A WHALE OF A TIME 

In the nineteenth century the composition of old Comrie was not much changed to that of today, but there was more activity with people always going about. In fact they were known as “the going about” people. They had many chores to do of one sort or another, and shopping at the local shops was quite an event. The shops were full of fascinating and different articles. They were small and normally lit with oil cruisies or homemade candles. There were no blinds on the windows which were fitted with wooden shutters and when darkness fell the streets looked like tunnels.

The stock of goods in the grocer’s shops was quite varied. They possessed a large meal girnal with a division in the centre. In one compartment there was always oatmeal, and in the other, barley meal and usually several bags of peasemeal as well as salt herrings and red herrings. A barrel of whale oil was used for the cruises and many also kept a bag of salt which was very expensive due to the duty that had been placed on it. One of the principal shopkeeper’s of the time was Peter Macfarlane who by all accounts was a very careful man with a reputation of being able to look after himself...but sometimes he met his match.

One of the lads from the glens had come in to the village to have some repairs done on his boots which were rather tattie with thin soles. He took them to the shoemaker who did the best possible job with them and returning them to the boy suggested that if the boots were not oiled or greased well they would soon be useless, as the uppers had already started to crack. As the lad was keen to make his boots last as long as possible a brilliant idea came to him as he was passing Mr. Macfarlane’s shop. He went in carrying his boots in his hands, and asked for some trifling article. When Mr. Macfarlane went to fetch the article the lad “accidentally” dropped his boots into the barrel of whale oil. When Mr. Macfarlane returned with the article the lad asked him what was in the barrel describing the misfortune which had just occurred.

When Mr. Macfarlane told him it was whale oil the lad broke out in a rage shouting out that his boots would be destroyed and that the shopkeeper had no right to leave an open barrel around where accidents like this could happen and that he would claim damages for a new pair of boots. Mr. Macfarlane told him, that by rights, he should be the one to make the claim as his whale oil was more valuable and they quarrelled and harped at each other for some time while trying to recover the boots. Deciding not to buy the article brought before him by Mr. Macfarlane, the lad stormed out of the store in high dudgeon, and Mr. Macfarlane reflected, later that the lad knew a thing or two!