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The year 1853 opened with
the new Government under the Earl of Aberdeen, which replaced the
short-lived administration of Lord Derby and Mr Disraeli. Lord
Aberdeen’s Government was really a coalition, including such statesmen
as Lord John Russell, Lord Palmerston, and Sir James Graham, and
representatives of a younger generation like Mr Gladstone, the Duke of
Argyll, and Earl Granville. The Earl of Clarendon was Foreign Secretary.
Mr Gladstone made his first great mark as a financier, by a Budget which
lowered interest by changes in stocks, readjusted the income-tax and
legacy duties, and reduced taxes on 133 articles. Mr Gladstone extended
the income-tax from incomes of £150 to those of £100 a year, and
sketched a scheme for getting rid of the tax in 1860—a hope, however,
which was not realised. The Budget brought the finances of the country
into a stable condition, and was generally acceptable.
During the year a dispute arose between Russia and Turkey, which finally
resulted in the Crimean war. In the first instance the dispute was
between the Greek and Latin Churches regarding the holy places in
Palestine. This question was solved, but in course of it the Emperor
Nicolas of Russia claimed a protectorate over the Greek Christians in
Turkey, which claim the Porte resisted. The Emperor sent as Ambassador
to Constantinople Prince Alensohikoff, a man of dictatorial temperament
who embittered the quarrel. The Turkish side was supported by the
British Ambassador, Sir Stratford Canning, who was raised to the peerage
as Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. A Congress of the Powers held at Vienna,
failed to bring the parties to terms. The British and French Governments
ordered their fleets to Besika Bay, at the mouth of the Dardanelles, to
guard against a sudden attack on Constantinople. On 2nd July the
Russians crossed the Prutli, invading the Turkish principalities, but
even then wiar was net declared. The next step, however, was an attack
by a Russian naval force on a squadron of Turkish ships at Sinope, when
the latter were destroyed. The news of this attack aroused .passionate
indignation throughout Europe. Both the British and French Governments
were anxious to avoid war, but when the year closed all the omens
pointed to the conflict which was soon to break out.
From the “Inverness Courier."
1853.
January 6.—“A fine golden eagle, taken in Strathglass, is at present in
this town, with a view to its being sent to Paris as a present to the
Emperor of France. The gentleman who sends it is, we believe, acquainted
with Louis Napoleon, and the Emperor must acknowledge that this noble
bird from our mountains is a very different looking creature from the
miserable draggled eagle he took with him to Boulogne. A number of
rabbits have been sent as food for the eagle during its journey.”
Ibid.—The Hercules frigate, Captain Baynton, sailed from Campbelltown
Loch on Sunday, 26th ult., with about 730 emigrants for Australia. The
passengers were mostly from the islands of Skye, Harris, and Uist.
January 13.—The death is announced of Mr Roderick Reach, who had been
for nearly ten years London correspondent of the “Courier.” Mr Reach was
a native of Tain, and, after being educated at the Academy there,
studied for the law. He then entered on an engagement in the West
Indies, and resided for five or six years at Berbice, but on his health
giving way he returned to this country, and became a solicitor and
accountant in Inverness. “For many years the deceased was one of our
most respected, useful, and popular citizens. His talents and
accomplishments rendered his society much coveted, and his hospitable
table was open to men of all sects and parties, and to vast numbers of
strangers in their summer visits to the Highlands. In 1843 Mr Reach
removed to London. He kindly consented to act as London correspondent
for this paper (of which he was one of the original proprietors), and we
need not say how much his admirable powers of observation and
description—his wide range of reading and knowledge of the world—and his
lively, discursive, yet forcible style, contributed to the delight and
instruction of the public. There were few subjects, literary or
scientific, in which he did not take some interest, and he had a
singular felicity in popularising whatever he touched upon. His heart
beat to every tender and generous impulse, and amidst the crowd of
London he never ceased to think, to talk, and to write of his native
north.” Air Reach was about sixty-six years of age. For some months
before his death he had been compelled, by declining health, to give up
writing, and his weekly task had devolved on his son, Mr Angus B. Reach.
Ibid.—The Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society
contained a report of the improvements effected on the waste land of
Urchil, forming part of Culloden Moor, and now included in the farm of
Leanach. The paper was written by the tenant, Air John Rose, “an
enterprising, intelligent, and successful agriculturist," who had
obtained the medium gold medal of the society. Air Rose became tenant of
Urchil (called Urchills in the notice) in 1840, under an improving or
thirty-one years lease. When he took possession, the farm consisted of
256 acres 3 roods and 32 poles of arable land, and 248 acres 8 roods and
18 poles of pasture land— giving a total of 505 acres and 10 poles. All
the land at the time was in a wretched condition, and Mr Rose set
himself to improve and reclaim. He built fences, constructed upwards of
thirty-six miles of drains, and erected a steading, at a cost of £800.
The abstract of cost and returns showed that he had expended £4489, and
had realised from produce £2215. A large part of the lease was, of
course, still to run. The proprietor, Air Forbes of Culloden, in
appreciation of Air Rose’s exertions, had presented him with a handsome
silver salver, suitably inscribed. Mr Rose was also tenant of the farm
of Kirk-ton, and of other farms in the neighbourhood of Inverness.
Ibid.—The Rev. Alexander Campbell, parish minister of Croy, died a few
days before, at the age of 72. In 1820 Mr Campbell was ordained minister
of Dores, and was translated to Croy in 1823. “Many will remember the
circumstances attending Mr Campbell’s acceptance of this new office. A
strong feeling had been raised against him in the parish, and it was
found necessary to resort to the obnoxious alternative of employing the
military to enforce the induction. Happily, Mr Campbell survived the
last trace of ill-feeling which naturally arose among the parishioners
through this violent step, and no pastor could have lived on better
terms with his flock than did this lamented gentleman for many years in
the parish of Croy.’’
