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1815-1816.
THE laird of Attadale,
in whose family I was to reside, had arranged to send a horse as far
as Dingwall for me to ride. I arrived there on Sabbath morning, and
at the usual hour attended church. The late Dr. Stewart of the
Canongate Church, Edinburgh, was then minister of Dingwall, to which
he had been translated from the parish of Moulin. I was deeply
impressed by his Gaelic discourse. His elegant and beautiful dialect
of the Gaelic language, and what was worth all the languages on
earth, his pure and vivid views of gospel truth and Christian
experience, left upon my mind, I dare not say a saving, but
certainly a lasting impression. I rode in the evening to Muirtown,
then the property and residence of a Mr. Reid, an exceedingly plain,
unsophisticated, downright sort of a man. His wife, a very
pretty-looking woman, was a native of Gairloch, and sister of the
present minister of Golspie, Mr Alexr. MacPherson. When I arrived at
Muirtown it was rather late in the evening, and, on alighting at the
door, a demure, serving-looking man met me, of whom I enquired if
his master, Mr. Reid, were at home. He replied that he was, and,
moreover, that lie himself was that identical master in his own
proper person. I stammered out an apology, but he cut me short by
saying that 1 was by no means the first who had, in his case,
mistaken the master for the man, and at once ushered me into his
parlour. We had tea, and, immediately thereafter, Attadale arrived
from Inverness. I left Muirtown on the Monday, in company with him
and Mr. Reid, and arrived that night at Luibgargan, the identical
inn where my grandfather, nearly a century before, had his rencontre
with Red Colin. Next day, Mr. Reid returned hone, and the laird and
I, proceeding onwards, arrived at Attadale about two in the
afternoon.
My cousin, Mrs.
Matheson, received me very kindly. The family consisted of live
sons, Alexander, [Afterwards Sir Alexander Matheson, Bart., MP, of
Ardross.—ED.] Hugh, Farquhar, Donald and John, and two daughters,
whose names I now forget. Attadale's mother and sister also resided
in the family, but soon afterwards he built a cottage on his
property for their accommodation. All the boys were my pupils. The
place of Attadale is very romantic, but almost entirely
inaccessible, except at low water by the sands to the east, and by a
break-neck, scrambling road over the edge of a precipice to the
west.
Mr. Lachlan Mackenzie
was then minister of Lochcarron, a man of genius, but of great
eccentricity, and distinguished as one of the most eminently pious
ministers of his day. As such his praise was in all the churches. I
was his stated hearer during my residence in his parish. We had to
cross the bay of Lochcarron to reach the church. It was built
towards the close of my grandfather's ministry, and was, every
Sabbath, crowded to the doors. This worthy and eminent servant of
God was by this time in the decline of life. He was much afflicted
in body by one of those nervous disorders which, undermining his
constitution, terminated in paralysis; lie died in 1819. His sermons
exhibited the most profound views of divine truth. His expedients to
re-establish his health were very peculiar. At one period of his
life he bathed, often many times but always once a day, and that too
both in summer and winter. He literally loaded himself with
clothing. I have seen him on a hot summer day, in the church which
was crowded with people, wrapped up in three vests, over which were
two coats, a great-coat, and a cloak. His elders were weak and
injudicious. They filled his ears with all the idle, gossipping
complaints against this individual or that, which floated on the
breath of the common people, and this both grieved and irritated
him. These he introduced into the pulpit, so as often to excite his
own mind, and very little to edify his audience. There was one
individual, a stated hearer, against whom he frequently pointed some
awful and crushing denunications. He was a sheep-farmer, who resided
in the immediate vicinity of the manse. This man rose from a humble
origin to be a prosperous and wealthy holder of stock. During the
days of his obscurity, and when he lived in a humble hut, he made a
profession of godliness, frequently communicated with Mr. Lachlan on
the state of his mind under the hearing of the Word, attended the
prayer and fellowship-meetings, kept family worship, and, in short,
was apparently a decided Christian. But, as the world began to smile
upon him, a change came over his spirit. He gave up family worship,
absented himself from all meetings held for prayer and Christian
conference, exchanged the society of the prayerful people for that
of the profane, and finally crowned his apostacy by railing against
the venerable pastor whom lie had formerly professed to love and
revere. Mr. Mackenzie first endeavoured to regain him by private
admonition, but this having only a hardening effect, he took up his
apostacy and publicly denounced it. Those denunciations, some of
which were truly predictive of what afterwards took place, were
uttered frequently in my hearing and were singularly appalling.
