The houses the Highlanders of a century ago lived in are described by Dr. Johnson. The construction of a hut, he tells us, is of loose stones, arranged for the most part with some tendency to circularity and placed where the wind cannot act upon it with violence, and where the water would run easily away, because it has no floor but the naked ground. The wall, which is commonly about six feet high, declines from the perpendicular a little inward. Some rafters are raised for a roof, which makes a strong and warm thatch, kept from flying off by ropes of twisted heather, of which the ends, reaching from the centre of the thatch to the top of the wall, are held firm by the weight of a large stone. No light is admitted, but at the entrance and through a hole in the thatch, which gives vent to the smoke. The hole is not directly over the fire, lest the rain should extinguish it, and the smoke therefore fills the place before it escapes. [Illustration: THE SCOTCH BRIGADE MEMORIAL] Entering one of this better class of huts, Dr. Johnson found an old woman whose husband was eighty years old. She knew little English, but he had interpreters at hand. She had five children still at home and others who had gone away. One youth had gone to Inverness to buy meal--by which oatmeal is always meant. She was mistress of sixty goats and many kids were in the enclosure. She had also some poultry, a potato garden, and four shucks containing each twelve sheaves of barley. Huts in building and equipment are not more uniform than are palaces, and hers was divided into several apartments. She was boiling goat’s flesh in the kettle for the next meal. With true pastoral hospitality, she invited her guest to sit down and drink whiskey. Sweetening was obtained from honey. Probably the reason why marmalade is so much used by the modern Scots is because of old their ancestors used a great deal of honey, of which marmalade, usually made from oranges imported from Spain, takes the place. Though the old lady’s kirk was four miles off--probably eight English miles--she went to worship every Sunday. She was glad to get some snuff, which is the luxury of a Highland cottage. In one village of three huts, Dr. Johnson found a chimney and a pane of glass. Beside his road-making, with stone and concrete, General Wade had notable success in dealing with the peculiar variety of human nature that was so marked in the Celtic Highlanders. He so won his way into their hearts that, with the tact that came of thorough acquaintance with his subject, he slowly but surely disarmed the clans. Turbulence and habitual brawls ceased, for the most part, and there came an era of civilization and peaceful life, contrasting amazingly with the state of affairs in Scotland before 1745. To the Irish General Wade the world awards the title promised of God by the prophet Isaiah, “The restorer of paths to dwell in.”