5 The OED defines a cabin as “a permanent human habitation of rude construction. Applied especially to mud or turf-built hovels of slaves or impoverished peasantry, as distinct from the comfortable cottages of working men.” Most examples of usage in the 17th and 18th centuries are from Scotland, Ireland and the English border counties. The EDD identifies the area of most common English usage as Northumberland, Durham and Yorkshire.

6 George Buchanan, “Description of Scotland,” in Brown, ed., Scotland before 1700 from Contemporary Documents, 235.

7 Robert Witherspoon, “Recollections,” in Merrens, ed., Colonial South Carolina Scene, 126.

8 E. Estyn Evans, “Cultural Relics of the Ulster-Scots in the Old West of North America,” Ulster Folklife 11 (1966), 33-38.

9 Interesting ethnic variations existed in interior design. Germans preferred to divide their cabins into three small rooms with a sleeping loft above. The borderers preferred one large open space, rectangular dimensions and opposed front and rear doors. See Evans, “Cultural Relics of the Ulster Scots”; Glassie, “The Appalachian Log Cabin,” 5-14; idem, Pattern in the Material Folk Culture of the Eastern United States, 78.