Of all his nine co-presbyters Mr.
Mackenzie was the only minister who preached the gospel with purity
and effect. Mr. Morrison of Crow-Kintail adopted the evangelical
strain, but he was more remarkable for his blundering than for any
actual efficiency. Dr. Ross of Lochbroom was an able man, and a
sound and talented preacher, but his love of controversy and of
litigation destroyed his ministerial usefulness, and was withering
to his soul. Dr. Downie of Lochalsh was a man of wealth and of
gentlemanly manners, a princely landlord, an extensive sheep-farmer,
a good shot, but a wretched preacher. Mr. Rnssel of Gairloch, Mr.
Macrae of Glenshiel, Mr. Macqueen of Applecross, and Mr. Colin
Macivor of Glenelg, were complete and respectable specimens of
Moderatism in those days.
I was introduced to
Mr. Mackenzie, and not a little recommended to him by my lineal
descent from the first Presbyterian minister of that parish, of whom
he often made honourable mention in his pulpit doctrines, repeating
in the way of illustration certain anecdotes of him, or pithy
sayings, which he was reported to have uttered. These references,
because of my close relationship to the person referred to, drew
upon me the eyes of the whole congregation, among whom my ancestor's
memory was still fresh, and many of whom had both seen him and heard
him preach. I was often a guest at Mr. Mackenzie's table, and
although myself, at that time, very careless and ignorant of divine
things I felt that my host was truly a man of God. There was a
simplicity and heavenliness, in all that he said and did, that both
impressed and overawed me. Mr. Mackenzie never married, but he was a
great admirer of the fair sex. He was known to have had, for many
years, a predilection for a young woman, a near neighbour of his;
but there was nothing in her spirit or conduct to induce such a man
as Mr. Mackenzie to marry her, as she and all her family were
destitute of any sense of vital godliness, and he was not the man to
put himself under an "unequal yoke." He died in the 66th year of his
age and the 38th of his ministry.
Having as a candidate for licence, been
transferred from the Presbytery of Dornoch to that of Lochcarron, I
delivered before the latter my remaining trial discourses, and was
accordingly, by their moderator, Mr. Morrison of Crow-Kintail,
licensed to preach the gospel. This was in 1815. How ignorant of
that gospel was I then, and how callously indifferent to the great
charge with which I was then entrusted! The day on which I was
licensed I left Attadale somewhat early, to cross the river Carron
at its junction with the sea at low water. The day was dry, and the
river very low, so that I had not the slightest difficulty in
getting over, and I arrived at the church of Lochcarron in full time
to witness the commencement of the Presbytery's proceedings. It was
so late in the evening before they could take up and fully go
through my trials, that I was under the necessity of remaining in
the inn at Jeantown over night. Early next morning I set out for
Attadale. It had rained heavily during the interval, but had cleared
uh about daybreak. Being well mounted I directed my course to the
ford on the Carron, which I had crossed on the previous day, when
the water was not deep enough to reach much past the horse's
fetlock. The river, however, on my return was greatly flooded.
Unaware of this fact, and unconscious of my danger, I entered the
ford. But I had not ridden ten yards into the stream when my horse
suddenly lost his footing, and we were both at once swept down by
the strength and rapidity of the current into the tide below, which
was making at the time. I was about to give up all for lost, but had
the presence of mind to wheel my horse round, when after swimming
for the distance of ten or fifteen yards, he reached the beach with
me in safety. My condition there was, however, by no means a secure
one, as the tide was advancing around me. A man, accidentally
passing, guided me out of my perilous position. He said that
although no man nor horse could have crossed the river where I had
attempted it, he would undertake to lead me over a little farther
deem, where, he assured me, the water would scarcely be knee-deep.
