OS1/1/72/85

Continued entries/extra info

[Page] 85
Aberdeenshire Parish of Peterhead

[continued from previous page]
women and children, during the incursions of an invading foe. The place is well adapted for such a purpose, being little calculated to excite the cupidity of the marauder. But even these desolate habitations of a pre-historic race are being invaded by the spade of the husbandman and, in the course of a few years, every trace of them will probably have been obliterated. It is a hazardous thing, in this age of progress, to advocate the preservation of such barbaric remains; but as characters of the obscure past, legibly impressed on the face of the Country it seems an equal amount of barbarism entirely to wipe them out. Such relics as these are the visible landmarks of the world's advance. For the sake of a few shillings - for the revenue can hardly be counted by pounds - These rude vestiges of the past, which for so many ages have been the admiration of the curious, are being for ever swept away. Even the poor tenants who are driven to rear their cottages on these bleak and sterile slopes, manifest some interest in the ancient bourachs or villages; nor can the prospect of a corn-plot entirely reconcile them to these enforced acts of vandalism. It is a legitimate question how far the preservation of these vestiges of antiquity influences the popular mind. We have only to look at our relatives across the Atlantic, to see how their [continued on next page]