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Note A - The Moray Floods
The late Mr Joseph Mitchell, C.E., an engineer of marked ability and
distinction, superintended for many years the works of the Parliamentary
Commission for Highland Roads and Bridges. He was in Kirkwall in August
1829, when the Moray Floods occurred, and records that he experienced
there an unexampled deluge of rain and a perfect hurricane. On his return
home he found a scene of widespread destruction, and he has left the
following succint account of the disaster :—"They [the floods] occurred
chiefly along the south shores of the Moray Firth, in the valleys of the
Nairn, the Findhorn, the Spey, the Don, and the Dee. Serious damage had
been done to the public works, and the roads and bridges under the charge
of the Commissioners. The magnificent bridge across the Spey at Fochabers,
and the bridge over the Findhorn at Forres, both on the great coast road,
were destroyed. The bridge of five arches over the Dee at Ballater, the
bridge of three arches at Corrybrough over the Findhorn, the bridge of
Carr over the Dulnan, the bridges of Kirkton of Alford, of Craggan, and
Dava, and many others of smaller size, were totally swept away. The
beautiful iron arch of 150 feet span at Craigellachie was much endangered,
one of the abutments damaged, and three side arches destroyed. The pier of
a 70-feet arch of the large bridge at Grantown was undermined, and the
roads were cut up and damaged very seriously for miles in various parts of
the country. The damage to private property—to trees, crops, stock,
dwellings, and outbuildings was very great. Whole fields were torn up and
covered with the debris carried down by the floods." Sir Thomas Dick
Lauder gives a picturesque and detailed account of the calamitous
visitation. He mentions that the heat in the province of Moray during the
previous three months had been unusually great, causing an excessive
drought, and that as the season advanced the fluctuations of the barometer
became very remarkable. "The deluge of rain," he says, "that produced the
flood of the 3rd and 4th of August, fell chiefly on the Monad-liadh
mountains, rising between the south-eastern parts of Loch-Ness and
Kingussie in Badenoch, and on that part of the Grampian range forming the
somewhat independent group of the Cairngorms. The westerly winds, which
prevailed for some time previously, seem to have produced a gradual
accumulation of vapour somewhere north of our island, and the column being
suddenly impelled by a strong north-easterly blast, it was driven towards
the south-west, its right flank almost sweeping the Caithness and
Sutherland coasts, until rushing up and across the Moray Firth, it was
attracted by the lofty mountains I have mentioned, and discharged in
torrents perfectly unexampled." Sir Thomas mentions that the storm was
felt at Wick and Kirkwall, though not to anything like the same extent as
in the province of Moray and other districts associated with the mountain
ranges above-mentioned.
Note B - Charles Grant, M.P.
The Life of Charles Grant, M.P., written by Mr Henry Morris of the
Madras Civil Service, and published by John Murray (London, 1904), enables
us to revise and supplement some of the particulars which were given in
the first volume. Charles Grant was born not on the day of the battle of
Culloden, as was long supposed, but a short time before, namely, in March
1746. His father was in Prince Charles’s army, and was severely wounded at
Culloden, but escaped, and remained in concealment until the search for
prisoners came to an end. At a later date he joined a Highland regiment,
and died in 1762 from fever contracted at the siege of Havana. His son
Charles was educated at Elgin by his uncle, his father’s youngest brother,
who held an appointment in the Excise. The boy attended school till he was
nearly thirteen years of age, and was then taken as an apprentice by Mr
William Forsyth, a merchant and shipowner in Cromarty, where he served
between four and five years. In March 1763, being then seventeen, he left
Cromarty for London, to enter the counting house of a cousin Captain
Alexander Grant, who had previously served under Clive in India. He sailed