Accordingly, coming with me to the very point where the current of
the stream entered the tide, and going before inc himself on foot,
he led me in a diagonal direction across, following closely the bank
of Rand which the force of the stream had thrown up before it on its
entrance into the sea, and thus we reached the opposite hank in
perfect safety. I thought so little of this incident at the time
that I never even mentioned it, but on looking back on it from
amidst the vicissitudes of after-life, and the many difficulties and
subsequent deliverances which I have experienced in the course of my
ministry, I have frequently had reason to acknowledge the goodness
of God towards me on that occasion.
Mr. Dingwall of Farr had died in the
previous year (1814). His successor was llr. David Mackenzie,
missionary-minister of Achness, to whom the patron presented the
living, on which he entered in May 1815. The vacancy in Achness was
soon afterwards filled, the Assembly's committee appointing me to
that place. In consequence of this I left Attadale, and once more
came to reside under my father's roof.
Previous to my departure from Attadale, it might he about a week or
two, I was, as a licentiate of the Presbytery of Lochcarron, asked
to preach within their bounds. My first attempt to address a public
audience was made at Lochalsh, and in the pulpit of Dr. Downie, the
parish minister. qty exhibition was an almost complete failure. I
was wretchedly deficient in the Gaelic language, and I entered upon
the ministry with a conscious dependence upon myself. Both the
Gaelic and the English sermons which I preached at Lochalsh were the
result of a whole week's study, and I had closely committed every
word to memory. Dr. Downie, for whom I officiated on this first
occasion, was one of Iny early acquaintances after I came to reside
in that part of the country. I had been frequently a guest at his
house, and he treated me with uniform kindness. But careless and
ignorant as I then was, I could not fail to notice the glaring
deficiencies of his ministerial character. His sertnons were literal
transcripts from Blair "et hoc genus omne." These he read in
English, and translated into the purest and most elegant Gaelic. Dr.
Downie's respectable neighbour, Coll MacDonnell of Barrisdale, a
cadet of the family of Glengarry, claimed cousinship with inc as the
great-great-grandson of MacDonell of Ardnafuaran. This gentleman
was, in personal appear. ance, size, and manners, a genuine specimen
of the Highland "dean' nasal;" he lived at Actertyre, a farm which
he held from Hugh Innes of Lochalsh.
Dr. Downie had four daughters and three
sons. His eldest son attended college; he afterwards went to the
West Indies. Charles, the second son, is now minister of Contin, and
Alexander, the third son, is a medical practitioner in a foreign
country. His eldest two daughters, Flora and Margaret, about the
time I resided in that country, 1813-15, were at a London
boarding-school. During the visit of the allied sovereigns of Europe
to the Prince Regent in 1814, after. Napoleon's banishment to Elba,
these young ladies were spectators of a public demonstration made by
the Regent in honour of his Imperial and Royal visitors. Poor
Margaret, a very beautiful girl, caught cold on that occasion, which
threw her into a. consumption. She and her sister came home, and her
death took place a few months after her arrival. It was the second
Sabbath thereafter that I preached at Lochalsh. Dr. Downie walked
with me to church. When we entered the churchyard gate, one of the
first objects which met our eyes was the new-made grave of his
daughter. A convulsion passed over his face, the tears started over
his eyes, but he quickly regained his composure. [Dr. Alexr. Downie
died in May, 1S20, at the age of 55, having been minister of
Lochalsh for 29 years.—ED.]
Leaving Attadale early in the morning, I
breakfasted at Luibgargan, proceeded on foot down Strathconon, and
rested during the night at Garve. Next mornhi t I met with a
clansman, the only one outside my own family I had ever seen. He was
a John Sage, am excise officer in that district. We breakfasted
together, and setting off immediately thereafter, I arrived at
Kildonan on Thursday. The communion was to be administered on the
Sabbath following, and I found my father, with his assistants, Mr.
John Munro, missionary-minister of Dirlot, and Mr. Duncan
MacGillvray, minister of Assynt, busily engaged in the preparatory
duties. The services were conducted in Gaelic, and in the open air.
