How It Was Then
(Tom Messer, Editor, The Scotian)

Let's think for a few minutes about how people lived in Scotland in the early years of the 19th century; their habits, customs, traditions, their family relationships, who did what in the family home. The visitor from England didn't feel at home in Scotland in those days. For instance, he missed the greenery that surround the cottages in England. He felt that Scotland was a dull, depressing country. The English visitor was accustomed to a flower garden at the front door of his home. Farm gardens in Scotland at that period on history, were as one historian wrote, "severely utilitarian". But this was as difficult time in Scotland and there was a tradition of poverty. Times were, to put it bluntly, tough.

In Scotland here seemed to be a lack of respect for the family home and a lack of amenities which the Englishman took for granted. Men and boys entered the home without removing their headgear. The supper table didn't have a white cloth or other suitable covering. A Sunday meal was usually a sheep's head left to boil in a pot beside the fireplace while the family worshipped for hours and hours at church. .....

To continue this story, read further in December 2008's Scotian.