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This small property, in the
Parish of Lochbroom, changed hands in 1879, Mr. A. C. Pirie, paper
manufacturer, Aberdeen, having purchased it for £19,000 from Colonel
Davidson, now of Tulloch. No sooner did it come into Mr. Pirie's
possession than a notice, dated 2nd November, 1879, in the following
terms, was issued to all the tenants:-
"I am instructed by Mr.
Pirie, proprietor of Leckmelm, to give you notice that the present
arrangements by which you hold the cottage, byre, and other buildings,
together with lands on that estate, will cease from and after the term
of Martinmas, 1880; and further, I am instructed to intimate to you that
at the said term of Martinmas, 1880, Mr. Pirie purposes taking the whole
arable and pasture lands, but that he is desirous of making arrangements
whereby you may continue tenant of the cottage upon terms and conditions
yet to be settled upon. I have further to inform you that unless you and
the other tenants at once prevent your sheep and other stock from
grazing or trespassing upon the enclosures and hill, and other lands now
in the occupation or possession of the said Mr. Pirie, he will not, upon
any conditions, permit you to remain in the cottage you now occupy,
after the said term of Martinmas, 1880, but will clear all off the
estate, and take down the cottages."
This notice affected
twenty-three families, numbering above one hundred souls. Sixteen
tenants paid between them a rent of £96 10s.—ranging from £3 to £12 each
per annum. The stock allowed them was 72 head of cattle, 8 horses, and
320 sheep. The arable portion of Leckmelm was about the best tilled and
the most productive land in possession of any crofters in the parish. It
could all be worked with the plough, now a very uncommon thing in the
Highlands; for almost invariably land of that class is in the hands of
the proprietors themselves, when not let to sheep farmers or sportsmen.
The intention of the new proprietor was strictly carried out. At
Martinmas, i88o, he took every inch of land—arable and pastoral—into his
own hands, and thus by one cruel stroke, reduced a comfortable tenantry
from comparative affluence and independence to the position of mere
cottars and day labourers, absolutely dependent for subsistence on his
own will and the likes or dislikes of his subordinates, who may perhaps,
for a short time, be in a position to supply the remnant that will
remain, in their altered circumstances, with such common labour as
trenching, draining, fencing, carrying stones, lime and mortar, for the
laird's mansion-house and outhouses. With the exception of one, all the
tenants who remained are still permitted to live in their old cottages,
but they are not permitted to keep a living thing about them—not even a
hen. They are existing in a state of abject dependence on. Mr. Pirie's
will and that of his servants ; and in a constant state of terror that
next they will even be turned out of their cottages. As regards work and
the necessaries of life, they have been reduced to that of common navvies. In place of milk, butter, and cheese in fair abundance, they
have now to be satisfied with sugar, treacle, or whatever else they can
buy, to their porridge and potatoes, and their supply of meat, grown and
fed hitherto by themselves, is gone for ever. Two, a man and his wife,
if not more, have since been provided for by the Parochial authorities,
and, no doubt, that will ultimately be the fate of many more of this
once thriving and contented people.
An agitation against Mr.
Pirie's conduct was raised at the time, and the advantage which he had
taken of his position was universally condemned by the press (excepting
the Scotsman, of course), and by the general public voice of the country
; but conscious of his strength, and that the law, made by the landlords
in their own interest, was on his side, he relentlessly and persistently
carried out his cruel purpose to the bitter end, and evicted from their
lands and hill grazings every soul upon his property; but in the
meantime allowed them to remain in their cottages, with the exception of
Donald Munro, to whose case reference will be made hereafter, and two
other persons whose houses were pulled down and themselves evicted.
When the notices of
removal were received, the Rev. John MacMillan, Free Church minister of
the parish, called public attention to Mr. Pirie's proceedings in the
Northern newspapers, and soon the eye of the whole country was directed
to this modern evictor—a man, in other respects, reputed considerate and
even kind to those under him in his business of paper manufacturing in
Aberdeen. People, in their simplicity, for years back, thought that
evictions on such a large scale, in the face of a more enlightened
public opinion, had become mere unpleasant recollections of a barbarous
past; forgetting that the same laws which permitted the clearances of
Sutherland and other portions of the Scottish Highlands during the first
half of the present century were still in force, ready to be applied by
any tyrant who had the courage, for personal ends, to outrage the more
advanced and humane public opinion of the present generation.