The spot selected for the meeting of the congregation was about a
mile to the north of the manse, on the banks of the burn, and about
two or three hundred yards below the waterfall of "
Ess-na-caoraiche-duibhe." My father preached the action sermon in
Gaelic, and I succeeded him in the evening. I selected for my text
the same passage I preached from at Lochcarron. I uttered a few
preliminary sentences with considerable boldness and facility. But
all at once my memory failed me, and I made a dead parse. My father
sat behind me in the tent, and groaned aloud for very anxiety. The
congregation, too, among whom were a number of my future flock at
Achness, all on the very tiptoe of curiosity and attention on my
first appearance, were agitated like the surface of one of their own
mountain lochs when suddenly visited with a hurricane. After a pause
of some minutes, however, during which I felt myself pretty
similarly circumstanced as when carried away by the river Carron, I
pulled out my manuscript, and stammered out the rest of my sermon
with much trepidation, and in the best way I could. I returned home
totally disconcerted, and seriously meditated the renunciation of my
licence, my mission, and all my ministerial prospects. Mr. Munro,
however, came to comfort me in my distress. It would appear that he
himself had had a personal experience of the very difficulty with
which I had then to grapple. He had been requested by Mr. Bethune to
preach at Dornoch, but although he got through the Gaelic service
without much difficulty, when he attempted to preach an English
sermon without his manuscript, lie had to stop short in the middle
of a sentence, and was under the necessity of having recourse to his
paper, much to his own confusion no less than to that of his
audience. He could thus the more readily sympathise with my
feelings, and I was not a little cheered and encouraged by his truly
Christian and fatherly admonitions. I think, indeed, that upon the
whole I was no loser by this very severe trial of my natural
feelings. It read me a most humbling lesson respecting myself, and
struck a telling blow also at the very root of my self-confidence,
then my easily besetting sin.
I may here record some notices about my
father's assistants at that communion. Mr. John Munro was a native
of Ross- shire. [Mr. John Munro died 1st April, 1917, in the 41st
year of his ministry. He was for 21 years minister of Halkirk, where
his memory is much revered.--Ed.] His more immediate ancestors were
tinkers—not of the gipsy race, however, but native Highlanders—who
gained their livelihood by the manufacture of born-spoons and
vessels of tin or white iron, and by mending broken stoneware, and
who wandered about from place to place in pursuit of their vocation.
They were therefore called, in their native tongue, "ceardaidheau,"
or craftsmen. Mr. -Munro, although sprung from so humble a race, was
yet destined by the All-wise Ruler for far higher ends. At a very
early age be felt the power of the truth upon his heart, through the
instrumentality of his mother's instructions. He received the first
rudiments of his education at Kiltearn parish school, and
afterwards, during his attendance at the College and at the hall,
became parochial schoolmaster, first of Resolis, and afterwards of
Tarbat. While in this latter place he married Miss Forbes, sister of
the minister of the parish. After finishing his course at the Hall
he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Tain. Although a man
of great moral weight, and of faith unfeigned, his natural capacity
was limited, as were his literary attainments. He understood the
first principles of Latin and Greek grammar, but abstract views of a
subject, the logical arrangement of it, and the bringing out of his
views in a regular and consecutive form, were qualifications of
which he was destitute. When on his trials before the Presbytery he
delivered a homily, on which all bestowed most unqualified
approbation. It was clear and concise, and, in short, a masterly
performance. But Mr. John Ross of Logie, one of their number, who
well knew the extent of Mr. Mnnro's abilities, and the very much
more than mere help which he received from his parish minister,
added with much emphasis, after highly commending the performance,
"But, young man, is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this?"
Soon after being licensed, about the year 1812, be was appointed
missionary-minister of Dirlot, and it was during his ministry there
that he regularly assisted my father when he annually administered
the sacrament at Kildonan. He was missionary at Dirlot when I was at
Stempster, and I noticed that although he was universally respected
by the pious among the lower classes, yet, by the higher and
better-educated who knew not the truth, he was known in Caithness by
the epithet of "Munro of the hills." He was elected minister of the
Gaelic Chapel, Edinburgh, on Mr. Macdonald's translation to Urquhart,
or Ferintosh, as successor to the eminent Charles Calder. On the
death of Mr. Cameron at a very advanced age, he was, as the choice
of the people, presented to the church and parish of Halkirk.
Mr. Duncan MacGillivray, now of Lairg,
was a near relative of the venerated Dr. Angus Mackintosh of Tain.
