains and great lords, particularly of the Gordons; these chieftains, to be revenged of their enemies, often setting fire to that part of the town belonging to their enemies, and their corn fields. To prevent such mischief, often done in the heat of passion, it was judged prudent that the Gordons and their opponents should not, as formerly, each live in a separate part of the town, but that they should live promiscuously, and have their ground, as they termed it, ridge about; which means alternate ridges, and which prevented the clans from burning cornfields, as they could not burn those of their enemies without burning those of their friends. There are borough, and many village lands both in the north and south of Scotland, whose names, situations, and rights, evidently refer to this antient but barbarous custom. I was astonished to find the roads in many parts of Murray so bad, and that turnpikes have not been introduced into it, as into most of the other counties to the southward; but the reason seems to be that Murray, being a low-lying country, and generally a sandy bottom, they are afraid, were they to have turnpikes, that, as the sand blows here fre quently, these roads, by being blown over with sand, would, after having saddled the county with considerable expense, not be better than they are. They have, however, it seems, the matter under consideration, and have got a new and a much better line of road pointed out, by an experienced surveyor; but here, I find, the matter rests. In this part of the country, as well as many others, not only near, but at a distance from the sea-coasts, agriculture is studied as a science; and every possible method tried to render the earth productive. However, as the farmers here often mix pure sand with the dung, and spread it on the ground, even though the soil be sandy, I should like to know what good purpose it can serve to scatter sand on land that has too much sand on it already. At a sale by auction, in Elgin, I was not a little surprised to hear the auctioneer, using gross and low wit, and not only immodest, but extremely immoral expressions; which, however pleasing they might be to low grovelling minds, and advantageous to the person whose goods were on sale, were a disgrace in a civilized country, and disagreeable, I think I may venture to say, to nine-tenths of the females present. I saw several of them blushing at his expressions, and actions, which, in a public oflicer, if not appointed, at least approved of, by the magistrates, appeared equally shocking and surprising. Drollery and gentle satire may be permitted in an auctioneer, but immoral and indecent expressions, in a public character, are shameful in the extreme. Bad as too many of the people in London are, they would have hissed him, and showered rotten eggs at his head. |