SUTHERLAND
DONALD MACLEOD'S "Gloomy Memories,
(pdf)" originally appeared as a series of Letters in the Edinburgh Weekly
Chronicle. These letters were afterwards published separately in a
thick pamphlet which has long become so rare in this country that no
money will procure it. After a search of more than twenty years, we
were fortunate enough to pick up a copy of the enlarged Canadian
edition in Nova Scotia, during a visit there, in 1879. The Letters
originally published in this country, are given in the following
pages in the form in which they first appeared, with the exception
of a slight toning down in two or three instances.
LETTER I
I AM a native of
Sutherlandshire, and remember when the inhabitants of that country
lived comfortably and happily, when the mansions of proprietors and
the abodes of factors, magistrates, and ministers, were the seats of
honour, truth, and good example—when people of quality were indeed
what they were styled, the friends and benefactors of all who lived
upon their domains. But all this is changed. Alas, alas! I have
lived to see calamity upon calamity overtake the Sutherlanders. For
five successive years, on or about the term day, has scarcely
anything been seen but removing the inhabitants in the most cruel
and unfeeling rnanner, and burning the houses which they and their
forefathers had occupied from time immemorial. The country was
darkened by the smoke of the burnings, and the descendants of those
who drew their swords at Bannockburn, Sheriffmuir, and Killicrankie—the
children and nearest relations of those who sustained the honour of
the British name in many a bloody field—the heroes of Egypt,
Corunna, Toulouse, Salamanca, and Waterloo—were ruined, trampled
upon, dispersed, and compelled to seek an asylum across the
Atlantic; while those who remained from inability to emigrate,
deprived of all the comforts of life, became paupers beggars—a
disgrace to the nation whose freedom and honour many of them had
maintained by their valour and cemented with their blood.
To these causes the
destitution and misery that exists in Sutherlandshire are to he
ascribed; misery as great, if not the greatest to he found in any
part of the Highlands, and that not the fruit of indolence or
improvidence, as some would allege, but the inevitable result of the
avarice and tyranny of the landlords and factors for the last thirty
or forty years; of treatment, I presume to say, without a parallel
in the history of this nation. I know that a great deal has been
done to mitigate the sufferings of the Highlanders some years back,
both by Government ail and public .subscriptions, but the unhappy
county of Sutherland was excluded from the benefits derived from
these sources, by means of false statements and public speeches,
made by hired agents, or by those whose interest it was to conceal
the misery and destitution in the country of which themselves were
the authors. Thus the Sutherlandshire sufferers have been shut out
from receiving the assistance afforded by Government or by private
individuals; and owing to the thraldom and subjugation in which this
once brave and happy people are to factors, magistrates, and
ministers, they durst scarce whimper a complaint, much less say
plainly, "Thus and thus have you done".
On the 20th of last
April, a meeting of noblemen and gentlemen, connected with different
districts of Scotland, was held in the British Hotel, Edinburgh, for
the purpose of making inquiry into the misery and destitution
prevailing in Scotland, and particularly in the Highlands, with a
view to discover the causes and discuss means for meeting the
prevailing evil. Gentlemen were appointed to make the necessary
inquiry, and a committee named, with which these gentlemen were to
communicate. At this meeting a Sutherlandshire proprietor made such
representations regarding the inhabitants of that county, that,
relying, I suppose, on his mere assertions, the proposed inquiry has
never been carried into that district. Under these circumstances, I,
who have been largely a sufferer, and a spectator of the sufferings
of multitudes of my countrymen, would have felt myself deeply
culpable if I kept silence, and did not take means to lay before the
committee and the public the information of which I am possessed, to
put the benevolent on their guard respecting the men who undertake
to pervert, if they cannot stifle, the inquiry as to the causes and
extent of distress in the shire of Sutherland. With a view to
discharging this incumbent duty, I published a few remarks, signed
"A Highlander," in the Edinburgh Weekly Journal of 29th May last, on
the aforesaid proprietor's speech; to which he made a reply,
accusing me of singular ignorance and misrepresentation, and
endeavouring to exonerate himself. Another letter has since appeared
in the same paper, signed, "A Sutherlandshire Tenant," denying my
assertions and challenging me to prove them by stating facts. To
meet this challenge, and to let these parties know that I am not so
ignorant as they would represent; and also to afford information to
the before-mentioned committee; it being impossible for those
gentlemen to apply an adequate remedy till they know the real cause
and nature of the disease, I addressed a second letter to the editor
of the Weekly Journal; but, to my astonishment, it was refused
insertion; through what influence I am not prepared to say. I have,
in consequence, been subjected to much reflection and obloquy for
deserting a cause which would be so much benefited by public
discussion; and for failing to substantiate charges so publicly
made. I have, therefore, now to request, that, through the medium of
your valuable and impartial paper, the public may be made acquainted
with the real state of the case; and I pledge myself not only to
meet the two opponents mentioned, but to produce and substantiate
such a series of appalling facts, as will sufficiently account for
the distress prevailing in Sutherlandshire; and, I trust, have a
tendency towards its mitigation.