[Dr. Angus Mackintosh was translated from the Gaelic Chapel,
Glasgow, and admitted minister of 'fain 11th May, 1797; he died 3rd
Oct., 1831, in the 68th year of his age and 39th of his ministry. He
was one of the originators and secretary of the Northern missionary
Society. In 1800 he married Anne, youngest daughter of Mr. Ch.
Calder, minister of Urguhart. She died 23rd Jan., 1857. He was
succeeded by his son Dr. Charles Calder Mackintosh, who was ordained
(assist. and sue.) 19th June, 1929; translated to Free Church,
Dunoon, in 1854; and who died at Pau 24th Nov., 1868, in the 62nd
year of his age and 41st of his ministry. (See his Memoir and
Sermons, published and edited by the late Rev. William Taylor).—ED.]
He was a native of the parish of Hoy, Inverness-shire, and an
original member of the Northern Missionary Society, being present at
its first meeting held at Tain in 1800. The first charge to which he
was appointed on being licensed to preach was that of Achness. I
have even now a distinct remembrance of seeing him at Kildonan on
his way to enter upon his labours. My father and step-mother were
from home, and he stepped in upon us on the evening of a raw, cold,
misty day in spring. He was the immediate successor of the late Mr.
Gordon of Loth, and like him was a frequent visitor at my father's
when he preached at Ach-na-h'uaighe, and was always his assistant
during sacramental occasions. During his visits to Kildonan he had
often been my instructor in Latin. Both as a preacher and a
well-educated man Mr. :McGillivray was highly respectable. His
sermons were well-composed, and exhibited throughout clear,
comprehensive and impressive views of divine truth. His delivery was
peculiar. He had a sort of paralytic affection in his throat which,
at frequent intervals, interrupted his elocution, not only during
the utterance of a sentence, but even of a single word, and he had a
rather awkward habit of holding up his left hand, folded almost
double, close at the root of his ear. Soon after his settlement at
Achness, which was then a most populous tract of country, he married
a daughter of Mr. Robert (ordon, then tacksman of the farm of
Achness, a very handsome, high-spirited woman, by whom lie had sons
and daughters. On the death of the late Mr. Wm. Mackenzie, minister
of Assynt, Mr. MacGillivray was, by the patron, appointed as his
successor. His appointment to Assynt was a personal arrangement
between himself and Lord and Lady Stafford. The people of Assynt
were not consulted in the matter. They, however, took the liberty of
thinking for themselves in the case. They had formed a strong
attachment to the late venerable Mr. John Kennedy, minister of
Killearnan, who was still officiating among them at that time in
capacity of assistant to the late Mr. William .Mackenzie. The
parishioners wished to have Mr. Kennedy settled among them as Mr.
Mackenzie's successor. Their request, however, was peremptorily
refused, and Mr. MacGillivray was appointed. The Presbytery of
Dornoch, therefore, met on an appointed day to settle the presentee.
They reckoned, however, without their host. As they were all
assembled in the manse parlour, with the exception of my father and
Mr. Keith, and were about to proceed with the settlement, their
attention was directed to a strong body of Assynt Highlanders, each
armed with a cudgel, who presented themselves before the manse
windows. As if significantly to express the purpose of their
assemblage, each pulled off his neckcloth with one hand, and wielded
his cudgel with the other, and loudly demanded the compearance of
the Presbytery. The members resolved to go out and remonstrate with
the rioters, but it would not do. The mob which now assembled told
them through their leaders that the only way by which they could
escape broken bones was that each should get to his nag with all
convenient speed, nor slack bridle till they had crossed the
boundaries of the parish, for that they were determined that the
presentee should not on that day, nor on any other day, be settled
minister of Assynt. To this peremptory condition the Presbytery
members were compelled to submit, and each and all of them, together
with the presentee, his wife, family and furniture, were sent back
the way they came, closely followed by the men of Assynt. This
affray was productive of consequences obstructive to the subsequent
usefulness of fir MacGillivray in the parish. The ringleaders were
discovered, tried before the Justiciary Court at Inverness, and, in
spite of the earnest entreaties of their pastor, sentenced to nine
months' imprisonment. Shortly thereafter, the parish of Lairg
becoming vacant by the translation of .air. Angus Kennedy to Dornoch
on the death of Dr. Bethune, Mr. MacGillivray was settled minister
of that parish, with the unanimous consent of the parishioners, and
there, as I write, he still labours at a very advanced age. [Mr.
