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TO the lonely
and romantic shores of the queen of Highland lochs belongs the curiously
incongruous distinction of having been the scene where the new departure in
iron-smelting processes, which commenced the present series of Scottish
ironworks, was inaugurated. How wonderful it seems, that the great iron
industry of Scotland, which to this day enriches so many families and
employs so many thousands of workmen, should have sprung from this
sequestered region ! The claim to the distinction is based on the tacts,
that up to the present time no records of any earlier manufacture °f iron
have been discovered, and that the iron industry established here early in
the seventeenth century became, as we shall shew, of such national
importance as to call for special legislation. It appears to have been in
1607 that Sir George Hay commenced ironworks at 1-etterewe, on Loch Maree,
which were continued for at least sixty years. It is true that in 1612 a
license previously granted by the king to " Archibald Prymroise, clerk of
his maiesties mynis, his airis and assignais quhatsomeuir ffor making of
yrne within the boundis of the schirefdome of perth," was ratified by
Parliament, but the date of fne license is not given, and we hear no more of
these Perthshire , wnworks.
It was not until the eighteenth
century that the seed sown by Sir Oeorge germinated, and the iron industry
began to spread in Gotland.
The iron furnaces in Glengarry,
referred to by Captain Burt, are said to have been established by a
Liverpool company, who bought the Glengarry woods about 1730.
The iron-smelting works at
Abernethy, Strathspey, were commenced in 1732 by the York Buildings Company.
This company was formed in 1675 to erect waterworks on the grounds of York
House in the Strand, London, and was incorporated in 1691 as "The Governor
and Company of Undertakers for raising the Thames water in York Buildings."
The operations of the company have been described by Mr David Murray, M.A.,
F.S.A. Scot., in an able pamphlet entitled " The York Buildings Company: A
Chapter in Scotch History." The company raised at the time of its
incorporation the then immense capital of ,£1,259,575, and conducted not
only the original waterworks, but also enormous speculations in forfeited
estates in Scotland; the company also carried on coal, lead,. and iron
mines, the manufacture of iron and glass, and extensive dealings in timber
from the Strathspey forests. Their agents and workmen in Strathspey are
described in the Old Statistical Account as "the most profuse and profligate
set that were ever heard of in this country. Their extravagances of every
kind ruined themselves and corrupted others." Their ironworks were abandoned
at the end of two years, i.e. in 1734, or, according to the. Old Statistical
Account, in 1737. They made "Glengarry" and "Strathdoun" pigs, and had four
furnaces for making bar iron. The corporation of the York Buildings Company
was dissolved in 1829.
The Loch Etive side, or Bonawe, ironworks, were
commenced by an Irish company about 1730. They rented the woods of Glen-kinglass,
and made charcoal, with which they smelted imported iron ore. That company
existed till about 1750. In 1753 an English company, consisting of three
Lancashire men and one Westmoreland man, took leases, which ran for one
hundred and ten years, and these were renewed in 1863 to tne tnen manager of
the company for twenty-one years, expiring as lately as 1884. By the
courtesy of Mr Hosack, of Oban, I have seen duplicates of the leases under
which the undertaking was carried on. The works comprised extensive charcoal
burnings and the blast-furnace at Bonawe; they were discontinued before
1884.
Other important works of a similar character were
afterwards established by the Argyle Furnace Company, and by the Lorn
Company, at Inverary.
In a work on "The Manufacture of Iron in Great
Britain," by Mr George Wilkie, Assoc. Inst. C.E., published in 1857, it is
stated that the Carron works were established in 1760 by Dr Roebuck of
Sheffield and other gentlemen; that in 1779 two brothers of the name of
Wilson, merchants in London, established the Wilsonton ironworks in
Lanarkshire; that in 1788 the Clyde ironworks were established in the
neighbourhood of Glasgow, and that in that year there were only eight
pig-iron furnaces in Scotland, of which four were at Carron, two at
Wilsonton, one at "Bunawe in Lorn," and one at "Goatfield in Arran," the two
latter being worked with wood charcoal for fuel. The furnace at Bunawe is
that already noticed as on Loch Etive side. Of the alleged furnace at "Goatfield
in Arran" there are no records or remains to be found in Arran to-day.
