A Harris House Interior of 1787

In an earlier piece on 'The Bee' I said that there were numerous small details that I wished to return to. One such is contained on page 285 where we read:


In the house where the deer was brought to the party, were found most of the utensils used in the Hebrides for agriculture and domestic use. A chasscroomb for tilling the ground by manual labour, a straight spade for digging it, a rustil or sharp piece of iron for cutting the furrows, a sack made of straw for holding corn, a straw carpet for spreading it upon, a quearn or hand mill for grinding it, an iron pot for boiling their victuals; the fire-place in the middle of the house, with dogs, cats, ducks, and poultry surrounding the fire. The mistress of the house, a decent lady, had never seen a growing tree.
" You are a native of this island, madam?''
' By no means,.. I came to it on my marriage; but I came from the isle of Sky, and, never saw any thing larger grow, than a broom bush.'
" From whence came the trees that make the roof of your house?"
'From the woods.'
" What woods?"
'The woods of Assynt to be sure.'


Our author, the mysterious 'Piscator', provides an excellent impression of the interior of this house somewhere near Tarbert and his exchange with the lady of the house is also revealing. She originated from 'Sky' but came to Harris upon getting married, thought whether her husband was a native or not is unclear. Regardless, she serves as a reminder of the late Captain Macleod's developments on the island and his introduction of incomers to help facilitate them.
In 1787 'Piscator' (probably John Knox) and his fellows from the British Fisheries Society caught these developments at what would prove to be their zenith for only  three years later the Captain was deceased (thus the 1792 account in 'The Bee' containing posthumous tributes to him) and his death, followed by that of the Kelp industry, sealed the fate of the island and left it to be plundered by the Clearing sheep-farmers.


Source:
The Bee, or Literary Weekly Intelligencer,

Original Pieces and Selections from Performances of Merit, Foreign and Domestic

A Work Calculated to Disseminate Useful Knowledge among

All Ranks of People at a Small Expence

By James Anderson

Vol 8, p285 1792