year with a gang of tinklers, that made horn-spoons and mended
bellows. Where they came from never was well made out; but being a
blackaviced crew, they were generally thought to be Egyptians. They
tarried about a week among us, living in tents, with their little
ones squattling among the litter; and one of the older men of them
set and tempered to me two razors, that were as good as nothing, but
which he made better than when they were new.

Shortly after, but I am not quite sure whether it was in the end of
this year, or the beginning of the next, although I have a notion
that it was in this, there came over from Ireland a troop of wild
Irish, seeking for work as they said; but they made free quarters,
for they herrit the roosts of the clachan, and cutted the throat of
a sow of ours, the carcass of which they no doubt intended to steal;
but something came over them, and it was found lying at the back
side of the manse, to the great vexation of Mrs Balwhidder; for she
had set her mind on a clecking of pigs, and only waited for the
China boar, that had been brought down from London by Lord
Eaglesham, to mend the breed of pork--a profitable commodity, that
her father, Mr Kibbock, cultivated for the Glasgow market. The
destruction of our sow, under such circumstances, was therefore held
to be a great crime and cruelty, and it had the effect to raise up
such a spirit in the clachan, that the Irish were obligated to
decamp; and they set out for Glasgow, where one of them was
afterwards hanged for a fact, but the truth concerning how he did
it, I either never heard, or it has passed from my mind, like many
other things I should have carefully treasured.