from Cromarty with only half-a-guinea in his pocket, and was a fortnight
on the voyage. In his cousin’s employment he remained for several years,
becoming head clerk in the firm. In the summer of 1767 he departed for
India, having received encouragement and assistance from directors and
friends in the East India Company, one of them being Mr Becher, with whom
he was afterwards closely associated. The young man—he was now but
twenty-one—must have impressed these influential friends with a sense of
his ability and integrity. He received the nominal appointment of cadet,
but this was only for the voyage out, to comply with the regulations which
then existed about going to India. On arriving at Calcutta Grant was
placed in charge of Mr Becher’s private business. The latter was at the
time a Member of Council, and was soon afterwards appointed Political
Resident at Moorshedabab, to which Grant accompanied him. When they were
there a terrible famine broke out, in the alleviation of which Becher and
his young assistant worked hard. Owing to failure of health, both returned
to England in 1771. In the end of 1772 Grant obtained a writership in the
service of the East India company, and before he sailed in 1773 he married
Jane Fraser, a member of the Balnain family. "It was," we are told, "a
singularly happy union. Mrs Grant was very young, being scarcely seventeen
years of age, and he was only ten years older. They were a handsome
couple." Grant’s first appointment after his return to India was as
Secretary to the Board of Trade. For a time he was friendly with Sir
Philip Francis, and generally disapproved of the administration of Warren
Hastings. At first he threw himself into the gaiety and dissipation of
social life in Calcutta. His scrupulous integrity, however, remained
unimpaired even when he got into debt. The vital religious change which
came over his character followed the death of two children, young
daughters, who were carried off by smallpox in 1776. A visit to the Rev.
J. C. Diemer, a missionary connected with the Soeiety for promoting
Christian knowledge, brought him final peace, and he was ever afterwards a
deeply pious man, eager to promote every form of evangelical effort. In
December 1780 he was appointed Commercial Resident at Malda, where he made
his fortune. There he was so exact in his intromissions as to receive the
special commendation of Lord Cornwallis, who went out as Governor General
in 1786. In 1781 Lord Cornwallis appointed him a Member of the Board of
Trade. In 1790, on account of illness in his family, he returned to this
country, finally closing his career in India. In subsequent years he was a
director and Chairman of the East India Company, and from 1802 to 1818 M.P.
for the county of Inverness. At his first ParIiamentary election he had to
stand a severe contest in the limited constituency which then existed.
There was a triangular fight between Grant, Fraser of Lovat, and Forbes of
Culloden, the result being as follows:- Grant, 15; Lovat, 11; Culloden, 6.
The election expenses of the successful candidate, including his journey
northward, came to £600. Before the contest came off he had purchased the
estate of Waternish in Skye for £16,000. Grant retained the seat without
further contest until be retired in 1818 in favour of his son, Charles
Grant junior, afterwards Lord Glenelg. He died in 1823. The careers of his
sons, Lord Glenelg and Sir Robert Grant, are sketched in the first volume.
Note C -
No Popery Riot in 1829.
The following graphic account of a "No Popery" riot which occurred in
Inverness in 1829 was given by a correspondent in our columns in 1870 :
—
Perhaps nowhere was the
anti-Catholic spirit of a community more strongly manifested than by the
inhabitants of Inverness during the progress of the Catholic Emancipation
Bill. At that time the Right Hon. Charles Grant (afterwards Lord Glenelg),
M.P. for the county, being on a visit to the town, a bitter feeling of
dissatisfaction with the right hon. gentleman was felt by the people; and
they secretly determined to show their displeasure by publicly burning him
in effigy, Hughie Macbean, an enthusiastic young townsman, undertaking to
produce the inanimate member at the time and place appointed.
