Foulis: 300 years ago...
July - August
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Re-stocking the Water of Leith with trout 250 years after the death of Sir John Foulis
High summer in the 1700s saw Sir John Foulis of Woodhall paying for dealing with some pesky wildlife --- from the rats and mice which needed trapping to the bees which escaped to Currie and had to be smoked with brimstone before they would return to their new skep. Then, sixteen sheep were being transferred from tenant Adam Thomson's land in Bonaly, to Sir John's other estate at Ravelston, when two of them escaped and ran all the way back to Bonaly. That cost Sir John further drink money for the exasperated herd.
But, high summer also brought some seasonal delights. Sir John paid five shillings for six fresh Dunbar herrings and then later in the season fourteen shillings for fifty more and a further one pound ten shillings for the salt to preserve them. Solan geese (gannets), crabs and cockles were also on the Big House's menu. And, if a local caught a hare, muirfowl or trout, he knew that Sir John would pay good money for them, too.
The summer of 1705 was full of feasting and what looks like several eighteenth century
stagnights as Sir John prepared for his fourth marriage to Agnes (Scott) Bruce.
He spruced up the great bedchamber for his new wife with a looking-glass table for sixty-six pounds,
and himself with a new long periwig at one hundred and six pounds.
As a further dash of glamour he
had made a new pair of slippers for myself covered with silk stuff like my nightgown.
!
At 67 years of age he was quite a goer!
Selected from entries for July and August in Sir John Foulis's Account Books.