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IT is the aim of the writer
of the following pages to sketch a Highland parish of our own times,
just as it is; and in doing this, there will be made such references to
the past as may enable the reader, to some extent at least, to compare a
Highland parish of to-day with that of a past of from twenty to forty
years ago.
While there is little or
nothing sensational to chronicle, it is hoped that these sketches will
not be lacking in interest to such as care to glance at the changes that
have taken place within recent years, in a part of the country long, on
account of its remoteness, invested with a sort of romance, and now
largely frequented by many, not only for the invigorating benefit of its
bracing air, but also for the richness and variety of its natural
scenery.
Stratheden is a fairly
representative Highland parish, and possesses the interesting features
of being at once materially influenced by the changes of recent times,
and of retaining a few of the special characteristics of a Highland
parish of other days.
Though not a sound
particularly inviting to the lover of harmony, the whistle of a passing
railway train may now be heard along with the bleating of the sheep that
pasture on the hillsides of Stratheden; and those of the inhabitants who
can, from personal knowledge, compare the present with the past of
twenty years ago, reckon this fact alone as a marked sign of the
progress of the age, and as a patent enough proof that the remoteness of
the past has vanished.
There are many yet living
who remember a time when Stratheden was essentially remote in respect of
the limited means of communication between it and the larger world
outside. A journey from Stratheden to Glasgow or Edinburgh, not very
many years ago, occupied four days, and such a journey was then thought
as great an undertaking as a journey across the Atlantic is considered
by many in the present day. Railway trains were unknown, and telegraphic
communication undreamt of. The mail-coach was the principal means of
communication; and though it was tardy, compared with the rapid
travelling of to-day, there are many—and these by no means slow
people—not ashamed to look back with a sort of fond regret on the days
of the mail-coach. No doubt there were many bleak journeys,—days and
nights when drifting snow or pelting rain had to be encountered; but,
generally speaking, these uninviting experiences were soon forgot, and
there was a kind of pleasing excitement in the halting at the stages on
the way, the chattings as the travellers walked up the steep brae, and
the rest in the cosy best room of the wayside inn. Along with all this,
the coaching days possessed another feature which many, probably with a
sigh, will feel as an advantage indeed. There was not, as a rule, that
exhausting excitement which the very rapidity and haste of to-day so
much, and, it is to be feared, so injuriously occasion. Time then, as
now, perhaps, was money; and though people took more time—or, as the
disciples of the modern estimate of proper travelling may think, lost
more time—the older generation managed to get along wonderfully well,
and we are not sure that money, relatively that is to say, was not as
plentiful as it is to-day. Be this as it may, our travelling, in its
means and its rapidity, is widely different from that of the period
alluded to. London is within twenty-four hours of Stratheden; and as for
Glasgow or Edinburgh, not very long ago literally far away, they are
to-day considered to be at the very door. The whistle of a railway train
several times a-day echoes along the glens of Stratheden, and the
telegraphic wire is at hand to flash its message at any moment at the
bidding of the wondering inhabitants. A letter posted in London on the
evening of one day may be read in Stratheden next evening ; and now that
so many sportsmen and tourists, having important interests to attend to
in the great metropolis and other places, frequent districts as far away
as Stratheden, such facilities of communication must be of immense
value. No doubt many persons, on the other hand, may luxuriate in the
quiet retreat afforded by places like Stratheden, happy in the thought
of getting away "from the madding crowd," away from the anxious worry of
a busy life with its letters and telegrams; but where, as is sometimes
the case, the interests far away must be kept in hand in the quiet
Highland straths and glens, the benefits of train and telegraphs must be
highly prized. There was a time, about thirty years ago, when letters
came but once a-week to Stratheden, and that by a circuitous and tedious
route. Letters were not then so numerous as they are now; and as for
newspapers, not more than half-a-dozen copies came to the parish, though
the population was as large then as at present. At this moment letters
arrive thrice daily in Stratheden ; and, judging from the bulk of the
postman's bag as he passes along the strath, it excites a little wonder
to think of the large number of letters that constantly come to our
peaceful solitudes. The increase in the number of newspapers is equally
remarkable. Instead of half-a-dozen copies, to-day fully fourteen dozen,
including weekly and daily papers, regularly come to the parish, all
duly subscribed for.
The same element of
change is apparent with reference to the garb popularly understood to be
worn by the native Highlander, and with regard to the language so long
spoken in so many of our Highland parishes—indeed, the only language
used by the great majority of the inhabitants of a Highland parish of
some forty years ago. However commonly it may have been used in other
days, the philabeb (kilt) cannot be said to have been in general use at
any period within the last fifty years. Twenty years ago three - fourths
of the school-boys in a Highland parish were kilted loons, and many of
them continued to wear the kilt until they were close on twenty years of
age. To-day, taking an average Highland public school, we look in vain
for even one in five wearing the ancient garb—a fact suggestive enough
of the slender likelihood of its ever again becoming the popular
costume.
And so with the Gaelic
language. The use of it too, beyond all dispute, is dying out; and much
as many of us may regret it, the time cannot be far distant when, even
in the remotest Highland parish, Gaelic accents will be rare indeed.
Another marked change in
a Highland parish of the present day is visible in the greatly improved
aspect of the dwelling-houses. The houses as they now are, with very few
exceptions, bear little or no resemblance to those of, say, forty years
ago, —and even within the last fifteen years a somewhat marked change in
this respect has taken place. No small proportion of the homes of the
people have within the latter period been converted from earthen-walled,
heather-thatched, imperfectly-lighted, badly ventilated habitations,
into substantially-built, stone-walled, slated, well-lighted,
well-ventilated, and neat-looking cottages. No doubt from beneath the
sooty ceiling of the humble unpretending hut of other days there
frequently emerged as true, good people, and as successful in the larger
world outside, as ever sat in spacious gorgeously-furnished dwellings;
but this does not alter the fact that there was room for improvement in
the matter of both architectural design and internal comfort. The
thatched roof of other days, composed of earth and heather, is now
rapidly giving way to the slated roof, though the former type — the
earth-and-heather structure — enjoys a lingering existence among the
crofter-fishermen on the western seaboard of the counties of Ross,
Sutherland, and Inverness. The proprietor of Stratheden, and many other
Highland lairds, desirous to promote the comfort of the crofters, give
considerable material encouragement to house-improvement by supplying
wood and lime, the crofters themselves having thus to provide slates and
labour only, which most of them are able, and all willing, to provide.
For obvious reasons the
names employed in the following pages are fictitious, but the persons
spoken of, or allowed to speak for themselves, are veritable persons
well known to the author, and the beliefs and opinions set forth are
such as he has heard, and hears, expressed in various Highland parishes
of to-day. |