Duncan MacGillivray, A.M., was ordained minister of Assynt at a
meeting of Presbytery held at Dornoch on 24th Aug., 1813, and was
translated to Lairg 12th Aug., 1817. He was a native of
Inverness-shire. His two sons, Angus Mackintosh and Alexander, have
been ministers of the Free Church of Scotland. He died 11th Feb.,
1849, in the 48th year of his ministry.—ED.]
For the first half-year after my
appointment to the Achness mission I remained at Kildonan, and went
to both stations to preach almost every Sabbath. Indeed my
commission from the Assembly's Committee of the Royal Bounty had
not, from some unaccountable delay, been forwarded; and therefore,
although I preached in the mission, I was not ordained by the
Presbytery until they had received my written appointment, which was
not till the month of November, 1816, nearly six months after my
return from Lochearron. It came at last, and I went to Creicb, where
the Presbytery held a meeting. I was then ordained by Dr. Bethune,
the Moderator, to the pastoral charge of the mission at Achness. I
went home that evening with my ecclesiastical father, and, if I
remember well, preached for him at Dornoch on the following Sabbath.
I yet remember my first visit to Achness
to preach my first sermon there. I lodged at Breacachadh, in the
parish of Kildonan, on the Saturday evening. Thomas Gordon was then
tacksman of that farm. He was the lineal descendant of a race of
Cordons transplanted from Banffshire to Sutherland during the days
of Adam, Lord of Aboyne, who, on his marriage with Elizabeth,
heiress of Sutherland, became titular Earl of Sutherland. I was long
and intimately acquainted with Thomas Gordon, and had also seen his
father, old William Breacachadh. The Gordous of Breacachadh and of
Ach-na-moine were of the same race. Their original ancestor, a
Thomas Gordon, was a man of gigantic strength. His descendant,
William Gordon, was a low-statured, broad-shouldered, square-built
man, the model of a Highlander, with keen black eyes, and most
respectable and consistent in point of character, but peculiar in
temper, and of a somewhat sordid disposition. About eight or ten
miles farther on, and in the same parish, resided a neighbour,
George Mackay, Halmindary, already mentioned, a man of wit, humour,
and piety, who not unfrequently indulged his native poignancy of wit
and sarcasm at the expense of William of Breacachadh. Old William
was a man of frugal habits, and George of Halmindary had all the
thoughtless prodigality of the Sutherland Highlanders. Both strictly
maintained the terms of good neighbourhood with each other; but
although they often exchanged the rights of hospitality, they never
met or parted without their "miffs." Halmindary could not possibly
keep his caustic humour against Breacachadh within the bounds of
civility when they met, and this Breacachadh both felt and resented.
With Thomas of Breacachadh I lodged on the Saturday evening before
my first Sabbath at Achness. He provided me with a horse, and
accompanied me the next morning, after an early breakfast, to the
place where the congregation met. The rural church, or meeting-house
as it was called, at Achess was at the time almost ruinous, and
until it was repaired the people were obliged to meet in the open
air. After addressing them both in Gaelic and English, I returned in
the evening to Breacachadh. The terms of my commission enjoined upon
me to preach two Sabbaths successively at Achness, and the third at
Ach-nah'uaighe. My incumbency at Achness lasted for three years. My
reminiscences of that period involve, first of all, a description of
the nature and the locality of my ministerial labours.
Missions, particularly in the Highlands
and Islands of Scotland, were of very long standing, for I was the
seventh and last in succession of the missionaries appointed to
officiate at Achness. My aboriginal predecessor in office was the
revered and truly pious George Munro of Farr, married to my
grand-aunt [Mr. George Munro was ordained successor to Mr. Skeldoch
as minister of Farr 23rd May, 1754. On 16th December of the same
year he married Barbara, daughter of Mr. John Mackay, minister of
Lairg. She is said to have been a woman of masculine understanding,
but of feminine amiability and Christian piety; while Mr. Munro was
a guileless character, but an honoured sere ant of the Lord. He died
1st May, 1719, aged 74, and in the 25th year of his ministry.—Ed.]
