On the train to Edinburgh this morning I got chatting to Ian. He was telling me about his first job as a teacher in Unst, the most northerly inhabited of the Shetland Isles. The post came with a house- attached to the school- and a peat bank (and tusker for cutting it). Although the days when each pupil would bring a peat to school to warm the classroom were past, during the winter months Ian’s Raeburn stove would be on all day as his kitchen doubled as the staff room. 
Robin A Crawford 