SHEEP-SHEARING FESTIVAL.

193

I spent a very pleasant evening at the castle. Sir G. Sinclair kindly gave me some curious information respecting the past and present condition of Caithness. To his father, the well-known Sir John Sinclair, author of many agricultural works, the merit is due of having led the way in farming improvements, which have entirely changed the face of the country in the neighbourhood of Thurso.* He introduced the celebrated sheep-shearing festivals, of the first of which an amusing account has been preserved.

It took place at Thurso on the 1st July, 1791. "About fifty ladies and seventy gentlemen were present. They were received by Sir John Sinclair, Chairman of the Society for the Improvement of British Wool. In the centre of the green, specimens of various kinds of wool and dressed skins of Shetland sheep were exhibited, and 'particularly admired.' Sheep of various breeds from England, Scotland, Spain, Shetland, and Abyssinia, were also exhibited. The sheep-shearing began at two o'clock, and the dexterity with which it was performed was much praised.'

"The ladies were dressed in white muslin, with flowers and various-coloured ribbons, and each one bore a shepherdess's crook, decorated with taste and fancy." No one, it is added, attracted such admiration

* See his "General View of the Agriculture of the Northern Counties of Scotland," published in 1795.

as the Countess of Dundonald, "whose hat was decorated with wool from her own sheep, dyed by herself in various beautiful vivid colours, which had a fine effect.” Several of the gentlemen were presented by her ladyship with cockades and other ornaments made of wool. "The gentlemen were dressed as their fancy dictated, but all had crooks on their buttons, and the majority wore coats of cloth made from their own flocks."

At four o'clock the company sat down to dinner in an elegant pavilion. The first toast given by Sir John Sinclair, who occupied the chair, was "The Royal Shepherd of Great Britain, and success to his Flock," and while the toast was drunk, the "Hind" frigate, which was at anchor in Thurso Bay, fired twenty-one guns. Then followed various other toasts appropriate to the occasion, and after tea the festival was wound up by a ball, which was kept up to a late hour.

What a pity that photography was an unknown art in those days; how pleasant it would be to have a faithful picture of those gay Corydons and their gayer

Phillises!

This sheep-shearing festival may be considered as having put the seal of approval by the principal landowners in Caithness on sheep farming, which has since been carried out to an enormous extent.

Distempers among cattle were formerly very common in Caithness; now, however, improved management and

draining has greatly diminished cattle diseases. The murrain, or, as it was locally called, "the hasty," because the cattle died very soon after being attacked by it, was one of the most common diseases; so common and dreaded that it appears by county histories that many old women, reputed to have the power of curing the murrain, made considerable sums by the exercise of their deceptive trade. The cure was supposed to be effected by a need fire, and the manner of raising this is thus recorded:

"Upon any small island where the stream of a river or burn runs on each side, a circular booth was erected of stone or turf, in which a semi-circular, or highland couple of birch, or other hard wood, was set; and a roof constructed upon it. A straight pole was set up in the centre of this building, the upper end being fixed by a wooden pin to the top of the couple, and the lower end in an oblong trunk in the earth or floor; and lastly, another pole was set across horizontally, having both ends tapered, one end of which was supported in a hole in the side of the perpendicular pole, and the other end in a similar hole in the couple leg.

"The horizontal stick was called the auger, having four short arms or levers fixed in its centre, to work it by; the building having been thus finished, as many men as could be collected in the vicinity, (being divested

0 2

of all kinds of metal in their clothes, &c.,) would set to work with the said auger, two after two, constantly turning it round by the arms or levers, and others occasionally driving wedges of wood or stone behind the lower end of the upright pole, so as to press it the more on the end of the auger; by this constant friction and pressure, the ends of the auger would take fire, from which a fire would be instantly kindled, and thus the need-fire would be accomplished. The fire in the farmer's house, &c., was now quenched with water, a fire kindled from this need-fire, both in the farm-house and offices, and the cattle brought to feel the smoke of this new and sacred fire, which preserved them from dying of the murrain. In order to expedite the raising this need-fire, several gimlet holes in the ends of the auger were previously filled with bruised gunpowder and tinder." *

This superstitious performance was probably a vestige of the raising of the sacred fire of the Druids annually on the 1st of May. The ceremony was performed in Ireland as well as in Scotland, and the 1st of May is still called in Gaelic, La-beal-tin; the day of Baal's fire, or that dedicated to Baal, or the Sun.

The belief in the efficacy of the need-fire is exploded, but in more recent times it appears that in certain districts in Scotland a superstitious dislike was entertained

* Henderson's Agriculture of Caithness, p. 200.

MAGNIFICENT AURORA.

197

against winnowing machines, because they were supposed to interfere with the elements.

The

Between 10 and 12 o'clock this night I saw a most magnificent exhibition of the Aurora. Few nights passed without our seeing this glorious phenomenon, but on this occasion the play of the fitful gleaming flashes was unusually grand and beautiful. streamers filled a large area of the northern heavens, darting with excessive rapidity towards the zenith in feathery scintillations. The peasants, who call these lights the "Merry Dancers," maintain that they are accompanied by a noise like that of the rustling of silk or the movement of withered leaves, but the more trustworthy ears of stern, inquiring philosophy are unable to confirm this.

In a very interesting paper on the Aurora Borealis by the Rev. James Farquharson, published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1839, the author states that the result of elaborate calculations, based on careful geometrical measurements, shows that Auroras in Scotland are about 4,000 feet above the earth, and that the vertical extension of the fringe of streamers is about 3,000 feet. The height of Auroras, however, is greatly dependent on that of the clouds.