LETTER II.
PREVIOUS to redeeming
my pledge to bring before the Public a series of facts relating to
the more recent oppressions and expatriation of the unfortunate
inhabitants of Sutherlandshire, it is necessary to take a brief
retrospective glance at the original causes.
Down from the feudal
times, the inhabitants of the hills and straths of Sutherlandshire,
in a state of transition from vassalage to tenancy, looked upon the
farms they occupied from their ancestors as their own, though
subject to the arrangements as to rent, duties and services imposed
by the chief in possession, to whom, though his own title might be
equivocal, they habitually looked up with a degree of clannish
veneration. Every thing was done "to please the Laird". In this kind
of patriarchial dominion on the one side, and obedience and
confidence on the other, did the late tenantry and their progenitors
experience much happiness, and a degree of congenial comfort and
simple pastoral enjoyment. But the late war and its consequences
interfered with this happy state of things, and hence a foundation
was laid for all the suffering and depopulation which has followed.
This has not been peculiar to Sutherlandshire the general plan of
almost all the Highland proprietors of that period being to get rid
of the original inhabitants, and turn the land into sheep farms,
though from peculiar circumstances this plan was there carried into
effect with more revolting and wholesale severity than in any of the
surrounding counties.
The first attempt at
a general Ocarina was partially made in Ross-shire, about the
beginning of the present century; but from the resistance of the
tenantry and other causes, it has never been carried into general
operation. The same was more or less the case in other counties.
Effects do not occur without cause, nor do men become tyrants and
monsters of cruelty all at once. Self-interest, real or imaginary,
first prompts; the moral boundary is overstepped, the oppressed
offer either passive or active resistance, and, in the arrogance of
power, the strong resort to such means as will effect their purpose,
reckless of consequences, and enforcing what they call the rights of
property, utterly neglect its duties. I do not pretend to represent
the late Duchess or Duke of Sutherlandshire in particular, as
destitute of the common attributes of humanity, however atrocious
may have been the acts perpetrated in their name, or by their
authority. They were generally absentees, and while they gave-in to
the general clearing scheme, I have no doubt they wished it to be
carried into effect with as little hardship as possible. But their
Prompters and underlings pursued a more reckless course, and, intent
only on their own selfish ends, deceived these high personages,
representing the people as slothful and rebellious, while, as they
pretended, everything necessary was done for their accommodation.
