Re: Herd's cottage

On Wed, 31 Oct 2007 04:39:47 -0000, jupiterean <jupiterean@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

I came across this term quite often in books with a Scottish setting.
I guess it refers to a style of cottage. Could anyone here please shed
some light on this? Also does "herd" mean "shepherd" ? Thanks.

The herd's cottage wasoften small, without much beyond a fireplace
where the cooking was done. Married herds tended to get a better
arrangement. Water was usually from from a burn (creek) or a well.

"The herd" in Scotland means the man, not his flock. Some of the herds
I've known had not washed within living memory. Most were gentle souls
who led solitary lives. The better ones could identify the members of
a particular sheep family by the family resemblance; a skill that
never failed to amaze me.

I still remember my grandfather and his head herd arguing over whether
a lamb wandering past was the grandchild of a specific ewe, or of her
sister. Twice in my life I have been able to identify sheep as coming
from my grandfather's flocks; once in Sussex, England, and once in
British Columbia, Canada, thanks to notches cut into their horns,
identifying them as ours. Neither the head herd nor my grandfather
would have been impressed; they would have recognized them on sight.

My hero as a child was a herd. He taught my brother and I to swear
like troopers in Gaelic. We lived on an island and one day a fishing
boat came ashore, the skipper having heard of our linguistic gifts and
apparently deciding on the spur of the moment to check us out.

So impressed was he that he gave us a full bucket of mackerel to take
home as a mark of his appreciation for our talent. When we reached
home, our mother was so outraged at hearing how we had earned the fish
that she refused to cook them!

Not much happens on islands, so this incident was good for a week of
recriminations and assurances that we were going to burn in Hell.
So far, we're batting 100% - both of us are still alive and well and
no sign of Auld Nick (the Devil) - as yet...



.

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