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Good afternoon, Rusty!
I have lost an inch from the bottom of my hair!
And the dog is booked in with her groomer for a bath and a trim next Friday morning!
So we shall be spick and span!
I am now about to push the hoover around ( albeit somewhat half heartedly!) as I didn't have time to do any chores earlier.
I may even dust first!
Then, with an easy conscience, I shall sit down and look at the crosswords!

Good afternoon, Elle!
Great day here!
I have just completed the crossword.
A wee bit tricky, or I was not on setter's wavelength.
There is a word in an answer which surprised me, as I would spell it differently.
I shall say no more until you have finished.
And look up Chambers and Bradford's to see what they say.
I am away for a dander.
I have to pick up La Bamba from work later.
Her car is getting MOT'd today, and the rest of the family can't manage to collect her, so old Granddad has been volunteered!

Hi Rosalind,

I have just noticed your post about agriculture in SE Scotland in 18th Century.
Funnily enough, I am presently doing a comparative study between agriculture and the rural world in general in France and in England around end 18th Century through just after WW2.

I had already done this study in French and this included all the forgotten trades (blacksmith, wheelwright, charcoal burner etc...)
as well as agricultural work. I have bought quite a number of books all second hand (1 penny plus P&P) and am now starting to study them.

It is fascinating and I can already see that Britain was much more advanced than France at the same period.

Well, Scotland certainly wasn't! I have seen it written that it wouldn't be recognised as agriculture at all today! But from the mid 18th century improvemnets began to be made, for example a better plough was produced and fields created. However, these improvements had the effect of needing fewer men and many thousands left the Lowlands.

Your study sounds very interesting, pigale. I was simply trying to work out why my ancestor might have left Berwickshire for Northumberland and then Sunderland. Conditions on farms and in Sunderland were absoutely disgusting then; but my gt gt grandparents lived to 81 and 103!

A rather amazing age for those days!

I could see from what I have browsed so far that there probably is a big difference between Scotland and England, and even in England itself, there are differences between North, and South. The Industrial Revolution's knock on effect perhaps?

I think Britain woke up to steam powered machines (threshers etc..) sooner than France, and your three main divisions in the rural population (Titled landowners, Gentlemen Farmers and Farm Labourers) seems to have been a well oiled system that worked very well for all concerned until at least mid 19th century. Of course, we in France also had rich landowning families, but we certainly did not have many titled aristocrats anymore....!

Hi, Rusty!
Brrrh! It is freezing cold!
I have just come in and I am absolutely perished!
And I wore several layers!
Are you home again from your own walk?
How far afield did you go?
I have done all I am likely to manage with the crossword!
I didn't like today's - I found it a struggle and didn't really appreciate some of the clues even when I "solved" them.
I still have four I cannot do...and three dubious parses.....
But I am wondering if the one with which you took issue may have been 22d?
I would have spelled it as "swOt"?
And to me "sWat" is what I might do to a fly!
However, Chambers gives both spellings and both definitions.
And Anne B says for "swat", see "swot"!
I am not happy!
Is Miss L-B still working at the hospital?
What time do you have to collect her?

Having chopped off a lot of heads!

The parish my ancestors lived in (Bunkle and Preston) was almost entirely owned by two lairds (the Douglas and Humes, yes, those ones). They had tenant farmers, who employed the labourers. The parish had no medics and no pub!
I have been lucky enough to find a plan of the actual farm (1774) and sketch of the labourer's cottages (1848) before they were pulled down! It is amazing what you can find if you look hard enough.

Quite, and you are very lucky indeed to have found those plans !
How interesting; One can read descriptions, but to see an actual plan must make it all more real.
Are we talking of David Humes?

You are also lucky to be able to trace your family roots this far back; This too must be a fascinating study.

BTW I read that some 'squires' did not want an alehouse in the village/hamlet for fear of having drunkards in the parish.

Hello, Elle!
I went on the Nature Trail, but not for too long, as we started to lose the light.
Not very warm here, too.
Where Tisha lived in Alaska, it got to minus 56 degrees.
Yes, "swot" is the the spelling I favour, not "swat".
I did not know they meant the same.
Yes, Miss LB is still at hospital.
She knocks off at 17.00.
No "Treasures" this night, I shall miss it!

Hi Pigale

I don't think there were even any villages, though there were two churches and small settlements. I don't think the population was big enough to support drinking establishments, nor do I think people had any money, They were mostly paid in kind and had to supply a "bondager" (if you google that you get some funny sites!) to work at harvest to pay the rent on their miserable hovels.
There were bondagers into the twentieth century. Girls from age 14, working 6am-6pm.
Respect! Yes, David Hume lived near there. I read that he got stuck in Billie Mire and the locals left him to it because they thought him ungodly!