the tree and found in a hole, high up in the tree trunk, a nurter :

which they discovered to be Covenanters Tokens. They did not rca se

were of any special interest and played with them and eventually lost re—

Many of the people in the village I saw and talked to were interested H

what I was doing. They were friendly and co-operative, and although many

thought they had nothing of importance to say about Strathkinness, they

all contributed something useful.

“Jock” Dunn, for instance; a very wise octogenarian former shepherd,

who has tramped over, and knows intimately, the countryside for miles around,

in answer to a question about his early life as one of twelve children, whose

mother could not afford tea or sugar or many other things thought essential by

most people in this part of the world today, showed me in his inimitable

reply “But we didna’ ken onythin’ ither”, just how very difficult it is for

people living at one time to have any real understanding of the circumstances

or problems of an earlier generation.

The changes which have taken place in the life-time of those who have lived

a long time in Strathkinness are great. They talked about gathering at the

pump for a gossip while getting their water, of how they once knew everybody

in the village, and how, although they did not have much in a material sense,

they were contented with what they did have.

Very few, however, said they thought the past had been better; they did

not think it was “the good old days” and they did not want it back. Most did

not look at the village through rose-coloured spectacles. For most of them

whose life had been hard, the conveniences of electricity, water, drainage ——

and television —— are things they would not now want to do without.

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