Ibid.—A paragraph gives an account of an old crofter, Paul Macdonald,
aged 98, who had been for eighty years tenant of the small steading of
Auldvounie, Curdlas, situated in Glen-Goullie, on the Callindal-loch
estate, seven miles from any other dwelling. Paul was styled the “King
of Curdlas.” He remembered his father lamenting the fate of the
Highlanders at Culloden, and he had himself been engaged in many local
frays. When George Fourth visited Edinburgh, Paul was sent by the Duke
of Gordon to take part in the procession. “Every article in the house of
Auldvounie is of the most primitive description, and the whole was
formed and fashioned by the gudeman himself. Half-a-century ago he
planted on his croft a sapling of mountain ash, which a few years since
he cut down, and with a clasp knife and dirk he contrived to make a
couple of chairs and a bedstead, which now decorate his humble dwelling.
With the same tools he fashioned the cas-chrom, or plough, with which he
tills his croft. It may be added that the sole horse possessed by the
old man is thirty-six years of age.”—The same issue contains a letter
from the Rev. Alexander Macgregor, then minister of the Gaelic Church,
Edinburgh, giving a sketch of the life of Flora Macdonald. Many years
afterwards, when minister of the West Church, Inverness, he published a
life of Flora.
January 13 and 20.—The death is announced in Canada West of Mr John
Fraser, formerly a merchant in Inverness, and Provost of the burgh from
1834 to 1836. In 1837 he went to Canada as Chief Commissioner of the
British American Land Company, and resided at Sherbooke, Canada East. In
1844 he took up his residence in London, Canada West, as agent of the
Bank of Montreal. “In all the relations of life he won the admiration
and respect of his fellow citizens; to every movement for the promotion
of morals, sobriety, and education, he proved himself an ardent friend.”
Mr Fraser was killed at the age of fifty-seven by being thrown from his
carriage. He was educated at the Inverness Royal Academy and King’s
College, Aberdeen, where he graduated in 1812, but subsequently took up
his father’s business in Inverness. Mr Fraser was the father of the late
Rev. Dr Donald Fraser, of Inverness and Marylebone.
Ibid.—The right of patronage to the second charge of Inverness had now
devolved on the Presbytery, which issued a presentation in favour of the
Rev. John Macewen, of Dyke.—Proposals were going on for the
establishment of a cotton or new woollen manufactory in Inverness.
January 20.—Letters appear from Australia giving an account of the
condition of the country and the rush for the gold-diggings. A writer
from Melbourne, who had taken out a cargo of goods there, tells his
father that the charges for warehouse accommodation were enormous. “A
place not bigger than your stable can readily bring £600 a year. A
wretched storehouse, not better than a bam, cannot be procured under
£1500 a year, paid in advance. Tradesmen get £1 a day, but lodging and
high living swamp everything.” In a previous letter the London
correspondent says that gold was now being realised at the rate of
twenty millions per annum in our own colonies, to say nothing of
California.
January 27.—The Emperor Napoleon had announced his engagement to Eugenie
de Montijo, Countess of Teba, and notice was taken of her Scottish
ancestry through the Kirkpatricks. The marriage is recorded in the
following issue.
Ibid.—The death is announced of Dr Simon Mackintosh, minister of the
East Church, Aberdeen. He was a native of Ardersier and had been for a
short time minister of the Third Charge, Inverness. He had also been one
of the presentees to the parish of Daviot while the controversy was
going on in that parish before the Disruption. Dr Mackintosh was a man
of classical abtainments, and a Gaelic scholar. He was scarcely forty
years of age.—A memorial signed by nearly a thousand members, was
presented to the Rev. Mr Macewen, Dyke, asking him to accept the
presentation to the West Church in Inverness. A counter petition was got
up in Dyke asking him to stay in the parish.—A Ragged School was opened
in Inverness. It was situated in a school-house in Tanner’s Lane, off
Tomnahurich Street, where Mr Mackay, who was appointed teacher, had
previously instructed 170 children in the elements of education.
Ibid.—Mr Robert Harper, B.A., of Cambridge, who had been for a time
Rector of the Inverness Academy, accepted the appointment of second
master of the Grammar School of Dudley, in Worcestershire. He was
succeeded as Rector of the Academy by Mr Scott, classical master, who
had been for nearly thirty years connected with the institution.—The
project of a railway between Inverness and Perth was again under
discussion.—The Hercules, with 916 emigrants on board, left Rothesay for
Australia on Sunday week.
February 3.—Miss Jane Mackenzie of Kilcoy, only daughter of the late Sir
Colin Mackenzie of Kilcoy, was married on the 27th ult. to Major Wardlaw,
son of Lieutenant-General Wardlaw. The marriage took place at Belmaduthy
House, and there were rejoicings in the Black Isle.—Mr James Milne,
shipowner, at Findhorn, a man of influence in Morayshire, died on the
22nd ult., at the age of fifty-five. One of his daughters became the
wife of Sir Joseph Prestwick, an eminent geologist, and was the author
of her husband’s biography and other books.
February 10.—Rev. Mr Macewen, Dyke, declined the presentation to the
second charge in Inverness. The patron then offered the appointment to
the Rev. Ewen Mackenzie, Kirkhill, holding that the patronage had not
devolved on the Presbytery, as the Rev. Mr Stewart, Aberfoyle, had
accepted the presentation, although he had afterwards resigned.
Ibid.—Mr John Paterson, Skinnet, an extensive sheep farmer in Caithness
and Sutherland, died on the 27th ult. A native of the Borders, he came
early to Caithness, and gradually rose to wealth and influence. “For
nearly half a century Mr Paterson had been the very life and spirit of
the two great markets, Inverness and Falkirk, of the former of which he
might be said to be the chief promoter.”
February 17.—Mr A. Hill Rennie of Balliliesk died the previous week. He
was a member of Town Council, and had been for twenty-five years a
citizen of Inverness, conducting large business transactions, apparently
in the timber trade.
Ibid.—The construction of the new bridge was at a standstill. “Of the
exact cause of the state of matters we are not aware; but it is known
that contracts for the resumption of the works have of late been all but
completed with more than one party, and then abandoned.” There was a
heavy snowstorm in the Highlands, particularly severe in the
neighbourhood of Inverness. In the streets snow lay to the depth of two
feet, and the roads were impassable.
