The Oldest Map in Great Britain.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 368, 15 May 1889, Page 3

The Oldest Map in Great Britain.

Hugh MaoLeod, crofter, Morefield, parish of Loch Broom, county of Boss, Scotland, was bo»n in the adjoining parish of Assynt, township of Elphin, Sutherlandshire, on the 24th day of November,- 1783, so that h© is now in Hi* 107 th year. He is still 'as straight'as alft,mp-post.' He says he gets up in summer between ,5 and 6 a.m., and goes tobedat9 p.m.- In winter he rises at 8 a.m., and retires at 10 p.m. ' T had,* » he says, '"to drop the croft, as 1 could not cultivate it at last, but I still cut my own fire (peats), and,. I carried home on my back a creefull of peats (841b) yesterday.' Continuing, he states: — c l take porridge and milk tor breakfast, as I always did throughout my )ife : 'potatoes and herrings and fish and mutton (salt) when lean get it.' While in this humour he observed that he had grown fond of tea, which.was absolutely unknown in his young .days, and that,he was very heavy on chewing 'thin twist.' extraordinary vitality and strength are, still left to him i 3 proved from the fact that he carties home his turt iti J loads of threequarters of a< hundtedweighc a distance of nearly a - mile, . one - fouith of which is up a very steep ascent and over a stony, rugged iootpnth. Like his father, who was a weaver, lie was himself a craftsman also — a carpenter and joiner, and in this rapacity he went much about the Western I<*les, where' he heard a great deal about British Empire-making from the moushs of men iresn 'fiom the fields of battle gory, from amidst the toils of war,' and beat ing on thoir belies too e\ idenb marks' o f that proud tact. So, the hivt seventeen yeard ot his life, being also the la«t of the last contury, as well ab the most eventful period of Euro pean hiotory, he is a veritable walking encyclopicdia of histoiio loie. ' You have also met many men who had been pressed into the navy?' 'Yes,' he biuH, 'I have. Men who were aQoat with Rodney, Duncan, and Nelson — lads of my o n acquaintance. They, or some of them, were present at St. Vincent. Camperdown and the Nile. But the most of people whom I mot then were those who were taken away to till the ranks ot the 78th, 72nd and 71ffc Highlanders, all from the county of Ross, to contend with equal success against Turk, Tartar, Hindoo, American Indian, or Frenchman — many thousands of them where net as many tens could be got now.' That he is and ever was a tine spec men ot his class, clan, and raee — broad-shouldurert and six feet in his stockings — goes without saying it ; ,yet this is the breed that landlordism generally, and the Duke of Argyll particularly, would dearly like to exterminate it) the Caledonian land. There are three other ccntcuai'ians in the same parish, bub Hugh is the patriarch of them all, whidh i'.»ct pro\es beyond doubt that Loch Broom i* the iinesO sanitorium in the British Isles, ll is thirty miles fiom a railway station. Having now no family relations li\ing t he is entirely dependent upon the benevolence of his countrymen ; and this article is especially wiilten to make that fact known to them.