I have mentioned
above that the late war and its consequences laid the foundation of
the evil complained of. Great Britain with her immense naval and
military establishments, being in a great measure shut out from
foreign supplies, and in a state of hostility or non-intercourse
with all Europe and North America, almost all the necessaries of
life had to be drawn from our own soil. Hence, its whole powers of
production were required to supply the immense and daily increasing
demand; and while the agricultural portions of the country were
strained to yield an increase of grain, the more northern and
mountainous districts were looked to for additional supplies of
annual food. Hence, also, all the speculations to get rid of the
human inhabitants of the Highlands, and replace them with cattle and
sheep for the English market. At the conclusion of the war, these
effects were about to cease with their cause, but the corn laws, and
other food taxes then interfered, and the excluding of foreign
animal food altogether, and grain till it was at a famine price,
caused the increasing population to press against home produce, so
as still to make it the interest of the Highland lairds to prefer
cattle to human beings, and to encourage speculators with capital
from England and the south of Scotland to take the lands over the
heads of the original tenantry. Thus Highland wrongs were continued,
and annually augmented, till the mass of guilt on the one hand, and
of suffering on the other, became so rent as almost to exceed
description or belief. Hence the difficulty of bringing it fully
before the public, especially as those interested in suppressing
inquiry are numerous, powerful, and unsparing in the use of every
influence to stop the mouths of the sufferers. Almost all the new
tenants in Sutherlandshire have been made justices of the peace, or
otherwise armed with authority, and can thus, under colour of law,
commit violence and oppression whenever they find it convenient—the
poor people having no redress and scarce daring even to complain.
The clergy also, whose duty it is to denounce the oppressors, and
aid the oppressed, have all, the whole seventeen parish ministers in
Sutherlandshire, with one exception, found their account in abetting
the wrongdoers, exhorting the people to quiet submission, helping to
stifle their cries, telling them that all their sufferings came
from, the hand of God, and was a just punishment for their sins! In what manner these reverend gentlemen were benefited by the
change, and bribed thus to desert the cause of the people, I shall
explain as I proceed.
The whole county,
with the exception of a comparatively small part of one parish, held
by Mr. Dempster of Skibo, and similar portions on the outskirts of
the county held by two or three other proprietors, is now in the
hands of the Sutherland family, who, very rarely, perhaps only once
in four or five years, visit their Highland estates. Hence the
impunity afforded to the actors in the scenes of devastation and
cruelty—the wholesale expulsion of the people, and lulling down and
burning their habitations, which latter proceeding was peculiar to
Sutherlandshire. In my subsequent communications I shall produce a
selection of such facts and incidents, as can he supported by
sufficient testimony, to many of which I was an eye-witness, or was
otherwise cognizant of them. I have been, with my family, for many
years, removed, and at a distance from those scenes, and have no
personal malice to gratify, my only motive being a desire to
vindicate my ill-used countrymen from the aspersions cast upon them,
to draw public attention to their wrongs, and if possible, to bring
about a fair inquiry, to be conducted by disinterested men, as to
the real causes, of their long-protracted misery and destitution, in
order that the public sympathies may be awakened in their behalf,
and something effected for their relief. With these observations I
now conclude, and in my next letter I will enter upon my narration
of a few of such facts as can be fully authenticated by living
testimony.
LETTER III
IN my last letter, I
endeavoured to trace the causes that led to the general clearing and
consequent distress in Sutherlandshire, which dates its commencement
from the year 1807. Previous to that period, partial removals had
taken place, on the estates of Lord Rely, Mr. Honeyman of Armidale,
and others : but these removals were under ordinary and
comparatively favourable circumstances. Those who were ejected from
their farms, were accommodated with smaller portions of land, and
those who chose to emigrate had means in their power to do so, by
the sale of their cattle, which then fetched an extraordinary high
price. But in the year above mentioned, the system commenced on the
Duchess of Sutherland's property ; about go families were removed
from the parishes of Farr and Larg. These people were, however, in
some degree provided for, by giving them smaller lots of land, but
many of these lots were at a distance of from io to r miles, so that
the people had to remove their cattle and furniture thither, leaving
the crops on the ground behind. Watching this crop from trespass of
the cattle of the incoming tenants, and removing it in the autumn,
was attended with great difficulty and loss. Besides, there was also
much personal suffering, from their having to pull down their houses
and carry away the timber of them, to erect houses on their new
possessions, which houses they had to inhabit immediately on being,
covered in, and in the meantime, to live and sleep in the open air,
except a few, who might he fortunate enough to yet an unoccupied
barn, or shed, from some of their charitable new-come neighbours.