Appropriating for that purpose a suit of his father’s clothes, he took
them to a garret in High Street, where they were nicely stuffed up with
paper shavings and a volume or two, in sheets, of Grant on the Gael,
Fraser on Isaiah, and Knockie's Strathspeys and Reels adapted for the
Pianoforte—all works of merit, but which an undiscerning public had left
on the publisher’s hands to moulder away in his lumber garret. Meanwhile
the watchword was secretly but widely spread, and about eight o’clock
straggling parties might be seen coming from all directions and sauntering
along towards the Lochgorm, where ultimately they amounted to some
hundreds. In due time the effigy was produced and before the authorities
were in the least aware of what was going on, the crowd moved in a body
through High Street, carrying the effigy ignominiously along with a large
placard bearing the words "Catholic Emancipation Bill" pinned to its
breast. On arriving at the Exchange or Market Cross, the effigy was tied
to a stake (or lamp-post), and a pile of shavings being ignited, it was
soon reduced to ashes, amid the shouting, yelling, and "No Popery" cries
of the crowd. But for a single incident the affair might have all ended
here. The town’s officers during the tumult locked themselves up in the
police-office-—then a small crib at the southwest corner of the Exchange
(next door to "Skelpan’s" shop)—but when the noise had somewhat subsided,
to show their employers that they were doing something, they sallied out
and captured a young lad as prisoner, carrying him into their stronghold.
But in five minutes the door was smashed and the captive set free.
Exulting in this triumph over the "beagles," the mob moved down to the
Caledonian Hotel in Church Street, where Mr Grant had taken up his
quarters. They here commenced shouting for him to appear in his proper
person, and answer for his conduct; but instead of responding to this
request, the door of the hotel was shut up and all the lights
extinguished. This was taken as a signal of defiance of the mob; and with
missiles of every description all the front windows of that old
established hotel were shattered to atoms. Not satisfied with this, they
next proceeded to the Catholic Chapel—then a plain building in Margaret
Street—which was broken into and some damage done. After this the mob went
to the School Hill, and burned to the ground a useful wooden building
which had long stood there, after which they dispersed. The town, of
course, had to pay the piper for the damage done; but like those connected
with the Porteous mob, the real ringleaders were not found out. The artist
of the effigy, however, did not escape altogether scatheless, and while
undergoing punishment from his father for the loss of his clothes, he told
the old gentleman in extenuation that, instead of being angry, he should
only be very proud that Mr Grant, the member of Parliament, had worn his
clothes! "Weel, weel," exclaimed the old man, and the incorrigible escaped
further molestation. But Mr Grant was destined not long to remain in
"disgrace," for on his next visit to Inverness, for his advocacy of
reform, the "Sleeping Lion" was chaired in triumph, with music and
banners, through all the streets of the town—the people being proud of
this opportunity of showing that "still they lo’ed their Charlie." His two
reverend supporters, the Rev. Donald Fraser, Kirkhill, and Mr Beith, were
also extremely popular, as also the laird of Mackintosh.
Note D - The Old Castle of Inverness
We gave in our first volume a picture of the ruins of the old Castle
of Inverness as they appeared between the years 1790 and 1800. The picture
was communicated to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1823, and is
preserved in the Archaeologia Scotica. It shows the ruins of the old
Castle which was blown up by Prince Charlie’s French engineer in 1746.
Some further particulars may be useful.
In the Archaeologia, the paper which accompanies the
picture is entitled "Notice respecting Macbeth’s Castle at Inverness by
Colonel Grahame." This title is, of course, a mistake. The Castle had no
pretension to be called Macbeth’s Castle, but was in fact the last of a
series of fortified buildings which had stood on the present Castle Hill.
The notice, though written by Colonel Grahame, was communicated to the
Society by one of the Fellows, Mr H. W. Williams, and read at a meeting on
18th November 1823. Mr Williams, in a note addressed to Mr Thomas Kinnear,
says : —
"Castle Street, Monday.
"My Dear Sir,—I was on a visit to a friend the other
day, who, on looking among his papers, found a description of Macbeth’s
Castle at Inverness, accompanied by a drawing of it as it appeared about
thirty years ago. The drawing is very rude, to be sure; but, still, it
greatly assists the description. Both were done by a Colonel Grahame, who
lives near the village of Duddingston; and, supposing that this little
account of the Castle might be acceptable to you to present to the
Antiquarian Society, give me leave to enclose it in this note."