February 24.—The snowstorm continued, and the “Courier” for the second
week in succession was obliged to publish without its London letter.—The
Ness Islands were still without bridges, which had been carried away in
the flood of 1849, but a committee of young men had now taken the matter
up, and were canvassing for support. A sum of £140 had been
subscribed.—A contract for the new Suspension Bridge had at length been
entered into with Mr Hendrie, Inverness, and eighty men were at work.
March 3.—Rev. Mr Mackenzie, Kirkhill, declined to proceed under the
presentation issued in his favour to the second charge of the parish of
Inverness. The Procurator of the Church had given his opinion that the
right of presentation had fallen to the Presbytery, seeing that Mr
Stewart 'had declined, and had not vacated the charge of Aberfoyle.
Ibid.—The steeple on the English Free Church, Inverness (United Free
High), would not have been erected except for (the liberality of Mr
Duncan Forbes of Leanach, and his brother, Mr Forbes of Culloden. The
former had made himself responsible to the committee for the cost of the
steeple, and now, on behalf of himself and his brother, handed over £360
to the building fund.
Ibid.—The workmen at the new bridge came upon the foundation beam of the
timber bridge which spanned the Ness before the erection of the stone
bridge in 1684. The beam was a splendid block of oak wood, and lay
directly beneath the abutment of the old bridge. “Immediately beneath
the beam were discovered about a dozen very curious pins for fastening
dresses, and a silver ring of peculiar construction and workmanship. The
pins are composed of copper and zinc—copper greatly predominating—and
are of a bright golden colour; they vary in length from four to about
seven inches; there are several varieties of form, all of them elegant
and chaste in style. The pins are still sharp and delicately pointed,
and they have suffered little from old age.” An antiquary pronounced the
pins to be about 500 years old, but the ring was quite unique. “It bears
the appearanoe of hoary old age.”
March 10.—The Duchess-Dowager of Bedford, a daughter of Jane, Duchess of
Gordon, died at Nice on the 23rd ult. For twenty-three years she had
resided for several months annually at the Doune of Rothiemurchus, not
far from the spot where her mother’s remains repose. “There her
hospitality was shared with many of the men must distinguished in the
political world. Noblemen and gentlemen delighted to retire from the
laborious duties or frivolous gaieties of London life to this secluded
retreat, to enjoy the lovely scenery, the manly sports, and the cheerful
home where the Duchess presided.”
Ibid.—Out of a set of five clergymen, the Presbytery resolved to present
the Rev. Alexander Macgregor, of the Gaelic Church, Edinburgh, to the
second charge of the parish of Inverness. The presentation was accepted,
and thus began a long period of service.—The snowstorm had disappeared.
after lasting with great severity for four weeks. It was noted that
communication had been better maintained through the Badenoch district
than on the road between Inverness and Aberdeen. In both districts,
however, in the worst places, the mails had been carried by men on foot.
For a fortnight or more no vehicles could run.
March 17.—Mr Roderick Macleod of Cadboll, Lord-Lieutenant of the county
of Cromarty, who had long been in delicate health, died at Invergordon
Castle on the 13th inst., aged 66. “He was a man of sterling integrity,
liberality of sentiment, and kindness of heart. A member of the Scottish
bar, Mr Macleod sat in Parliament for some time as member for
Sutherland, and gave his support to the Reform Bill of 1832. From 1837
till 1840 he represented the Inverness district of burghs.
Ibid.—Three lithographed views of Inverness, taken by Mr C. T.
Greenwood, were published by Mr Keith, bookseller, here. “The
lithographs are drawn with accuracy and taste on tinted paper, and do
more justice to our beautiful little town than any previous engravings.
Their size is about 18 inches by 12. A prominent feature in one of the
sketches is the iron suspension bridge now being erected.”—A
pre-historic grave, consisting of stone slabs enclosing a human skeleton
and an urn, was found on the farm of Cuthbertown, at Easter Delnies. The
skeleton was bent, the urn beautifully carved, yellow outside, and black
inside. It is described as “of stonework,” but was more probably of
pottery, as the fragments crumbled to the touch. About eight years
before two similar coffins, containing skeletons and urns, were found
within a few yards of the same place.
Ibid.—James Fotheringham, the oldest Freemason in Inverness, and the
founder of the Lodge of Oddfellows, died on the 6th inst., at the age of
92. He had been janitor for the Bank of Scotland, and was respected by
all classes as a warm-hearted and upright man.
March 24.—The Glen-Tilt right-of-way case had come to an end. The Lord
Ordinary found “that there is a public road leading from Castleton of
Braemar, rin the county of Aberdeen, through the upper part of the
valley of the Dee, and thence in a southerly direction through the Glen
of Tilt, and the property of the defender, the Duke of Atholl, to Blair
Atholl, in the oounty of Perth..” The Duke might have carried the case
to the House of Lords, but refrained, or, as the editor puts it, “wisely
abandoned his attempt to shut out the public from Glen-Tilt.”
Ibid.—A meeting was held at Stafford House, attended by about forty
ladies, to promote an address from the women of Great Britain and
Ireland to the women of the United States, on the subject of slavery. A
report was read by the Duchess of Sutherland, and it was stated that the
signatures to the address numbered 562,848, bound in twenty-six large
folio volumes. It was resolved to send the address to Mrs Beecher Stowe,
whose work, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” had attained a vast circulation in this
country.
April 7.—On the 1st inst. the Aberdeen Steam Navigation Company’s
steamer, the Duke of Sutherland, with goods and passengers from London,
was wrecked close to the pier of Aberdeen, and out of a living freight
of fifty passengers and crew, sixteen were drowned. There was at the
time a heavy sea running on the bar, and a freshet on the River Dee.