The effects of these
circumstances on the health of the aged and infirm, and on the women
and children, may be readily conceived— some lost their lives, and
others contracted diseases that stuck to them for life.
During the year 1809,
in the parishes of Dornoch, Rogart, Loth, Clyne, and Golspie, an
extensive removal took place; several hundred families were turned
out, but under circumstances of greater severity than the preceding.
Every means were resorted to, to discourage the people, and to
persuade them to give up their holdings quietly, and quit the
country; and to those who could not be induced to do so, scraps of
moor, and bog lands, were offered in Dornoch moor, and Brora links,
on which it was next to impossible to exist, in order that they may
be scared into going entirely away. At this time, the estate was
under the management of Mr. Young, a corn-dealer, as chief, and Mr.
Patrick Sellar, a writer, as under-Factor, the latter of whom will
make a conspicuous figure in nay future communications. These
gentlemen were both from Morayshire; and, in order to favour their
own country people, and get rid of the natives, the former were
constantly employed in all the improvements and public works under
their direction, while the latter were taken at inferior wages, and
only when strangers could not be had.
Thus, a large portion
of the people of these five parishes were, in the course of two or
three years, almost entirely rooted out, and those few who took the
miserable allotments above mentioned, and some of their descendants,
continue to exist on them in great poverty. Among these were the
widows and orphans of those heads of families who had been drowned
in the same year, in going to attend a fair, when upwards of one
hundred individuals lost their lives, while crossing the ferry
between Sutherland and 'fain. These destitute creatures were obliged
to accept of any spot which afforded them a residence, from
inability to go elsewhere.
From this time till
1812 the process of ejection was carried on annually, in a greater
or less degree, and during this period the estates of Gordonbush and
Uppet were added, by purchase, to the ducal property, and in the
subsequent years, till 1829, the whole of the county, with the small
exceptions before mentioned, had passed into the hands of this great
family.
In the year 1811 a
new era of depopulation commenced summonses of removal were served
on large portions of the inhabitants. The lands were divided into
extensive lots, and advertised to be let for sheep farms.
Strangers were seen
daily traversing the country, viewing these lots, previous to
bidding for them. They appeared to be in great fear of rough
treatment from the inhabitants whom they were about to supersede;
but the event proved they had no cause ; they were uniformly treated
with civility, and even hospitality, thus affording no excuse for
the measures of severity to which the factors and their adherents
afterwards had recourse. However, the pretext desired was soon found
in in apparently concerted plan. A person from the south, of the
name of Reid, a manager on one of the sheep farms, raised an alarm
that he had been pursued by some of the natives of Kildonan, and
lout in bodily fear. The factors eagerly jumped as this trumped-up
story; they immediately swore-in from sixty to one hundred
retainers, and the new inhabitants, as special constables; trimmed
and charged the cannon at Dunrobin Castle, which had reposed in
silence since the last defeat of the unfortunate Stuarts. Messengers
were then dispatched, warning the people to attend at the castle at
a certain hour, under the pretence of making amicable arrangements.
Accordingly, large numbers prepared to obey the summons, ignorant of
their enemies' intentions, till, when about six miles from the
castle, a large body of them got a hint of their danger from some
one in the secret, on which they called a halt and held a
consuItation, when it was resolved to pass on to the Inn at Golspie,
and there await the recontre with the factors. The latter were much
disappointed at this derangement of their plans; but on their
arrival with the sheriff, constables, and others, they told the
people, to their astonishment, that a number of them were to be
apprehended, and sent to Dornoch Jail, on suspicion of an attempt to
take Mr. Reid's life The people, with one voice, declared their
innocence, and that they would not suffer any of their number to be
imprisoned on such a pretence. without further provocation, the
sheriff proceeded to read the riot act, a thing quite new and
unintelligible to the poor Sutherlanders so long accustomed to bear
their wrongs patiently; however, they immediately dispersed and
returned to their homes in peace. The factors, having now found the
pretext desired, mounted their horses and galloped to the castle in
pretended alarm, sought protection under the guns of their fortress,
and sent an express to Fort George for a military force to suppress
the rebellion in Sutherlandshire! The 21st Regiment of foot (Irish)
was accordingly ordered to proceed by forced marches, night and day,
a distance of fifty miles, with artillery, and cart-loads of
ammunition. On their arrival, some of them were heard to declare
they would now have revenge on the Sutherlanders for the carnage of
their countrymen at Tara-hill and Pallynamuck; but they were
disappointed, for they found no rebels to cope with; so that, after
having made a few prisoners, who were all liberated on a
precognition being taken, they were ordered away to their barracks.