Colonel Grahame, in his account, which accompanies his
drawing, claims no other merit for his sketch except that it is "a
tolerably correct resemblance." He states that the view was taken from the
south-west, on the west side of the river Ness. He then describes the
drawing —"What is betwixt and beneath the two
chimneys are the remains of the ancient Castle. The ground floor was
vaulted; the upper floors were of timber; and the roof, when last
inhabited, was flat and leaded and surrounded by a low parapet. Within the
north entrance a handsome stone stair led to the upper floors. The walls
were of great thickness, and almost entirely composed of that mixture of
lime and small stones of every shape, frequently met with in structures of
very ancient erection; a composition which resembled one compact mass of
hard stone or flint, appearing capable of resisting the impressions of
weather and of time. In each of the chambers exposed in the three upper
floors, there was an alcove or recess, partially discovered in this view,
formed in the thickness of the north wall of the Castle, of sufficient
dimensions to contain a bed."
The writer adds that tradition pointed out one of the
alcoves as "that in which King Duncan was murdered by Macbeth"—-so
curiously does legend seek to connect itself with visible remains. Piles
of rubbish appear to right and left of the ruins, and it is mentioned that
when the old Castle was blown up a fragment of it fell on the slope of the
hill and remained there. "The part of the hill to the right was covered
with good grass—to the left it was rather bare and sandy, on which were
dispersed many plants of balm, and the remains of patches of sweet herbs,
planted there by the officers of the garrison." In 1828 Mr John Anderson,
W.S., made Colonel Grahame’s notes the text of another paper to the
Society, in which be corrects some historical mistakes, and mentions that
Mr Godsman, factor to the Duke of Gordon at Inverness, completed the work
of destruction, which the Highlanders began in 1746, by removing walls
from the Castle to build dykes.. "He took away, much to the chagrin of the
gentlemen of the town (as a venerable lady resident there has informed
me), a carved stone bearing an inscription commemorative of the era when
the Castle was erected. My informant, when a little girl at school, was
often promised a reward by her father if she could discover this stone in
any of the dykes; and many were the anxious and fruitless researches she
made in consequence. She never learned that it had been found." The late
Joseph Mitchell, C.E., (born in 1803), speaking of his boyhood, says
— "The remains of the Castle consisted of some
perpendicular walls, still in existence on the Castle Street side of the
hill, and the ruins of the old Castle on the top of the hill, six or eight
feet above the ground. On them was fixed a tall flagstaff, on which the
Royal ensign was hoisted on the King’s birthdays, Sundays, and holidays."
The terrace which forms part of the town of Inverness
has no doubt, at some part, been the site of fortification ever since a
community gathered at the spot. It is generally supposed that Macbeth’s
Dun stood near the ground now occupied by Victoria Terrace, and known in
ancient documents as the Auld Castle Hill. According to tradition, Malcolm
Canmore destroyed this stronghold and set up a fortification on the
present Castle Hill. At any rate, there are authentic notices of a castle
existing at Inverness under the kings who reigned before the War of
Independence. We may with reasonable certainty assume that since the time
of William the Lion, perhaps from an earlier date, the Castle stood where
our County Buildings still stand. Bruce appears to have demolished the
first Norman Castle, in conformity with his well-known policy. When it was
next rebuilt it is difficult to say. We know, however, that in 1412 the
Earl of Mar, the leader of the Royal army at the battle of Harlaw, erected
a strong castle for the defence of the country against the Lord of the
Isles. In the sixteenth century the building was enlarged and strengthened
by the Earls of Huntly. In 1726 General Wade made further additions, so as
to provide barracks for six companies of soldiers and lodgings for
officers. The picture of the Castle given by P. Sandby, R.A., in 1744, the
year before the Jacobite Rising, shows it to have been a handsome range of
buildings. This was the edifice blown up in 1746. The work of demolition
was fatal to the French engineer, a sergeant of artillery, who undertook
it. "This unfortunate individual, believing the match extinguished,
approached to examine it, when the mine sprung, which blew him into the
air, with the stones of the bastions, to an immense height." According to
another version the engineer and his dog were thrown across the river to
the Little Green; the man was killed and the dog survived!