Just as the steamer was crossing the bar the current threw her head
towards the point of the pier, and when the captain, to escape striking,
reversed engines, the vessel was caught in a heavy sea, and driven right
on the rocks by the breakwater. A series of mishaps occurred to the
boats and the rocket apparatus, and the above-mentioned sixteen persons
perished within a stone’s cast of safety. The master, Captain Howling,
in endeavouring to warp a line, lost his balance, and, falling into tlie
sea, was drowned.
Ibid.—The Highland dress of a Scottish nobleman, Lord Orkney, attracted
great attention at a ball given by the Emperor and Empress of the
French, in Paris. He is described as wearing “the knife at the garter,
the hunting horn, the plaid, the kilt, the bonnet, the sporran, all
complete as Roderick Dhu or Fergus Macivor.” We are also told that “he
drew more eyes upon him than even the Duke of Brunswick, who was covered
with diamonds.”
April 14.—The scheme of a railway between Inverness and Perth was
revived, and steps were taken for a fresh survey of such parts as
presented special difficulty.—From correspondence between Mr Rainy of
Raasay and Sir Charles Trevelyan it appeared that the Raasay emigrants,
who went to Australia the previous year, were well satisfied, and were
urgent for friends and acquaintances to join them. The Emigration
Commissioners announced that the continued ability of the society to
give assistance would depend “upon the prompt payment of the advances we
have made to those who have already emigrated.” The ship Hercules,
carrying emigrants from Skye, had been detained at Queenstown owing to
an outbreak of smallpox.
April 24.—Mrs Beecher Stowe, the author of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” had
arrived at Liverpool, and was presented with a purse containing £130
from the ladies of that city. The author of “Sam Slick” arrived by the
same vessel.
Ibid.—A party of students from Inverness, visiting Culloden Moor, turned
up a stone below the surface of the ground where the graves were most
numerous, and found an octagon crystal bottle, well corked, and
containing the following paper: — “This was left by Hugh and John Lee,
from Manchester, who, on 18th March 1837, came to see the field on which
some of their forefathers fell. They hope that no true Scotchman will
destroy this.” The youths replaced the bottle.
April 28.—Air Gladstone’s famous Budget is dealt with. His speech
occupied five hours. Many changes were made, but only two need be noted
here. One was the reduction of the advertisement duty to sixpence, which
the editor characterises as a “halting, probably a reluctant, step.” The
most important change in the stamp-duties was that which laid the legacy
tax on real as well as on personal property. “It has been a
long-standing grievance that a professional man’s, or tradesman’s, small
savings on life-assurance, when passed to his family, were taxed by the
State, while landed estates passed from generation to generation
Scot-free.”
Ibid.—The Committee of Management of the Inverness West Church presented
a petition to the Synod of Moray asking that Court to recommend to the
General Assembly to assist, by a collection throughout the Church or
otherwise, in extricating the West Church; and its late incumbent’s
family (the family of Air Clark) from the difficulties which embarrassed
them. It appears that Mr Clark had devoted about £2000 to the building
of the church, besides a sum of £700, of which repayment had been
guaranteed by the Presbytery of Inverness. The Synod agreed to transmit
the petition.
Alay 5.—At the Inverness County meeting, on the motion of Mr Mackintosh
of Raigmore, a resolution was adopted recommending to favourable
consideration the scheme for a railway between Inverness and Perth.
Ibid.—Air John Macdougall, long a farmer at Clephanton, on the estate of
Kilravock. died at the age of ninety-three. He was the father of Charles
Macdougall, advocate, whose name occurs at an earlier date, and whose
premature death in the West Indies was greatly lamented. The father was
a native of Breadalbane, but settled early in the north, and was greatly
respected.
May 12.—The illness of the London correspondent, Mr Angus B. Reach, is
mentioned. His doctor had interdicted him from writing. Afterwards, as
we know, the late Shirley Brooks acted in his place. —A paragraph
records the death of Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Macleod, who entered
the Madras Army nearly sixty years before, and served under the Duke of
Wellington in the Mahratta campaign.
May 19.—-The London correspondent says: — “The streets have been for
months past, and are now, cut to pieces with trenches for laying down
the electric telegraph. London underground will soon be one maze of
stretching wires and one gleam of flashing messages. All the public
offices are now electrically connected with each other; all the police
offices, a great many of the mercantile houses with the railway lines,
most of the clubs with the House and the Royal Italian Opera, with the
House and the central termini. A new line has been successfully laid
down across the open part of the Channel to Ostend, and it is expected
that another attempt will be made between Holyhead and Kingston, or a
shorter course between Port-Patrick and Donaghadee.” The year 1837 is
generally assigned for the birth of the electric telegraph, but its use
took time to develop.
Ibid.—The Rev. Alexander Macgregor was inducted to the West Church,
Inverness. The same issue records that Mr Macgregor had presented to the
Society of Antiquaries a bronze celt and a large stone patera, found
deeply embedded in a moss in the parish of Kilmuir, Skye.—The Rev. Mr
Macrae of the Free Church, Brae-mar, had accepted a call to Knockbain.—•
Near Fort-Augustus, “during the process of blasting a large stone of
several tons’ weight,” a cavity was discovered in the oentre of it, two
feet long, eighteen inches wide, and twelve inches deep. “In this cavity
were found several human bones, a bottle which would hold about a Scotch
pint, and what appear to be the remains of a Highland dirk. The bottle
is in three pieces, perhaps broken by the explosion. The blaster noticed
a seam or fissure in the stone before blasting it.”
May 26.—The dispute between Russia and Turkey was coming to a crisis.
Prince Menschikoff had demanded a final decision from the Sultan, and on
both sides warlike preparations were going on. “Will the Czar venture to
precipitate hostilities in the face of England and France? We are
pledged to support the independence of Turkey, and a British fleet has
sailed for the Mediterranean. The French Ambassador is in cordial
co-operation with Lord Stratford, and the Sultan thus backed is strong
in his right. The Emperor of Russia is not likely, we repeat, to
encounter such formidable opponents, and we consequently anticipate that
some unimportant concessions will be made and peace preserved.”
Unhappily these anticipations were not realised.