The object of the Church in establishing these missions was to
supply the almost total lack of ministerial service in the extensive
parishes of the north. Parishes of forty, fifty, and even sixty
miles in length are there of frequent occurrence, and both the
larger and smaller parishes are absurdly divided. The principle
adopted in settling the bounds was not, evidently, to take into
account the distance from, or proximity of, the population to any
place of worship erected for them, but solely so as to include the
landed property of the heritors of the district. This was called a
parish, and in many cases it exceeded in extent many whole counties
in the south. Missions were established for the accommodation of
such of the parishioners for whom it was a physical impossibility to
attend the parish church. For the support of the
missionary-ministers there were two sources of funds, the Christian
Knowledge Society and the Assembly's Committee for managing the
Royal Bounty. The Christian Knowledge Society was established by
Royal Charter in the year 1701, and gradually, I presume, it
extended its efficiency over the sphere of its labours, establishing
itself as it best could. To send forth ministers, catechists, and
schoolmasters, each in their respective departments of moral and
religious usefulness in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, was
the peculiar province of this Society. It began its labours when
moral and religious education, as a popular and efficient system,
was but little understood. The management of the Society, therefore,
was not progressive; and although its schools and missions were, at
the first outset, productive of considerable benefit to the rude and
benighted Highlanders, yet upon the whole it was very inefficient,
and at the time I write it is almost defunct. [The S.P.C.K. was at
first supported by persons of all Protestant denominations in the
country. But in 18}S the Court of Session decided that all its
agents must belong to the Church which was established by law. Since
this decision, the funds of the Society have been diverted from
education to the support of missionary teachers and catechists
belonging to that particular denomination. The Commissioners on
Educational Endowments have lately however, prepared a scheme by
which it is to be restored to its original and catholic
constitution. (Statement by the Rev. J. C. McPhail of
Edinburgh.)--Ed.] The Assembly's Committee for managing the Royal
Bounty was of more recent origin, but was evidently intended for a
similar purpose to that of the Society. A grant of £^2000 annually
from the last Sovereigns of the House of Hanover was presented in
due form by their commissioner to the General Assembly, in order to
be bestowed in sums of from £45 to £50 upon missionary or itinerant
ministers in the five northern counties. Achness was one of the
stations. The minister's right or authority to enter upon his
duties, and to draw the salary, which was £:50, was the Committee's
letter, called his "commission," which contained instructions
directing him how to proceed. He had to keep a journal of his
preachings every Sabbath, whether within the bounds of his own
charge or elsewhere, and to send it up to Edinburgh half-yearly,
duly attested by the Presbyteries within whose bounds his charge
lay.
The mission at Achness was, in regard to
locality and surface, of very great extent. It lay within the hounds
of the neighbouring presbyteries of Tongue and Dornoch,
comprehending the extreme heights of the parish of Farr, from
Moudale down to nearly the middle of Strathnaver, towards the
north-west, and from Halmindary down to Kinbrace, in the parish of
Kildonan, towards the south-east. A very considerable portion of the
population had already been removed by the Stafford family, and
their tenements given to sheep-farmers, so that the peopled part of
that vast district was comparatively limited. The whole population
in the Strathnaver district lay apart from the missionary's house,
being divided from it by the Naver, a river of such volume and
breadth in the winter months as completely to preclude the
attendance of the people at their wonted place of worship during
that season. That part of the mission which lay within the parish of
Kildonan extended from the boundary line between the parishes to
Kinbrace and Borrobol, on either side of Loch Badenloch and of the
river Helmisdale which issued from it. The population here lived,
like that of Strathnaver, in detached townships. Those in
Strathuaver were Mondale, Tobeg, Grumore, Grumbeg, Ceaunachyle, Syre,
Langdale, Skaill, and Carnachadh—all possessed by small tenants, and
lying on the north and west banks of the loch and river of Naver.
