Scotland -- History -- Stuarts, to the Union, 1371-1707
The document[275] which contains the narrative of the "spulzie" on the
Little Cumbrae is interesting, not only because of the glimpse which it
affords of the state of the country three hundred years ago, but also,
and even more, because of the minute inventory which it includes of the
articles either "spulzied" or destroyed in the various parts and
chambers of Boyd's castle, together with the value put upon each article
or set of articles. In the first place the list indicates the internal
structural arrangement of such a dwelling. It consisted of a hall, a
kitchen, a chamber, a lower wester chamber and a high wester chamber, a
low easter chamber, a wardrobe, a brew-house, and vaults. The contents
of the several apartments do not point to luxurious appointment, even in
what may be taken as a fair specimen of an ancient Scottish house of the
larger and better sort.
The distinction between public rooms and bedrooms does not appear to
have existed. There were two or three "stand beds", that is to say, beds
with posts, as distinguished from beds that might be folded up, in each
of the "chambers". Most of them were of "fir", or plain deal, and valued
at £8 Scots, or 13s. 4d. sterling, each. The oak bedsteads, of which
there were only two, were set down at 20 marks, or about 23s. sterling
apiece. According to the same difference of wood, the "chalmer buirds",
as distinct from the "fauldand buird", or dining-table of the kitchen,
were worth £4 or £5 respectively. Three beds and a table constituted the
sole furniture of the "low easter chalmer" and of the "high wester
chalmer". The "lower wester chalmer" was the room which yielded most
loot to the raiders. In a cupboard within it they found a "silver piece"
of 17 oz. in weight and a cup with a silver foot weighing 7 oz., at £3,
that is to say, 5s. an ounce, besides "contracts, obligations,
evidents, and books, worth £2000." The same room contained a lockfast
chest, which served as a repository for "a doublet and breiks of dun
fustian cut out on tawny taffety, a pair of tawny worsted stockings, two
linen shirts, two pairs of linen sheets, four pillowslips, two pairs of
tablecloths, two broad cloths of linen of five ells in length, two broad
towels, and two dozen serviettes".
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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