The noble conduct of the
Rev. Mr. MacMillan, in connection with those evictions, deserves
commemoration in a work in which the name of his prototype in
Sutherland, the Rev. Mr. Sage, shows to such advantage during the
infamous clearances in that county, already described at length. At the
urgent request of many friends of the Highland crofters, resident in
Inverness, Mr. MacMillan agreed to lay the case of his evicted
parishioners before the public. Early in December, 1880, he delivered an
address in Inverness to one of the largest and most enthusiastic
meetings which has ever been held in that town, and we cannot do better
here than quote at considerable length from his instructive eloquent,
and rousing appeal on that occasion. Though his remarks do not seem to
have influenced Mr. Pirie's conduct, or to have benefited his
unfortunate subjects, the Inverness meeting was the real beginning in
earnest of the subsequent movement throughout the Highlands in favour of
Land Reform, and the curtailment of landlord power over their
unfortunate tenants. Mr. Pirie can thus claim to have done our poorer
countrymen no small amount of good, though probably, quite contrary to
his intentions, by his cruel and high-handed conduct in dealing with the
ancient tenants of Leckmelm. He has set the heather on fire, and it is
likely to continue burning until such proceedings as those for which he
is responsible at Leckmelm will be finally made impossible in Scotland.
Mr. MacMillan after informing his audience that Mr. Pirie is now in a
fair way of reaching a notoriety which he little dreamt of when he
became owner of the Leckmelm estate," proceeds to tell how the harsh
proceedings were gone about, and says "As the public are aware, Mr.
Pirie's first step after becoming owner of the estate, was to inform the tenantry, by the hands of Mr. Manners, C.E., Inverness, that at
Martinmas following they were to deliver their arable land and stock,
consisting of sheep and cattle, into his hands, but that some of them,
on conditions yet to be revealed, and on showing entire submission to
the new regime of things, and, withal, a good certificate of character
from his factotum, William Gould, might remain in their cottages to act
as serfs or slaves on his farm. On this conditional promise they were to
live in the best of hope, for the future and all at the mercy of the
absolute master of the situation, with a summum jus at his back
to enable him to effect all the purposes of his heart. As a prologue to
the drama which was to follow, and to give a sample of what they might
expect in the sequel, two acts were presented, or properly speaking, one
act in two parts. These were to prepare them for what was to come,
reminding us of what we read somewhere in our youth, of a husband who on
marrying his fair spouse wished to teach her prompt obedience to all his
commands, whatever their character. His first lesson in this direction
was one assuredly calculated to strike terror into her tender breast. It
was the shooting on the spot of the horse which drew his carriage or
conveyance, on showing some slight restiveness. The second lesson was of
a similar nature; we can easily imagine that his object was gained.
Then, after coming home, he commanded his spouse to untie his boots and
shoes, and take them off, and to engage in the most servile acts. Of
course prompt obedience was given to all these commands and his end was
gained. His wife was obedient to him to the last degree. Of the wisdom
and propriety of such a procedure in a husband towards his lawful wife,
I shall not here and now wait to enquire, but one thing is plain to us
all ; there was a species of earthly and carnal wisdom in it which was
entirely overshadowed by its cruelty.
Now this illustrates
exactlyhow Mr. Pirie acted towards the people of Leckmelm. To strike
terror into their hearts, first of all, two houses were pulled down, I
might say about the ears of their respective occupants, without any
warning whatever, except a verbal one of the shortest kind. The first
was a deaf pauper woman, about middle life, living alone for years in a
bothy of her own, altogether apart from the other houses, beside a
purling stream, where she had at all seasons pure water to drink if her
bread was at times somewhat scanty. After this most cruel eviction no
provision was made for the helpless woman, but she was allowed to get
shelter elsewhere or anywhere, as best she could. If any of you ever go
the way of Leckmelm you can see a gamekeeper's house, the gentry of our
land, close to the side of Iseabal Bheag's bothy, and a dog kennel quite
in its neighbourhood, or as I said in one of my letters, adorning it.
This then is act the first of this drama. Act second comes next. Mrs.
