To
CONNIE AND SCAMP
COMPANIONS
IN
ARCADY
AND
HEBRIDES
PREFACE
THAT one half of the
world knows not how the other half lives is a statement one accepts
readily enough in the abstract, but which seems less comprehensible
when we reduce it to the concrete fact that, even in this miniature
land of Great Britain, there is a whole chain of islands, some
hundred and fifty miles long, possessed of natural beauties and
resources, having its own characteristic literature, archaeology and
traditions, in some sort even its special language and religion, of
which its nearest neighbours on the mainland know little, the rest
of the world, for the most part, next to nothing.
Possibly, in the case
of most Englishmen, even that little would have been less, had not
the publication of Martin Martin’s Description of the Western Isles
in 1695 led to the visit of Dr. Samuel Johnson in 1773, a brave, not
to say desperate undertaking for an Englishman of his customs and
circumference.
From the discomforts
of Johnson and Boswell, the salmon and sunsets of Black's novels,
the dialect and depression of certain modern story-tellers, even if
balanced in part by the sympathetic sketches of Norman Macleod, the
casual reader has possibly constructed for himself a picture of
desolation, ignorance and melancholy, which is very far from the
truth, even in these darker days of alien landlords and uncultivated
soil. Even the possession of a language and a dress banished by Act
of Parliament (1695), a musical instrument suspected of contributing
to rebellion, an alien faith superimposed as a matter of policy (the
“religion of the yellow stick”), even a land laid bare, and homes
made desolate, these things and more have not sufficed to subtract
from the Hebrideans the inherent characteristics of a people who
were Christianized long before S. Augustine, who were sending
scholars to found continental Universities two centuries before the
existence of Oxford, and who, as we learn from early Gaelic poems,
were drinking wine and burning wax candles, while English kings
slept upon straw, and bought wine as a cordial from the
apothecaries.
The earliest
descriptive work to be depended upon for facts in regard to the
Hebrides is the very interesting Statistical Account of Scotland
(1798), written by various ministers, each describing his own
parish, and edited by Sir John Sinclair. A later work, on the same
lines, known as the New Statistical Account, was published in 1845,
and these, together with the Report upon the Crofter Commission,
most conveniently read in the form of Alexander Mackenzie’s Analysis
of the Report of the Crofter Royal Commission (Inverness, 1884), are
practically the only books of general reference upon the subject of
the Outer Isles. The student may nevertheless find passages of
interest in The Abridgement of the Scots Chronicles, Monipennie
(1612); Vol. iii. of The Miscellanies of the Maitland Club (1701);
Present State of the Hebrides, James Anderson (1785); James
Macdonald's Agricultural Survey of the Hebrides (1811); and, if he
be a patient and tolerant student, in the writings of John
Macculloch, who visited the islands in 1811-21.
The archaeologist and
antiquarian will not fail to turn to the pages of W. F. Skene
(Highlanders of Scotland, 1837, and Celtic Scotland, 1876), and
Professor Anderson ; more especially his Scotland in Early Christian
Times (1881). He will also find certain descriptions of Churches and
Crosse# in the Outer Isles, in Thomas S. Muirs Ecclesiological Notes
(1885), and in the anonymous Characteristics of Old Church
Architecture (1876).
For the Folklorist
there is always Campbell of Islay and, in relation to the Outer
Isles, the even more precious volumes of Campbell of Tyree, edited
by his sister, Mrs. Wallace, still living in the island. There are
certain other volumes of folk-lore which have less of the essential
accuracy of narration and scrupulous veracity in repetition, which
the student of anthropology and the youngest child alike require in
a fairy tale.
Those who would
rightly understand the human interest of these islands, the sad
story of depopulation, as effective as that of “Sweet Auburn,” as
tragic as that of Glencoe, should study David Stewart’s Sketch of
the Present State of the Highlands, preferably in the edition issued
by W. Mackenzie of Inverness (1885); The Depopulation System by an
Eye-witness (1849), and The Argyll Manifesto (No. 1, in the series
of Land Tracts), a reply to the Duke of Argyll’s Crofts and Farms.