Ibid.—A lithograph sketch had been prepared by Mr Batchen, architect, of
the new buildings in Bridge Street to be erected by the Town Council in
place of the old Court-House, etc. “The only objection to the scheme, if
it proves a paying one, which can possibly be urged, is strongly brought
out by Mr Batchen’s lithograph—namely, the absurdity of attaching a
steeple to a row of drapers’ or grocers’ shops. It seems droll enough to
raise a lofty steeple on a jail, but by the new arrangement, the only
conceivable purpose of our elegant spire will be to support the
weather-cock and amuse the jackdaws.”
June 2.—At the General Assembly of the Established Church a committee
was appointed to assist in raising funds to liquidate the debt on the
Inverness West Church. The Assembly considered the case of a parish
schoolmaster at Kiltearn, who had absented himself from the parish
church, had occasionally attended the Free Church, and had also had a
child baptised by the Free Church minister. The schoolmaster had sent in
his resignation to the Presbytery, but there was only one minister
present when it came up, and he had subsequently withdrawn it. He was
now ready to sign the formula and the Confession, and even to have his
child re-baptised by the parish minister. Dr Cook advised the Assembly
that there was no necessity for a reference, and that the Presbytery had
full right and control.—The issue contains long letters from Highland
emigrants to Australia, all satisfied and cheerful.
June 9.—A return is given of the operations of the Highland and Island
Emigration Society during the year 1852, being the first year of its
existence. The total number of emigrants, adults, and children came to
2605, distributed as follows:—To New South Wales, 522; Victoria, 1633;
South Australia, 411; Van Diemen’s Land, 39. The details give 380
married couples, 417 single men, 490 single women, 497 boys under
fourteen, and 442 girls. There was a surplus of males among the children
under 14, and a surplus of females above that age.
Ibid.—Died at Helmsdale, on the 2nd inst., William Macbeth, better known
as the blind piper. “Although blind from his infancy, he could make all
the instruments belonging to the bagpipes, besides all the tools
required by a farmer for cultivating the soil. He had travelled
Scotland, the greater part of London, and most of the thoroughfares of
the principal towns in England, by aid of a boy who led him.”
June 16.—The late Sir Kenneth Mackenzie of Gairloch had recently come of
age, and rejoicings were held on the Gairloch estates.
June 23.—The laird of Inshes proposed to feu part of his ground at
Millburn.
June 30.—A movement was on foot for the removal of disabilities, which
prevented the clergy of the Episcopal Church in Scotland from taking
curacies or holding benefices in the Church of England. The disabilities
dated from the Jacobite risings of the eighteenth century. “There are
some old people still living who have heard from the lips of the widow
of the Rev. James Hay—an Episoopal minister in Inverness during the
latter part of the eighteenth century—how her husband and his
congregation evaded the intolerant statute [which limited the attendance
to five.] They met in a house at the east end of Baron Taylor’s Lane;
and while Air Hay read service in an apartment containing only four
other persons, a trap-door in the ceiling was opened, so that the little
flock assembled in the upper room were enabled to hear their minister
and join in the prayers. A trusty Episcopalian was stationed at the
door, to give notice when any Hanoverian informer appeared, and on a
preconcerted signal being given, the trap-door was closed.”
July 7.—The Committee of Subscribers for the improvement of the Ness
Islands had received contributions to the amount of £300, and obtained
sanction from the Town Council for the erection of bridges. They hoped
also to raise sufficient to erect a lodge. The Council agreed to give a
subscription of £50.
July 14.—The Russian troops had entered the Principalities of Moldavia
and Wallachia, now known as Roumania. The British and French fleets were
in Besika Bay, and the situation was under discussion between the
Governments. “It is rather remarkable,” says the editor, “that with
matters in this dubious and perilous position there should be SO' little
apparent excitement in the public mind. If war were declared to-morrow
it would hardly be a surprise; and yet there does not appear to be even
any great curiosity as to the merits of the question on which that dread
appeal is possibly to be taken.”
July 21.—At the Sheep and Wool Fair there was a rise in prices for all
descriptions of sheep of from 20 to 30 per cent. In wool the sales were
limited on account of the high prices asked. Buyers were prepared to
give an advance similar to that on sheep, but in many instances this was
refused. It is stated that the transactions at the market now amounted
annually to about £200,000.
Ibid.—General Stuart, an aged officer in the Russian service, visited
Inverness. He claimed to be descended from the Royal Family of Stuart
through Prince Charles’s daughter, the Duchess of Albany. For many years
the venerable officer had made a pilgrimage to Scotland every three or
four years to visit the scenes celebrated in connection with the
Forty-five.
July 28.—In accordance with the feeling of the House of Commons Mr
Gladstone agreed to abolish the advertisement' duty instead of merely
reducing it by two-thirds. In consequence of this the “Courier”
announced that it would have “a class of small cheap advertisements at
Is 6d each,” for persons seeking situations and the like.
Ibid.—Several items of local interest are recorded. One is the death of
two of the oldest citizens, Donald Fraser, the bellman, and John
Macnaughton, the hook-dresser. Donald, though very frail, discharged his
duties to the last. Macnaughton for a long time enjoyed the honour of
being the only professional dresser of fly-hooks north of Aberdeen.
“Thirty years ago not a hook was to be had in Inverness which had not
passed through John’s hands.” Anglers paid half-a-crown for the
commonest 6almon fly.—The Ness Islands Committee had adopted plans by Mr
Dredge for the erection of bridges.—The Rev. George Shepherd, Elgin,
died at the age of 59. He had been minister of Laggan and of Kingussie,
and joined the Free Church at the Disruption. Afterwards he accepted a
call to Elgin.—A paragraph tells about the thirty-six inhabitants of St
Kilda who left in the autumn of 1852. Three died on the passage to
Melbourne; the others, within two days of their arrival, were all
engaged by one employer, at wages varying from £50 to £70 a year.
August 4.—An emigrant ship, called the Countess of Cawdor, cleared out
of the Muirtown Looks on the 1st inst. The vessel belonged to Mr Dallas,
Nairn, and was bound for Australia. The emigrants numbered about sixty,
and their departure excited great interest.