The people, meantime, dismayed and spirit-broken at the array of
power brought against them, and seeing nothing but enemies on every
side, even in those from whom they should have had comfort and
succour, quietly submitted to their fate. The clergy, too, were
continually preaching submission, declaring these proceedings were
fore-ordained of God, and denouncing the vengeance of Heaven and
eternal damnation on those who should presume to make the least
resistance. No wonder the poor Highlanders quailed under such
influences; and the result was, that large districts of the parishes
before mentioned were dispossessed at the May term, 1812.
The Earl of Selkirk
hearing of these proceedings, came personally into Sutherlandshire,
and by fair promises of encouragement, and other allurements,
induced a number of the distressed outcasts to enter into an
arrangement with him, to emigrate to his estates on the Red River,
North America. Accordingly, a whole shipful of them went thither;
but on their arrival, after a tedious and disastrous passage, they
found themselves deceived and deserted by his lordship, and left to
their fate in an inclement wilderness, without protection against
the savages, who plundered them on their arrival, and, finally
massacred them all, with the exception of a few who escaped with
their lives, and travelled across trackless wilds till they at last
arrived in Canada.
This is a brief
recital of the proceedings up to 1813; and these were the only acts
of riot and resistance that ever took place in Sutherlandshire.
LETTER IV
Iv the month of
March, 1814, a great number of the inhabitants of the parishes of
Farr and Kildonan were summoned to give up their farms at the May
term following, and, in order to ensure and hasten their removal
with their cattle, in a few days after, the greatest part of the
heath pasture was set fire to and burnt, by order of Mr. Sellar, the
factor, who had taken these lands for himself. It is necessary to
explain the effects of this proceeding. In the spring, especially
when fodder is scarce, as was the case in the above year, the
Highland cattle depend almost solely on the heather. As soon, too,
as the grass begins to sprout about the roots of the bushes, the
animals get a good bite, and are thus kept in tolerable condition.
Deprived of this resource by the burning, the cattle were generally
left without food, and this being the period of temporary peace,
during Buonaparte's residence in Elba, there was little demand for
good cattle, much less for these poor starving animals, who roamed
about over their burnt pasture till a great part of them were lost,
or sold for a mere trifle. The arable parts of the land were cropped
by the outgoing tenants, as is customary, but the fences being
mostly destroyed by the burning, the cattle of the incoming tenant
were continually trespassing throughout the summer and harvest, and
those who remained to look after the crop had no shelter ; even
watching being disallowed, and the people were hunted by the new
herdsmen and their clogs from watching; their own corn ! As the
spring had been severe, so the harvest was wet, cold, and disastrous
for the poor people, who, under every difficulty, were endeavouring
to secure the residue of their crops. The barns, kilns, and mills,
except a few necessary to the new tenant, had, as well as the
houses, been burnt or otherwise destroyed and no shelter left,
except on the other side of the river, now overflowing, its banks
from the continual rains ; so that, after all their labour and
privations, the people lost nearly the whole of their crops, as they
had already lost their cattle, and were thus entirely ruined.
But I must now go
back to the May term and attempt to give some account of the
ejection of the inhabitants; for to give anything like an adequate
description I and not capable. If I were, its horrors would exceed
belief.
The houses had been
all built, not by the landlord as in the low country, but by the
tenants or by their ancestors, and, consequently, were their
property by right, if not by law. They were timbered chiefly with
bog fir, which makes excellent roofing but is very inflammable : by
immemorial usage this species of timber was considered the property
of the tenant on whose lands it was found. To the upland timber, for
which the laird or the factor had to be asked, the laird might lay
some claim, but not so to the other sort, and in every house there
was generally a part of both.