Those in Kildonan were Gairnsary, Breacachadh, Badenloch,
Bad'chlamhain, Ach-na-moine, Ach-ua-h'uaighe, Dalcharn, Borrobol,
and Kinbrace. All these townships were more or less densely peopled,
and lay alternately either at the head of Loch Badenloch or on each
side of the shores of the lake and of the river lelmisdale. The
great majority of the population was to be found in the Strathnaver
district; arid, consequently, it was incumbent on the missionary,
for once that he preached at Ach-na-h'uaighe in Kildonan, to preach
two Sabbaths successively at Achness in the parish of Farr. There
were three more townships in the Kildonan district, viz.,
Griamachdary, Knockfin, and Strathbeg.
The rural church at Ach-na-h'uaighe I
have described in a previous chapter; that at Achness was scarcely
better. When I entered on the duties it was in a wofully dilapidated
state, but it was soon afterwards repaired by the people, and made
merely habitable. It consisted of a long low house, with a large
wing stretching out from the north side of it. The walls were built
of stone and clay, the roof covered with divot and straw, and the
seats were forms set at random, without any regularity, on the damp
floor. The house of the minister was erected at the foot of a steep
brae, and in the middle of a fen. Its walls were of stone and lime;
it was thatched with divot and straw, and contained four apartments,
a kitchen in an outer wing, a parlour with a bed in the wall, a
closet, and a bedroom. The minister also rented, for the sum of £1
annually, a small farm from the sheep-farmers, Messrs Marshall and
Atkinson, which afforded corn, straw, and hay for a horse and two
cows. The place of Achness itself, once densely peopled, was in my
time entirely depopulated, and the only one left was a miller, who
resided at its northern extremity.
The people of the districts in both
parishes were much fewer during my ministry than under that of my
predecessors. I mention this particularly in reference to what has
been called one of the Sutherland clearances, which took place in
1815, nearly a year before I went to Achuess. A vast extent of
moorland within the parishes of Farr and Kildonan was let to Mr.
Sellar, factor for the Stafford family, by his superior, as a sheep
or store farm; and the measure he employed to eject the poor, but
original, possessors of the lands, was fire. At Rhimisdale, a
township crowded with small tenants, a corn-mill was set on fire in
order effectually to scare the people from the place before the term
for eviction arrived. Firing or injuring a corn-mill, on which the
sustenance of the lieges so much depends, is or was by our ancient
Scottish statutes punishable by imprisonment, or civil banishment,
and on this point of law fir. Sellar was ultimately tried. The
Sheriff-Substitute, Mr. R. MacKid, hearing of the case, proceeded in
his official capacity to the spot to make a precognition of the
circumstances. The Sheriff's enquiry fully established the fact, and
elicited many aggravating particulars, so that he considered himself
called upon to issue a warrant for Sellar's apprehension and
incarceration in Dornoch jail, and to prepare the case for the
Inverness Circuit Court. That MacKid was at the time not on good
terms with Mr. Sellar, was well known. But though his procedure may
have seemed harsh, it did not alter the particulars of the case. The
trial took place, but the final issue of it was only what might have
been expected when a case came to be determined between the poor, as
the party offended, and the rich as the lordly and heartless
aggressor. Sellar was acquitted, while Sheriff MacKid was heavily
censured. Indeed, the latter was threatened with an action for
damages at the factor's instance. To ward off this blow, MacKid
threw himself on the other's mercy—a submission which was readily
accepted, as Sellar was only too happy to escape incurring any
further public odium. The whole matter, however, left a stain on the
memory of the perpetrators which will never be removed.
After residing for nearly seven months
at my father's house, I went, about the beginning of the winter of
1816, to reside permanently at the manse of Achness. My furniture
was scanty and my hooks were few. Some articles of furniture I got
from the manse of Kildonan, and some, such as a bed and bedding, a
carpet, and some chairs, I purchased at the roup of Kirktown in
Golspie. For, consequent on the proceedings in Mr. Sellar's case,
MacKid felt that he could no longer act as Sheriff, nor very
comfortably dwell at his farm of Kirktown, which he held in lease
from the Stafford family. He therefore resigned his office as
Sheriff-Substitute, and his Iease as tacksman of the farm, selling
off his farm stock and household furniture by auction. He went to
reside at Thurso, and practised as he could in his legal profession,
but, without much success. His wife died there, and he soon
afterwards returned with his family to Fortrose, where, having lost
all his money, he died at a very advanced age. |