Campbell was a widow with two children; after the decease of her husband
she tried to support herself and them by serving in gentlemen's families
as a servant. Whether she was all the time in Tulloch's family I cannot
say, but, at all events, it was from that family she returned to
Leckmelm, in failing health, and on getting rather heavy for active
service. Of course her father had died since she had left, and the house
in which he lived and died, and in which in all likelihood he had reared
his family, and in which he was born and bred, was now tenantless. It
was empty, the land attached to it being in the hands of another person.
Here Widow Campbell turned aside for a while until something else would
in kind Providence turn up. But, behold, during her sojourn from her
native township, another king arose, who knew not Joseph, and the
inexorable edict had gone forth to raze her -habitation to the ground.
Her house also was pulled down about her ears. This woman has since gone
to America, the asylum of many an evicted family from hearth and home.
Such tragedies as I have mentioned roused some of us to remonstrate with
the actors engaged in them, and to the best of our ability to expose
their conduct, and, furthermore, we have brought them to the bar of
public judgment to pass their verdict, which I hope before all is over,
will be one of condemnation and condign punishment."
Having referred at some
length to the worst classes of evictions throughout the Highlands in the
past, and already described in this work, the reverend lecturer
proceeded:
"But there is another
way, a more gentle, politic, and insinuating way at work which
depopulates our country quite as effectually as the wholesale clearances
of which we have been speaking and against which we protest, and to
which we must draw your attention for a little. There are many
proprietors who get the name of being good and kind to their tenants,
and who cannot be charged with evicting any of them save for
misbehaviour—a deserving cause at all times—who are nevertheless inch by
inch secretly and stealthily laying waste the country and undermining
the well-being of our people. I have some of these gentlemen before my
mind at this moment. When they took possession of their estates all
promised fair and well, but by-and-bye the fatal blow was struck, to
dispossess the people of their sheep. Mark that first move and resist it
to the utmost. As long as tenants have a hold of the hill pasture by
sheep, and especially if it be what we term a commonage or club farm, it
is impossible to lay it waste in part. But once you snap this tie
asunder, you are henceforth at the mercy of the owner to do with you as
he pleases. This then is how the business is transacted, and in the most
business-like fashion too. To be sure none are to be forcibly evicted
from their holdings: - that would be highly impolitic, because it would
bring public condemnation on the sacred heads of the evictors, which
some of them could in no way confront, for they have a character and a
name to sustain, and also because they are more susceptible to the
failings common to humanity. They are moving, too, in the choicest
circles of society. It would not do that their names should be figuring
in every newspaper in the land, as cruel and oppressive landlords, or
that the Rev, this and the Rev, that should excommunicate them from
society and stigmatise them as tyrants and despots. But all are not so
sensitive as this of name and character, as we see abundantly
demonstrated, because they have none to lose. You might expose them upon
a gibbet before the gaze of an assembled universe and they would hardly
blush, "they are harder than the nether mill-stone." But the more
sensitive do their work, all the same, after all, and it is done in this
fashion. When a tenant dies, or removes otherwise, the order goes forth
that his croft or lot is to be laid waste. It is not given to a
neighbouring tenant, except in some instances, nor to a stranger, to
occupy it. In this inch-by-inch clearance, the work of depopulation is
effected in a few years, or in a generation at most, quite as
effectually as by the more glaring and reprehensible method. This more
secret and insinuating way of depopulating our native land should be as
stoutly resisted as the more open and defiant one, the result it
produces being the same."
Describing the character
of the Highlanders, as shown by their conduct in our Highland regiments,
and the impossibility of recruiting from them in future, if harsh
evictions are not stopped, the reverend gentlemen continued:-
"Let me give you words
more eloquent than mine on this point, which will show the infatuation
of our Government in allowing her bravest soldiers to be driven to
foreign lands and to be crushed and oppressed by the tyrant's rod. After
having asked, What have these people done against the State, when they
were so remorselessly driven from their native shores, year by year in
batches of thousands? What class have they wronged that they should
suffer a penalty so dreadful? this writer [Major W. S. Butler in
MacMillan's Magazine for May, 1878.] gives the answer:--They have done
no wrong. Yearly they have sent forth their thousands from their glens
to follow the battle flag of Britain wherever it flew. It was a Highland
rearlorn hope that followed the broken wreck of Cumberland's army
after the disastrous day at Fontenoy, when more British soldiers lay
dead upon the field than fell at Waterloo itself. It was another
Highland regiment that scaled the rock-face over the. St. Lawrence, and
first formed a line in the September dawn on the level sward of Abraham.