Ibid.—The Earl of Seafield died at Cullen House on 30th July, in his
seventy-fifth year. His lordship was much esteemed as a kind landlord.
He planted and improved largely, rebuilt the town of Cullen, constructed
the harbours of Cullen and Portsoy, and made great improvements on the
mansion-house and pleasure grounds. His elder brother, Sir Lewis
Alexander Grant, succeeded in 1811 his cousin James, seventh Earl of
Findlater and fourth Earl of Seafield, who died without issue. The
deceased Earl succeeded his brother in 1840.
Ibid.—Local works and improvements are the subject of notice. The new
Ness Bridge was proceeding very slowly. “The contractor, Air Hendrie,
has been working with might and main, and he has lately been in the
south obtaining larger pumps for emptying the coffer-dam. The hard and
stony nature of the lower soil, into which the piles had to be driven,
and the porous, gravelly nature of the upper stratum, have been the
chief difficulties to contend with.” —Most of the building forming the
old Jail in Bridge Street had been removed, and the beautiful steeple
was to stand for a time in solitary state.—The building of the new
lock-up was going on at the base of the Castle Hill.—The improvements at
the western end of the Castle Hill had been all but completed. A lodge
had been erected, a gateway constructed, and an iron railing run along
part of the hill. “The most marked improvements effected by the
Commissioners are enclosing the grounds with a good wall, smoothing the
surface of the hill, re-sowing the whole with grass, and planting a row
of trees, which will hereafter form a pleasant overhanging screen along
the roadside and the bank of the river.”—At the mouth of the river the
Harbour Trustees were working to deepen and widen the channel of the
river.—The heavy breastwork of hewn stone, thrown from Kessock to the
outer bank of the Canal, which was undertaker conjointly by the
Mackintosh Trustees and Mr Matheson, M.P , had been completed for some
time, and was pronounced to be as fine a piece of workmanship as could
be found around Inverness.
Ibid.—Sir James Matheson, M.P., was entertained to public dinners at
Invergordon and Dingwall. At, the Dingwall meeting the late Sir Kenneth
Mackenzie of Gairloch made his first public appearance since he had
attained his majority, and met with a very cordial reception.
August 11.—The bill for the abolition of University tests in Scotland
had passed its third reading in the House of Commons, and afterwards
passed through the Tipper House. The Lord Advocate’s Sheriff
Courts Bill, which, had been the subject of much discussion in Scotland,
also became law.
Ibid.—In the excavations going on at the site of the old prison, at the
corner of Bridge Street and Church Street, ancient tanpits were found,
abounding in broken horns and bones of deer, and in one spot the remains
of a pig-stye had been preserved ! The vertebral bone of a whale had
also been turned up.
Ibid.—The East Free Church had been almost entirely rebuilt and
improved, at a cost of about £1200. On the previous Sunday services were
conducted in Gaelic by the Rev. Mr Maclauchlan, and in English, at two
diets, by the Rev. Dr Candlish. The collection amounted to £161.
Ibid.—In addition to two daily coaches, a daily luggage van was running
between Dalwhinnie and Perth, exclusively for baggage, game, and dogs.
It was the size of a large omnibus, and was constantly crowded.
August 18.—Grouse shooting opened under very promising circumstances.
“The deeds of the first day of the shooting are in some instances,
perhaps, unparalleled.”
August 25.—Lieutenant-General Lord Saltoun died on the 17th inst., at
his shooting quarters at Auchinroath, near Rothes, in the 68th year of
his age. In his military career Lord Saltoun distinguished himself under
Moore and Wellington, and was severely wounded at Waterloo. He was a
Knight of the Thistle, and held other honours, British and Foreign.
Ibid.—A memoir had been published of Mr Fairbairn, a distinsguished
Manchester engineer. He was a native of Kelso, but his father came to
the North as land-steward for the Earl of Seafield, and afterwards
rented the farm of Moy, near Contin. The son was educated partly at the
Parish School of Munlochy, and partly at a private school kept at
Kinnahaird by a relative of his own, the Rev. John Mackenzie, afterwards
minister of Lochcarron.
Ibid.—The collection of hunting trophies made by Roualeyn Gordon Cumming
in South Africa had arrived at Inverness, and were to be exhibited in
the building in Bank Street formerly occupied as the Free Church. It had
been exhibited in London for three years, and formed a great attraction.
“The collection is probably unrivalled as the work of one man; and the
specimens of wild animals are in many instances the finest in Europe of
their kind.”
September 8.—Mr William Fraser-Tytler of Balnain and Aldourie, Sheriff
of Inverness-shire, died at Malvern on the 4th inst., aged 76. He was
sheriff of the county for forty-two years, having succeeded Commissary
Fraser of Farraline in 1811, and he was also for many years convener of
the county of Inverness. His father, Lord Woodhouselee, was a
distinguished Scottish Judge and author, and his grandfather, William
Tytler of Woodhouselee, was an eminent antiquary, and wrote a defence of
Mary Queen of Scots. By the marriage of Lord Woodhouselee with Anne,
daughter and heiress of Balnain and Aldourie, these estates came into
the family, and they assumed the name of Fraser as a prefix to their own
name of Tytler. Sheriff Fraser-Tytler married Margaret Cussans, only
daughter and heiress of George Grant of Burdsyards (now Sanquhar), near
Forres; and was succeeded in the Aldourie estates by his eldest
surviving son, Captain William Fraser-Tytler of the Hon. East India
Company’s service.—The same issue records the death of Sir Charles J.
Napier, the conqueror of Scinde.
Ibid.—The estate of Islay was sold the previous week to Mr Morrison, of
the firm of Morison, Dillon, and Co., London, for the sum of £451,000.