In former removals
the tenants had been allowed to carry away this timber to erect
houses on their new allotments but now a more summary mode was
adopted, by setting fire to the houses ! The able-bodied men were by
this time away after their cattle or otherwise engaged at a
distance, so that the immediate sufferers by the general
house-burning that now commenced were the aged and infirm, the women
and children. As the lands were now in the hands of the factor
himself, and were to be occupied as sheep-farms, and as the people
made no resistance, they expected at least some indulgence, in the
way of permission to occupy their houses and other buildings till
they could gradually remove, and meanwhile look after their growing
crops. `Their consternation, was, therefore, the greater when,
immediately after the May term day, and about two months after they
had received summonses of removal, a commencement was made to pull
down and set fire to the houses over their heads! The old people,
women, and others, then began to try to preserve the timber which
they were entitled to consider as their own. But the devastators
proceeded with the greatest celerity, demolishing all before them,
and when they had overthrown the houses in a large tract of country,
they ultimately set fire to the wreck. So that timber, furniture,
and every other article that could not be instantly removed, was
consumed by fire, or otherwise utterly destroyed.
These proceedings
were carried on with the greatest rapidity as well as with most
reckless cruelty. The cries of the victims, the confusion, the
despair and horror painted on the countenances of the one party, and
the exulting, ferocity of the other, beggar all description. In
these scenes Mr. Sellar was present, and apparently, (as was sworn
by several witnesses at his subsequent trial,) ordering and
directing the whole. Many deaths ensued from alarm, from fatigue,
and cold; the people being instantly deprived of shelter, and left
to the mercy of the elements. Some old men took to the Woods and
precipices, wandering about in a state approaching to, or of
absolute insanity, and several of them, in this situation, lived
only a few days. Pregnant women were taken with premature labour,
and several children did not long survive their sufferings. To these
scenes I was an eyewitness, and am ready to substantiate the truth
of my statements, not only by my own testimony, but by that of many
others who were present at the time.
In such a scene of
general devastation it is almost useless to particularize the cases
of individuals—the suffering was great and universal. I shall,
however, just notice a very few of the extreme cases which occur to
lily recollection, to most of which I was an eye-witness. John
Machay's wife, Ravigill, in attempting to pull down her house, in
the absence of her husband, to preserve the timber, fell through the
roof. She was, in consequence, taken with premature labour, and in
that state, was exposed to the open air and the view of the by-standers.
Donald Munro, Garvott, lying in a fever, was turned out of his house
and exposed to the elements. Donald Macbeath, an infirm and
bed-ridden old man, had the house unroofed over him, and was, in
that state, exposed to wind and rain till death put a period to his
sufferings. I was present at the pulling down and burning of the
house of William Chisholm, Badinloskin, in which was lying his
wife's mother, an old bed-ridden woman of near 100 years of age,
none of the family being present. I informed the persons about to
set fire to the house of this circumstance, and prevailed on them to
wait till Mr. Sellar came. On his arrival I told him of the poor old
woman being in a condition unfit for removal. He replied, "Damn her,
the old witch, she has lived too long; let her burn". Fire was
immediately set to the house, and the blankets in which she was
carried were in flames before she could be got out. Slit was placed
in a little shed, and it was with great difficulty they were
prevented from firing it also. The old woman's daughter arrived
while the house was on fire, and assisted the neighbours in removing
her mother out of the flames and smoke, presenting a picture of
horror which I shill never forget, but cannot attempt to describe.
She died within five days.
I could multiply
instances to a great extent, but must leave to the reader to
conceive the state of the inhabitants during this scene of general
devastation, to which few parallels occur in the history of this or
any other civilized country. Many a life was lost or shortened, and
many a strong constitution ruined;—the comfort and social happiness
of all destroyed; and their prospects in life, then of the most
dismal kind, have, generally speaking, been unhappily realized. |