Note 42 — Chapter XLII

The following quotations from Mr Dunbar’s Social Life in Former Days, giving details of household furniture and expenses, may be taken as “a correct index of the comforts and conveniences” of the best off of the old Highland lairds; for as they refer to Morayshire, just on the borders of the Highlands, they cannot be held as referring to the Highlands generally, the interior and western districts of which were considerably behind the border lands in many respects:—

“Sir Robert Gordon’s Allowance for his Lady and Family, from December 14th 1740 to December 14th 1741.

Sterling.

£S.D.

Imprimis, to 36 bolls malt, at 8 shillings and 4 pence per boll,1500

Item, to 36 bolls meal, at same price,1500

Item, to 10 bolls wheat, at 13 shillings and 4 pence per boll,6134

Item, to 12 beeves at £1 per piece,1200

Item, to meal to servants without doors,976

Item, to servants’ wages within and without doors,4150

Item, to cash instantly delivered,5062

Item, to be paid monthly, £4, 4s.,5080

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£20000

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“Servants’ Wages 1741.

Imprimis to gentlewomen1000

Item, to five maids,568

Item, to two cooks,500

Item, to two porters,300

Item, to Robin’s servant,100

Item, to the groom,550

Item, to the neighbour,368

Item, to three out-servants,700

Item, to two herds,168

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£4150

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“Inventar of Plenishing in Thunderton’s Lodging in Duffus, May 25, 1708.

“Strypt Room.

“Camlet hangings and curtains, feather bed and bolster, two pillows, five pair blankets, and an Inglish blanket, a green and white cover, a blew and white chamber-pot, a blew and white bason, a black jopand table and two looking-glasses, a jopand tee-table with a tee-pat and plate, and nine cups and nine dyshes, and a tee silver spoon, two glass sconces, two little bowles, with a leam stoap and a pewter head, eight black ken chairs, with eight silk cushens conform, an easie chair with a big cushen, a jopand cabinet with a walnut tree stand, a grate, shuffle, tonges, and brush; in the closet, three piece of paper hangings, a chamber box, with a pewter pan therein, and a brush for cloaths.

“Closet next the Strypt Room.

“Four dishes, two assiets, six broth plates, and twelve flesh plates, a quart flagon, and a pynt flagon, a pewter porenger, and a pewter flacket, a white iron jaculate pot, and a skellet pann, twenty-one timber plates, a winter for warming plates at the fire, two Highland plaids, and a sewed blanket, a bolster, and four pillows, a chamber-box, a sack with wool, and a white iron dripping pann.

“In the farest Closet.

“Seventeen drinking glasses, with a glass tumbler and two decanters, a oil cruet, and a vinegar cruet, a urinal glass, a large blew and white posset pot, a white leam posset pat, a blew and white bowl, a dozen of blew and white leam plates, three milk dishes, a blew and white leam porenger, and a white leam porenger, four jelly pots, and a little butter dish, a crying chair, and a silk craddle.

“In the Moyhair Room.

“A sute of stamped cloath hangings, and a moyhair bed with feather bed, bolster, and two pillows, six pair blankets, and an Inglish blanket and a twilt, a leam chamber-pat, five moyhair chairs, two looking-glasses, a cabinet, a table, two stands, a table cloak, and window hangings, a chamber-box with a pewter pann, a leam bason, with a grate and tongs and a brush; in the closet, two carpets, a piece of Arres, three pieces lyn’d strypt hangings, three wawed strypt curtains, two piece gilded leather, three trunks and a craddle, a chamber-box, and a pewter pann, thirty-three pound of heckled lint, a ston of vax, and a firkin of sop, and a brush for cloaths, two pair blankets, and a single blanket.

“In the Dyning-Room.

“A sute of gilded hangings, two folding tables, eighteen low-backed ken chairs, a grate, a fender, a brass tongs, shuffle, brush, and timber brush, and a poring iron, and a glass kes.

“In my Lady’s Room.

“Gilded hangings, standing bed, and box bed, stamped drogged hangings, feather bed, bolster, and two pillows, a pallise, five pair of blankets, and a single one, and a twilt, and two pewter chamber-pots, six chairs, table, and looking-glass a little folding table, and a chist of drawers, tonges, shuffle, porrin-iron, and a brush, two window curtains of linen; in the Laird’s closet, two trunks, two chists, and a citrena cabinet, a table, and a looking-glass, the dow holes, two carpet chairs, and a chamber-box with a pewter pan, and a little bell, and a brush for cloath.

“My Lady’s Closet.

“A cabinet, three presses, three kists, and a spicerie box, a dozen leam white plates, a blew and white leam plate, a little blew butter plate, a white leam porenger, and three gelly pots, two leam dishes, and two big timber capes, four tin congs, a new pewter basson, a pynt chopen, and mutchken stoups, two copper tankers, two pewter salts, a pewter mustard box, a white iron peper and suggar box, two white iron graters, a pot for starch, and a pewter spoon, thirteen candlesticks, five pair snuffers and snuf dishes conform, a brass mortar and pistol, a lantern, a timber box, a dozen knives and a dozen forks, and a carpet chair, two milk congs, a milk cirn, and kirn staff, a sisymilk, and creamen dish and a cheswel, a neprie basket, and two new pewter chamber pots.

“A Note of Plate.

“Three silver salvers, four salts, a large tanker, a big spoon, and thirteen littler spoons, two jugs, a sugar box, a mustard box, a peper box, and two little spoons.

“An Account of Bottles in the Salt Cellar.

“June the first 1708.

Of Sack, five dozen and one,51

Of Brandie, three dozen and three,33

Of Vinegar and Aquavitie, seven,07

Of Strong Ale, four dozen and four,44

Of other Ale, nine dozen,90

In the ale cellar, fifteen dozen and ten,1510

In the hamper, five dozen empty,50

In the wine cellar, nine with Inglish Ale,09

White Wine, ten,010

Of Brandy, three,03

With Brandy and Surop, two,02

With Claret, fifteen,13

With Mum, fifteen,13

Throw the house, nineteen,17

————

There is in all, forty-nine dozen and two,492

And of mutchkin bottles twenty-five,21

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“Received ten dozen and one of chapen bottles full of claret. More received—eleven dozen and one of pynt bottles, whereof there was six broke in the home-coming. 1709, June the 4th, received from Elgin forty-three chopen bottles of claret.”