September 15.—Painful scenes had occurred at Knoydart, on the estate of
Mrs Macdonell of Glengarry, the last portion of the property in the
hands of the Glengarry family. The greater part of a population of about
four hundred persons, men, women, and children, were evicted. On the
part of the owner it was alleged that there were not ten who had paid
rent for periods extending from six to fifteen years. A ship was engaged
to take the people either to Australia or Canada, and an outfit was
provided. Fifteen or sixteen families, however, numbering altogether
about sixty persons, refused to emigrate, and, their huts being pulled
down, they retreated to gravel pits and shelters in the hill-sides. The
occurrence, it is stated, caused a strong outburst of feeling over the
country.
September 15 and 22.—The Northern Meeting came off in favourable
weather, the games being held, as usual at this period, in the Academy
Park. “The Meeting,” we are told, “has almost entirely lost its original
character, and is much more an assembly of English sportsmen and
southern tourists than of the aristocracy of the Highlands. Scarcely a
score of Highland proprietors were on the ground, and these were almost
wholly from the neighbourhood of Inverness.” These remarks apply but
partially at the present day. Highland proprietors from all districts
are among the most regular attenders at the Meeting.
September 22.—Professor Aytoun, of Edinburgh, lectured in the
Cour1>House to a crowded audience on the Ballad Poetry of Scotland. He
appears to have been passing through Inverness in connection with his
duties as Sheriff of Orkney. The lecture was under the auspices of the
Mechanics’ Institution.
Ibid.—Mr George Young, advocate-depute (the late Lord Young) was
appointed sheriff of the county of Inverness, in succession to the late
Mr Fraser-Tytler.—The Rev. Thomas Fraser, A.M., was inducted to the
parish of Croy.
September 29.—A correspondent contradicts the statements made on behalf
of Mrs Macdonell of Glengarry regarding the condition of the Knoydart
crofters. Mrs Macdonell had only come into the management of the
property in the summer of 1852, and her first act was to warn the people
off the land. “At Martinmas of 1852 many of the crofters paid the rent,
and they all paid what they could. Glengarry was then living, but is
now, alas, dead. This is the true solution of the question.” Most of the
families who had refused to emigrate had now obtained shelter or
dwellings, chiefly through the kindness of Mr Macdonald, Scothouse.
Ibid.—Mr Gladstone, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, had been on a
visit to Dunrobin, and was detained there some time by indisposition. On
his way south he was presented with the freedom of the burgh of Dingwall
and the burgh of Inverness. “At present,” says the report, “there are
many relatives of the right hon. gentleman residing in Dingwall, and it
was at the house of one of these, Mrs Chisholm, that Mr Gladstone
remained while in town.” At Inverness, it had been arranged that the
Provost, Magistrates, and Town Council should meet him at the principal
bridge entering the town—at that time the Waterloo Bridge—but Mr
Gladstone left his carriage on the north side of Kessock Ferry, and,
after crossing, took the first omnibus. He was consequently in the Union
Hotel before his arrival was known. In both towns Mr Gladstone’s visit
excited much enthusiasm, and he delivered appropriate speeches.
October 6.—Turkey had declared war against Russia. The question now was
how the Western Powers would support their ally.
October 13.—Captain Alexander Ellice, R.N., Comptroller-General of the
Coastguard, and formerly M.P. for Harwich, died suddenly at Glenquoich,
the residence of his brother, the Right Hon. Edward Ellice, M.P. He was
about sixty years of age, and had seen a good deal of service.
Ibid.—In a paragraph on the progress of the work of erecting the
Inverness Suspension Bridge, it is stated that in laying the foundation
of the great tower, the workmen passed through a bed of clay of the
hardest nature, “almost as hard as stone itself.” Among the relics
turned up were bronze finger-rings and bronze shawl-pins of the very
earliest form.
Ibid.—An emigrant ship from Liverpool, bound for Quebec, with over 400
emigrants on board, was wrecked in Vatersay Bay, near the Island of
Barra, on the 28th ult., and 360 lives were lost. The emigrants were
English, Irish, and Scotch, including a hundred house-carpenters from
Glasgow, all of whom perished.
Ibid.—Mr Grant, factor for Knoydart, replies to the statements made by a
correspondent on the evictions. He says that the arrears of rent
outstanding amounted to £2375, and that Mrs Macdonell, acting for her
son, who was a minor, considered it her duty to remove a non-paying body
of tenants. He also says that liberal provision had been made for the
people, and that passages were paid for those who had no means. They
preferred to go to America rather than to Australia, because they had
friends and relatives in the former country.
October 20.—“The committee of the proposed Inverness and Perth Railway
have resolved—the state of the money market precluding the possibility
of raising the capital for the entire scheme at the present moment—to
confine their attention to the northernmost section, and to apply next
session of Parliament for a bill for the formation of a line of railway
from Inverness to Nairn.” It was stated that Mr Falshaw, on behalf of Mr
Brassey, railway contractor, had examined the ground, and reported
favourably, and that Mr Brassey would make a very moderate offer for the
work, and take a considerable amount of stock.
October 27.—The editor returns to the subject of the Knoydart evictions.
He finds that the recent removals did not arise from any wish on the
part of the people to go abroad, nor yet from any pressing necessity
involving the welfare of the Glengarry family or affecting the resources
of the estate, but solely from an arbitrary resolution formed by one or
more of the trustees to clear away the crofter and cottar population.
“Mrs Macdonell of Glengarry, the managing trustee, has all along
received credit for her liberality and care in providing for those of
the people who did emigrate; but the proceedings which followed have
been of a character morally indefensible, though perhaps within the
limits of the law.” These proceedings consisted of the eviction of
twenty families who remained in their old homes, and levelling twelve
houses to the ground. “Weekly since that date, acting on peremptory
orders, the sub-manager and his men have gone the round of the desolated
district, and overturned the poor structures erected by the sufferers to
shelter themselves from the storms of a premature winter.” A
representative of the “Scotsman” had visited the district, and strongly
condemned the proceedings. The arrears amounted nominally to £2300, but
the correspondent believed that it was the intention of the late
Glengarry to wipe them out. After the potato failure of 1846, he had
directed that no rent should be asked from the crofters, whom he looked
upon “less as tenantry than as children and followers.” The evictions
were everywhere created a painful impression, and were strongly
condemned. News, however, had been received that the vessel which
carried the Knoydart emigrants to Quebec had arrived all well after a
voyage of twenty-eight days.