After the suppression of the Rebellion the Government
did not rebuild the fortress at Inverness, but erected instead a new
Fort-George at the Point of Ardersier. Inverness Castle remained in ruins,
gradually disappearing by the removal of stones for such base purposes as
the building of dykes. "Nonagenarian" (whose Reminiscences were published
during his lifetime in 1842) says that the keep, with other parts,
remained in tolerable preservation long after
his birth; that the walls were much higher than the towers of the present
Castle, and the rooms spacious and lofty. Before 1823 the Castle Hill was
bare. Writing, as we have noted, in 1828, Mr John Anderson says—"The
summit where the Castle stood has been levelled, and a portion of wall
between Castle Street is the only relic of the fortress." The
foundation-stone of the present County Buildings was laid in May 1834, and
the foundation-stone of the prison in 1846. Now a new prison has been
erected at Porterfield, and the cells of the old prison have been
transformed into offices. The buildings form a handsome pile, and give a
striking aspect to the Castle Hill.
A few notes may be added. Colonel Grahame, in the paper
mentioned above, says that, when the buildings stood intact, they formed a
square, "containing a house for the Governor and barracks for officers and
soldiers; the old Castle forming part of the south side of the square, and
being the Fort-Major’s residence. There was also a chapel and some other
modern buildings on the south side of the Castle; and ramparts encompassed
the hill along the riverside and behind Bridge Street and Castle Street."
He also says that "a small portion of these ramparts appears at the side
of the river in this view." This is a statement that requires further
investigation. In the view of 1744 there is no wall round the hill, but
there is a wall enclosing the Castle on its own level. Probably there was
a wall at the riverside to prevent the sand from running. Burt in his time
(about 1730) says that the workmen in widening the space between the hill
and the river one evening loosened the gravel and it began running in
course of the night, causing great alarm. There was a fear that the Castle
"would be down before morning." However, he adds, "the town masons and
soldiers soon ran up a dry wall against the foot of the hill (for stones
are everywhere at hand in this country) which furnished them with the
hasty means to prevent the fall." No doubt a stronger wall was afterwards
erected.
Nonagenarian records that in his youth he had a narrow
escape. "About seventy-one years ago, I was standing at five o’clock one
summer’s morning, leaning against the western wall of the Castle viewing
and admiring the beautiful scenery around me, and had not left my position
scarcely a minute when the wall against which I had just been leaning fell
with a tremendous crash, portions of it rolling into the river." This
happened about 1771.
Note E - Sales of Great Properties
During the period several great Highland properties changed
hands. The Reay or Mackay country, in the county of Sutherland, was sold
in 1829 to the Marquis of Stafford, first Duke of Sutherland, for the sum
of £300,000, which, in the opinion of the late Evander Maciver, "was much
more than its value at the time." The district included three Highland
parishes, Tongue, Durness, and Eddrachilis, covering an area of about
400,000 acres. The Duke of Sutherland, after becoming proprietor, expended
large sums in making roads, effecting improvements in land, and erecting
farmhouses and shooting-lodges. The present Duke has sold part of the
property to Mr Gilmour, Dumbarton. The great estates of the Duke of Gordon
in Badenoch and Lochaber were sold during the thirties, passing into
various hands. After the death of the last famous chief of Glengarry in
1828, it was found that his estates were heavily burdened, and they were
sold by his trustees and his son. In 1840
Glenquoich was purchased by Mr Edward Ellice for £32,000, and Glengarry by
Lord Ward for £91,000. Twenty years later Mr
Ellice added Glengarry to his Glenquoich estate, paying for it
£120,000, and thus acquiring a splendid stretch of
country from Loch-Oich westward. The property of Knoydart remained in the
Glengarry family until a later date. The only possessions then retained by
the representatives of the ancient house were the site and ruins of the
old castle and the family burying-ground. Macdonald of Clanranald was
another great chief who lost his possessions during the nineteenth
century. The History of Clan Donald, by the ministers, of Killearnan and
Kiltarlity, gives the following list of sales by the last proprietor,
Ranald George Macdonald —
1813. Lochans—sold to Alexander Macdonald, Esq. of
Dalilea £3,054
1813. Dalilea—sold to Alex. Macdonald of Glenaladale £5,960
1813. Island of Shona—sold to Alex. Macdonald of Glenaladale £6,100
1813. Island of Muck—sold to Alex. M’Lean of Coil £9,997
1826. Estate of Arisaig—sold to Lady Ashburton’s Trustees £48,950
1826. Superiority of Bornish—sold to Lady Ashburton’s Trustees £350
1826. Island of Eigg—sold to Dr Macpherson £14,500
1826. Island of Canna—sold to Don. MacNeill £9,000
1827. Lands of Moidart—sold to Major Allan Nicolson Macdonald £9,000
1827. Shealfishings—sold to Alexander Macdonald of Rhue £300
1827. Lands of Kenchreggan—sold to Colonel Cameron £8,000
1838. South Uist and Benbecula—sold to Col. Gordon £96,000
Total £214,211.
