‘When I had first come to the Hebrides Morag, my landlady, had advised me always to “take a rope – in case,” . . . Over and over I had proved its usefulness. I might need it to catch a calf or a sheep; to carry a bundle of hay to the cow or a can of paraffin from the grocer; to tie a bundle of driftwood...
I had collected, or a sack of peat; to secure a boat; make a temporary repair to a sagging fence or a halter for a horse . . .
Excepting when they were going on holiday or to church, the Bruach crofters were rarely without a length of rope, either coiled around an arm or protruding from a pocket.’
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