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By ALEXANDER MACKENZIE.
The modern clearances
which took place within the last quarter of a century in Guisachan,
Strathglass, by Sir Dudley Marjoribanks, have been described in all
their phases before a Committee of the House of Commons in 1872. The
Inspector of Poor for the parish of Kiltarlity wrote a letter which was
brought before the Committee, with a statement from another source that,
"in 1855, there were 16 farmers on the estate; the number of cows they
had was 62, and horses, 24; the principal farmer had 2000 sheep, the
next 1000, and the rest between them 1200, giving a total of 4200. Now
(1873) there is but one farmer, and he leaves at Whitsunday; all these
farmers lost the holdings on which they ever lived in competency;
indeed, it is well known that some of them were able to lay by some
money. They have been sent to the four quarters of the globe, or to
vegetate in Sir Dudley's dandy cottages at Tomich, made more for show
than convenience, where they have to depend on his employment or
charity. To prove that all this is true, take at random, the smith, the
shoemaker, or the tailor, and say whether the poverty and starvation
were then or now? For instance, under the old regime, the smith farmed a
piece of land which supplied the wants of his family with meal and
potatoes; he had two cows, a horse, and a score or two of sheep on the
hill; he paid £7 of yearly rent; he now has nothing but the bare walls
of his cottage and smithy, for which he pays £10. Of course he had his
trade than as he has now. Will he live more comfortably now than he did
then? "It was stated, at the same time, that, when Sir Dudley
Marjoribanks bought the property, there was a population of 235 souls
upon it, and Sir Dudley, in his examination, though he threw some doubt
upon that statement, was quite unable to refute it. The proprietor, on
being asked, said that he did not evict any of the people. But Mr.
Macombie having said, "Then the tenants went away of their own free
will," Sir Dudley replied, "I must not say so quite. I told them that
when they had found other places to go to, I wished to have their
farms."
They were, in point of
fact, evicted as much as any others of the ancient tenantry in the
Highlands, though it is but fair to say that the same harsh cruelty was
not applied in their case as in many of the others recorded in these
pages. Those who had been allowed to remain in the new cottages, are
without cow or sheep, or an inch of land, while those alive of those
sent off are spread over the wide world, like those sent, as already
described, from other places.
Pictures from the village of Tomich while on
holiday in Glen Urquart kindly sent in by Bill Burns |