Probably Goatfield was in Argyleshire.
But we need not here further trace
the wonderful growth of the still existing series of Scottish ironworks. ,To
establish our claim to precedence, it will suffice to shew that the furnaces
on Loch Maree were commenced by Sir George Hay more than a century earlier
than any of those just named.
Pennant, in his tour of 1772
(Appendix B), mentions the time of the Queen Regent as the period when Sir
George Hay was head of a company, who carried on an iron furnace near Poole
we ; this statement is given on the authority of the Rev. John Dounie,
minister of Gairloch. The regency of Mary of Guise extended from 1542 to
1560; so that the historical commencement of the ironworks on Loch Maree
might date as far back as the middle of the sixteenth century. But Sir
George Hay lived at a later date, and Mr Dounie must have been inaccurrate
in this respect.
From Donald Gregory's history of the Western
Highlands, Alexander Mackenzie's history of the Mackenzies, and several old
MSS., including the genealogy of the MacRaes (Appendix A), we glean the
following facts :—
In 1598 a party of gentlemen, known as the " Fife
Adventurers," obtained a grant from the crown of the island of the Lews, and
took steps to plant a colony there. Mackenzie of Kintail and the M'Leods of
the Lews, ceasing for the time their own feuds, combined to oust the Fife
Adventurers. In 1607 the king granted the Ixws to Lord Balmerino (Secretary
of Scotland and Lord-President of the Session), Sir George Hay, arid Sir
James Spens of Wormistoun (one of the original "Fife Adventurers"), who in
1608 renewed the attempt to colonize the Lews, but without success. In 1609
Lord Balmerino was convicted of high treason and executed, thus forfeiting
his share. Sir George Hay and Sir James Spens about that time sent an
expedition to the Lews, but Neil M'Leod, secretly backed by Mackenzie of
Kintail, opposed the intending colonists, who were driven from the island.
Mackenzie was raised to the peerage in the same year with the title of Lord
Mackenzie of Kintail, after he had induced Sir George Hay and Sir James
Spens to give up their scheme and transfer their rights in the Lews to
himself. Lord Mackenzie, in part payment, gave them the woods of Letterewe
for iron-smelting; the arrangement was concluded in 1610, and Lord Mackenzie
then obtained a fresh grant to himself from the crown.
But we can carry back the history
of the Letterewe ironworks to a slightly earlier date still.
The Rev. Farquhar MacRae was
appointed vicar or minister of Gairloch by Bishop Leslie of Ross in 1608, in
order that he might "serve the colony of English which Sir George Hay kept
at Letterewe." Mr MacRae continued his work in Gairloch parish till 1618,
and his son informs us, in the "Genealogical Account" (Appendix A), that on
his death in 1662 Mr MacRae "had lived fifty-four years in the ministry, ten
of which at Gairloch." Thus it is evident that he was ordained vicar of
Gairloch in 1608. This was two years before Sir George Hay acquired the
woods of Letterewe from Lord Mackenzie, but the later date of his
acquisition of those woods does not preclude the possibility of Sir George
having already commenced the manufacture of iron there, perhaps in a
tentative manner. It will be noticed that the Genealogical Account of the
MacRaes speaks of Sir George Hay's undertaking at Letterewe as a going
concern when Mr MacRae was sent in 1608 to minister to the ironworkers. It
seems almost certain, therefore, that it had begun in 1607, for we cannot
but assume that the appointment of Mr MacRae to Gairloch was made to supply
a want that must have taken at least a year to develop. The conclusion that
Sir George Hay began the Letterewe ironworks in 1607, receives some
confirmation from the fact that the grant of the Lews to him and his
colleagues took place in the same year. The two matters were very probably
connected. Either Sir George was led to enter into the Lews adventure from
his being located at Letterewe, so near to Poolewe, the port for the Lews,
or—which is more probable—the advantages of Letterewe attracted his
attention when at Poolewe planning the subjugation of the Lews. The date
(27th January 1609) of the act forbidding the making of iron with wood
(Appendix G) is not inconsistent with the commencement of the ironworks in
1607. Assuming that the prohibition was (as seems likely) aimed at the
Letterewe ironworks, it is reasonable enough to suppose that they must have
been begun in 1607, so as to have attained sufficient importance to excite
the alarm of the legislature in January 1609. News from the Highlands took a
long time to travel so far as Edinburgh in those days.