It was a Highland line that broke the power of the Alaharatta hordes and
gave Wellington his maiden victory at Assaye. Thirty-four battalions
marched from these glens to fight in America, Germany, and India ere the
18th century had run its course; and yet, while abroad over the earth,
Highlanders were the first in assault and the last in retreat, their
lowly homes in far away glens were being dragged down, and the wail of
women and the cry of children went out on the same breeze that bore too
upon its wings the scent of heather, the freshness of gorse blossom, and
the myriad sweets that made the lowly life of Scotland's peasantry blest
with health and happiness. These are crimes done in the dark hours of
strife, and amid the blaze of man's passions, that sometimes make the
blood run cold as we read them; but they are not so terrible in their
red-handed vengeance as the cold malignity of a civilized law, which
permits a brave and noble race to disappear by the operation of its
legalised injustice. To convert the Highland glens into vast wastes
untenanted by human beings; to drive forth to distant and inhospitable
shores men whose forefathers had held their own among these hills,
despite Roman legion, Saxon archer, or Norman chivalry, men whose sons
died freely for England's honour through those wide dominions their
bravery had won for her. Such was the work of laws formed in a cruel
mockery of name by the Commons of England. Thus it was, that about the
year 1808 the stream of Highland soldiery, which had been gradually
ebbing, gave symptoms of running completely dry. Recruits for Highland
regiments could not be obtained for the simple reason that the Highlands
had been depopulated. Six regiments which from the date of their
foundation had worn the kilt and bonnet were ordered to lay aside their
distinctive uniform and henceforth became merged into the ordinary line
corps. From the mainland the work of destruction passed rapidly to the
isles. These remote resting-places of the Celt were quickly cleared,
during the first ten years of the great war, Skye had given 4000 of its
sons to the army. It has been computed that 1600 Skyemen stood in the
ranks at Waterloo. To-day in Skye, far as the eye can reach, nothing but
a bare brown waste is to be seen, where still the mounds and ruined
gables rise over the melancholy landscapes, sole vestiges of a soldier
race for ever passed away.'"
In January, 1882, news
had reached Inverness that Murdo Munro, one of the most comfortable
tenants on the I,eckmelm property, had been turned out, with his wife
and young family, in the snow; whereupon the writer started to enquire
into the facts, and spent a whole day among the people. What he had seen
proved to be as bad as any of the evictions of the past, except that it
applied in this instance only to one family. Murdo Munro was too
independent for the local managers, and to some extent led the people in
their opposition to Mr. Pirie's proceedings: he was first persecuted and
afterwards evicted in the most cruel fashion. Other reasons were
afterwards given for the manner in which this poor man and his family
were treated, but it has been shown conclusively, in a report published
at the time, that these reasons were an afterthought. [See pamphlet
published at the time entitled Report on the Leckmelm Evictions, by
Alexander Mackenzie, F.S.A., Scot., Editor of the "Celtic Magazine," and
Dean of Guild of Inverness.] From this report we shall quote a few
extracts:-
"So long as the laws of
the land permit men like Mr. Pirie to drive from the soil, without
compensation, the men who, by their labour and money, made their
properties what they are, it must be admitted that he is acting within
his legal rights, however much we may deplore the manner in which he has
chosen to exercise them. We have to deal more with the system which
allows him to act thus, than with the special reasons which he considers
sufficient to justify his proceedings; and if his conduct in Leckmelm
will, as I trust it may, hasten on a change in our land legislation, the
hardships endured by the luckless people who had the misfortune to come
under his unfeeling yoke and his ideas of moral right and wrong, will be
more than counterbalanced by the benefits which will ultimately accrue
to the people at large. This is why I, and I believe the public, take
such an interest in this question of the evictions at Leckmelm.