Though not directly relating to the islands, the student of the
population and land problems should moreover not fail to read
Macleod’s Gloomy Memories, an essential contribution to the picture
of the sad times when Highland property was “improved.”
The present volume is
so far from being exhaustive even of the notes and material I
already possess, that I can offer it only as possibly suggestive to
others, specialists or observers, who may wander further in the same
fields. There is abundance of pasture, and those who go as friends,
and not critics, to learn, not to discover fault, will assuredly
find, as we have never failed to find, a hearty welcome.
To name all who have
facilitated our enquiries, and added to the pleasure of our
wanderings, would be impossible in a country where courtesy,
hospitality, and even friendship, have never failed. I must however
mention, with especial gratitude and esteem, the Rev. Allan
Macdonald, Catholic priest, of Eriskay, whose practical kindness and
companionship alone made possible some of the more difficult of our
journeyings, and without whose help much of this book (especially
chapters VII-XIII) could never have been written. As priest, and
even more perhaps as friend, to a people whose hearts can never open
fully but to one of their own faith, living daily in their midst, he
has had, and has used to the full, opportunities which are in the
most literal sense unique, and to his generous help I acknowledge
the deepest obligation.
I would recall, in
grateful memory, that to the late Marquess of Bute I owe the first
stimulus to visit these islands, in many of which his name is still
dear in the hearts of the people to whom he showed such timely and
spontaneous liberality.
I would cordially
thank Mr. Allan Baraud, of Bushey Heath, for the skill with which he
has entered into the spirit of the work, and has made of my
imperfect photographs, pictures which I hope may contribute largely
to the right understanding of my attempts to describe the Outer
Hebrides.
I would thank my
friend, Walter B. Blaikie, Esq., of Edinburgh, for the use of two
photographs, those of “ Prince Charlie's House," [As this book is
parsing through the press, I hear with deep regret that this
cottage, where the Prince slept for the first time in his own
kingdom, has been lately demolished by permission of Lady Gordon
Cathcart.] in Eriskay, and of “Shealing Life,” as well as for
pleasant memories of companionship on land and sea.
Finally I have to
express much obligation to Miss Ruth Landon for the patient kindness
with which she has corrected the proof sheets of this book, and has
made herself responsible for the tedious work of compiling an index.
From a distant land,
where nevertheless much in the country, the customs, the folk-lore
and the traditions reminds me daily of the western
Highlands—pointing to the homogeneity of the less conventional types
of the human race—I herewith greet my many friends in Outer Isles.
A. GOODRICH-FREER.
Jerusalem, May, 1902.
NOTE
Thanks are due to the
Editors of The Contemporary Review, The Folk Lore Journal,
Blackwood's Magazine, and The Saga Book of the Viking Club
respectively, for permission to republish the chapters on “Christian
Legends,” “The Powers of Evil,” “Prince Charlie,” and “The Norsemen
in the Hebrides.”
CONTENTS
Chapter I. Tyree
Chapter II. Natural History of Tyree
Chapter III. Tyree Churches: Skerryvore
Chapter IV. The Ceilidh in Tyree
Chapter V. Miscellaneous Notes on the Islanders
Chapter VI. Barra
Chapter VII. South Uist
Chapter VIII. South Uist and its People
Chapter IX. Eriskay
Chapter X. Christian Legends of Eriskay and South Uist
Chapter XI. The Powers of Evil in Eriskay and South Uist
Chapter XII. Prince Charlie in Eriskay
Chapter XIII. The Norsemen in the Hebrides
Chapter XIV. Benbecula and North Uist
Chapter XV. Lewis
Chapter XVI. Lewis and its Fisherfolk
Chapter XVII. Harris and Smaller Islands
Chapter XVIII. Stray Thoughts
Glossary |