The failure of the kelp industry affected Clanranald
more, perhaps, than any other western proprietor. The chief survived until
1873, when he died at the advanced age of 85. His son was a distinguished
officer, the late Admiral Sir Reginald Macdonald, K.C.B., K.C.S.I., who
received many honours in recognition of his public services. The family
for many years retained the island and CastIe of Tirrim as its sole
possession but they were sold in 1905 to Lord Howard of Glossop. In 1840
Colonel Gordon of Cluny purchased for £38,050 the island of Barra from the
trustees of Colonel Macneil. In the same year the estate of Inverlochy was
purchased by Lord Abinger for £75,150. Other interesting sales are
recorded in the present volume.
Note F - Rise and Fall in Sheep-Farming
The late Evander Maciver, who went to be factor for the Duke of
Sutherland in 1845, writes in his Reminiscences —"Sheep farming had been
since the peace of 1815 a very unprofitable business; most of the tenants
had died or had abandoned their farms, and the landlords were obliged in
many instances to take the farms into their own hands and farm them on
their own account; the price of wool was very low. But from 1832 both
sheep and wool rose in price, and it became a more profitable business,
and tenants of large farms began to make money, especially after 1840, and
from that date to 1875 a great deal of money was made all over Scotland by
sheep—farmers." Judging by entries in our columns,
there were some good years even in the early period. Mr Maciver adds that
after 1875 prices of wool and sheep fell, and the rents, which had risen
largely—which "in some cases were more than doubled"—could not be
maintained. The tenants made representations to the factor, and the Duke
of Sutherland asked him to consider what reductions he would recommend.
This he did to the satisfaction of the sheep-farmers, who were delighted
that the reductions had been made spontaneously. Mr Maciver mentions that
during the prosperous period "the rents of the small tenants or crofters
remained much the same as they had been for many years before."
Note G - Highland Evictions
Evictions in the Highlands on a historic scale may be said to have
occurred at two separate periods, the first prior to 1820, the second
after 1839-40. The first were probably the most trying, the second, which
occurred when the press was active and influential attracted mere
immediate and widespread attention. Between 1820 and 1840 there was a
great deal of emigration, how far voluntary and how far enforced it is
hard to say. The economic condition of considerable areas in the Highland
mainland, and still more in the Islands, was undoubtedly serious,
all the worse after the suppression of smuggling and the ruin of the kelp
industry. Both proprietors and tenants suffered. The extension of
sheep-fanning coming alongside an increase of population aggravated the
distress of the small holders. No one can deny that changes were
necessary, but they were hasty and ill considered, possibly precipitated
by financial necessities. The destitution which became acute about 1836,
and culminated ten years later in the potato famine, intensified the
trouble. Removals which it is difficult to account for occurred on the
Chisholm estates in Strathglass in 1831. They occasioned little outside
comment, because the tenants were well to do and made no disturbance, and
because they were accommodated with holdings in the neighbourhood by Lord
Lovat. The chief evictions in Strathglass took place in 1802 and 1803. Mrs
Gooden, whose visit is referred to in 1834, had proved a warm friend of
the tenantry. |