Ibid.—Nearly a hundred persons left Lochaber the previous week for
Australia, going under the auspices of the Highland and Island
Emigration Society. They went of their own accord, and their landlord,
Lochiel, paid a third part of their expenses, and cancelled all arrears
of rent. The arrangements seem to have been carried through in the most
friendly manner, and though there was sadness at parting, the emigrants
gave three cheers as the vessel moved away.
Ibid.—Three young men were drowned by the upsetting of a boat near
Orbost, in Skye. One was the youngest son of the Orbost family.
November 3.—A visitation of cholera, though less widespread and acute
than on former occasions, had caused alarm in the country. The
Presbytery of Edinburgh had proposed a national fast, but Lord
Palmerston, who was Home Secretary, declined to comply with the request.
He recognised the Christian doctrine that “manifestations of humble
resignation to the divine will, and sincere manifestations of human
unworthiness are never more appropriate than when it has pleased
Provideuce to afflict mankind with some severe visitation;” but he
considered that the nation should proceed in the work of sanitary
purification and improvement before invoking the blessing of Heaven on
their exertions.
Ibid.—Three men from Suishnish, in Skye, were tried before the sheriff
and a jury for deforcement. “It appears that the trustee on Lord
Macdonald’s estate in Skye, with the view of forming a sheep-farm of
some extent, removed thirty-two families, or about 120 persons, from the
holdings they occupied to a different part of the estate. The arrears of
rent are said to have been trifling, and with the present improved
prices for stock, a good potato crop, and excellent herring fishing, the
men were in comfortable circumstances—able and willing to pay rent.
Indeed, the Suishnish and Borreraig crofters have always been held to be
the most respectable of their class in Skye. Some of the men resisted
the officers sent to turn them out, but no violence was used, and the
jury, by a largo majority, acquitted the parties.” It is stated that the
sympathies of the public were strongly with the Skyemen, and there was a
general impression that the proprietor himself sympathised with them.
Ibid.—A sum of £350 had been collected for the erection of bridges at
the Ness Islands, and Mr Dredge, of Bath, was now erecting the two at
each side. A sum of about £120 was still required for the erection of a
lodge and an intermediate bridge connecting the two islands.
Ibid.—Mr Alex. Grant, factor for Knoydart, wrote denying that the late
Glengarry had remitted the crofters’ rents. “I frequently,” he said,
“suggested to Glengarry the propriety of relinquishing the rents due by
the crofters, and commencing them on new accounts. He always resolutely
refused to do so, but used various ways and means to stimulate them to
habits of exertion and industry.” The editor says: — “Whatever
resolutions Glengarry expressed to Mr Grant respecting arrears, he never
offered to carry them into effect. It was not until after his death that
summonses of removal were served upon the crofters.”
November 10.—Mr Thomas Mulock, who had been for some time resident in
Inverness, apologised for certain charges which he had brought against
the Duke of Sutherland respecting the management of his estates. “My
mind,” he says, “has undergone no change respecting the impolicy of
Highland clearances. But I feel conscientiously convinced that even
unquestionable truths may be advocated with an angry pertinacity which
impedes usefulness instead of promoting it.”
November 17.—After a long series of disputes and unauthorised military
collisions, the Czar Nicolas had declared war against Turkey. The
question what the western Powers would do had not yet been determined.
Ibid.—The prospectus had now been issued for the construction of the
Inverness and Nairn Railway. The Great North of Scotland had allowed
their powers on the west side of the Spey, or at least west of Elgin, to
lapse, and had made no movement for a revival of them. Mr Brassey, “who
had made more railways than perhaps any man living,” had offered to
construct the Inverness and Nairn line for little more than £4000 a
mile. “The whole distance is but fifteen and a half miles; there is
scarcely a. brook to cross, and the land between the termini is almost a
dead level.”
Ibid.—A new landing pier, about three hundred feet in length, had been
constructed at Nairn, largely through the efforts of Provost
Wilson.—Waterworks were completed and opened at Invergordon
November 24.—The farm-steading at Bunchrew was destroyed by fire, and
some cattle perished.
Ibid.—The report of the Highland Emigration Society, organised by
Sheriff Fraser, Portree, had been issued. The Society raised in
contributions a sum of £8000, and had expended, for the year ending the
previous April, £7200: by which sum 2600 emigrants of all ages had been
enabled to emigrate to Australia. A sum of £2100 became due from the
proprietors of the estates from which these people went, on account of
one-third payable by them, and was in course of collection. An amount of
£7QuO was also due to the Society by the emigrants themselves, fpr which
the committee had taken promisory notes. The balance in the hands of the
treasurer at the date of the balance-sheet was £2748, which had since
been increased by £3000 voted by the Colonial Legislature of Van
Diemen’s Land. The Society proposed to continue its operations.
Ibid.—The proposal was mooted, at the suggestion of Bishop Eden, for the
erection of a Cathedral at Inverness as the future seat of the Bishops
of Moray and Ross. It was not, however, until 1866 that the foundation
of the Cathedral was laid.
December 1 to 22.—Meetings were held during these weeks in promotion of
the Inverness and Nairn Railway. There were also meetings for the
improvement of the sanitary condition of the town. The issue of the 15th
records the death of the Rev. James Grant, minister of Nairn, father of
Colonel J. A. Grant, the Nile traveller. He had been parish minister of
Nairn since 1815. The death is also recorded of Colonel Alexander
Fraser, Glengarry, Canada, who was a native of Glendoe, in Stratherrick,
and went in the early part of the century to Canada with the Canadian
Fencible Regiment from Scotland. He became a member of the Legislative
Council.
December 29.—This issue gives prominence to the report that “in the
balance of probabilities, and in the actual belief of the Government,”
Great Britain was now virtually at war with Russia. The destruction of a
Turkish naval squadron at Sinope by a superior naval force was at any
rate hurrying matters to a crisis. |