"I have made the most
careful and complete inquiry possible among Mr. Pirie's servants, the
tenants, and the people of Ullapool. Mr. Pirie's local manager, after I
had informed him of my object, and put him on his guard as to the use
which I might make of his answers, informed me that he never had any
fault to find with Munro, that he always found him quite civil, and that
he had nothing to say against him. The tenants, without exception, spoke
of him as a good neighbour. The people of Ullapool, without exception,
so far as I could discover, after enquiries from the leading men in
every section of the community, speak well of him, and condemn Mr.
Pirie. Munro is universally spoken of as one of the best and most
industrious workmen in the whole parish, and, by his industry and
sobriety, he has been able to save a little money in Leckmelm, where he
was able to keep a fairly good stock on his small farm, and worked
steadily with a horse and cart. The stock handed over by him to Mr.
Pirie consisted of 1 bull, 2 cows, 1 stirk, 1 Highland pony, and about
40 sheep, which represented a considerable saving. Several of the other
tenants had a similar stock, and some of them had even more, all of
which they had to dispense with under the new arrangements, and
consequently lost the annual income in money and produce available
therefrom. We all know that the sum received for this stock cannot last
long, and cannot be advantageously invested in anything else. The people
must now live on their small capital, instead of what it produced, so
long as it lasts, after which they are sure to be helpless, and many of
them become chargeable to the parish.
"The system of petty
tyranny which prevails at Leckmelm is scarcely credible. Contractors
have been told not to employ Munro. For this I have the authority of
some of the contractors themselves. Local employers of labour were
requested not to employ any longer people who had gone to look on among
the crowd, while Munro's family, goods, and furniture, were being turned
out. Letters were received by others complaining of the same thing from
higher quarters, and threatening ulterior consequences. Of all this I
have the most complete evidence, but in the interests of those involved,
I shall mention no names, except in Court, where I challenge Mr. Pirie
and his subordinates to the proof if they deny it.
" The extract in the
action of removal was signed only on the 24th of January last in
Dingwall. On the following day the charge is dated, and two days after,
on the 27th of January, the eviction is complete. When I visited the
scene on Friday morning, I found a substantially built cottage, and a
stable at the end of it, unroofed to within three feet of the top on
either side, and the whole surroundings a perfect scene of desolation;
the thatch, and part of the furniture, including portions of broken
bedsteads, tubs, basins, teapots, and various other articles, strewn
outside. The cross-beams, couples, and cabars were still there, a
portion of the latter brought from Mr. Pine's manager, and paid for
within the last three years. The Sheriff officers had placed a padlock
on the door, but I made my way to the inside of the house through one of
the windows from which the frame and glass had been removed. I found
that the house, before the partitions had been removed, consisted of two
good-sized rooms and a closet, with fireplace and chimney in each gable,
the crook still hanging in one of them, the officer having apparently
been unable to remove it after a considerable amount of wrenching. The
kitchen window, containing eight panes of glass, was still whole, but
the closet window, with four panes, had been smashed; while the one in
the "ben" end of the house had been removed. The cottage, as crofters'
houses go, must have been fairly comfortable. Indeed, the cottages in
Leckmelm are altogether superior to the usual run of crofters' houses on
the West Coast, and the tenants are allowed to have been the most
comfortable in all respects in the parish, before the land was taken
from them. They are certainly not the poor, miserable creatures, badly
housed, which Mr. Pirie and his friends led the public to believe within
the last two years.
"The barn in which the
wife and infant had to remain all night had the upper part of both
gables blown out by the recent storm, and the door was scarcely any
protection from the weather. The potatoes, which had been thrown out in
showers of snow, were still there, gathered and a little earth put over
them by the friendly neighbours, "The mother and children wept piteously
during the eviction, and many of the neighbours, afraid to succour or
shelter them, were visibly affected to tears; and the whole scene was
such that, if Mr. Pirie could have seen it, I feel sure that he would
never consent to be held responsible for another. His humanity would
soon drive his stern ideas of legal right out of his head, and we would
hear no more of evictions at Leckmelm."
Those of the tenants who
are still at Leckmelm are permitted to remain in their cottages as
half-yearly tenants on payment of 12s. per annum, but liable to be
removed at any moment that their absolute lord may take it into his head
to evict them; or, what is much more precarious, when they may give the
slightest offence to any of his meanest subordinates. |