We hear nothing more of Sir James
Spens in connection with the ironworks.
Sir George Hay's history is
remarkable. He was the second son of Peter Hay of Melginche, and was born in
1572. He completed his education at the Scots College at Douay in France. He
was introduced at court about 1596, and seems at once to have attracted the
attention of James VI., who appointed him one of the gentlemen of the
bedchamber, and in 1598 gave him the Carthusian priory or charter-house at
Perth and the ecclesiastical lands of Errol, with a seat in Parliament as a
peer. But he declined the peerage, was knighted instead, and subsequently
adopted the profession of the law, in which he attained to great
distinction. He seems to have been a favourite with the king, whom he
defended when in 1600 the Earl of Gowrie was killed in his treasonable
attempt on his majesty's life. Assisted by the favour of the crown, Sir
George acquired large territories both in the Highlands and Lowlands. (See
extract from "Douglas's Peerage," Appendix G.) But some think that at the
time he settled at Letterewe he was under a cloud. Political troubles had
arisen ; one of his partners, Lord Balmerino, had been convicted of high
treason and executed; so that the statement that Sir George had chosen the
remote Letterewe "for the sake of quiet in those turbulent times" appears
reasonable enough. The fact that he occupied the leisure of his enforced
retirement in establishing and improving iron-smelting, is a standing
testimony to the energy of this remarkable man. He is-said to have resided
some years at Letterewe, or at least to have made his headquarters there. No
doubt Lord Mackenzie would provide the best habitation he could for the
learned and enterprising lessee of his woods. Probably Sir George lived in
an old house on the site of the present Letterewe House.
The only Gairloch iron-furnaces
which we can be sure were carried on by Sir George Hay were those at
Letterewe, Talladale, and the Red Smiddy near Poolewe. (They will be
described in Part I., chap. xx.). The vast woods of Letterewe were
undoubtedly the prime motive that led Sir George to start the ironworks
there. They must have been very extensive, for it is the opinion of those
who should know, that each furnace would annually use as carbonised fuel the
product of one hundred and twenty acres of wood. The works Sir George
conducted seem to have combined two classes. of industry,—(i) The
manufacture of wrought-iron, the ore being smelted with charcoal into a mass
of metal called a bloom, which was hammered whilst yet hot into bars of
wrought iron, or into various articles used in the arts of peace or war; (2)
The manufacture of pig-iron and articles of cast-iron, the metal being
poured into moulds.
The Letterfearn MS. says, that at Letterewe " Sir
George Hay kept a colony and manufactory of Englishmen making iron and
casting great guns, untill the wood of it was spent and the lease of it
expired."-
The Genealogical Account of the MacRaes tells of "the
colony of English which Sir George Hay of Airdry kept at Letterewe, making
iron and casting cannon."
The Bennetsfield MS. mentions the
grant of the "lease of the woods of Letterewe, where there was an iron mine,
which they wrought by English miners, casting guns and other implements,
till the fuel was exhausted and their lease expired."
Pennant notes in his Tour (Appendix
B), that the Rev. John Dounie had seen the back of a grate marked " S. G.
Hay," or Sir George Hay. Those acquainted with old inscriptions tell us that
the initial S was a usual abbreviation for the title "Sir."
It appears, then, that Sir George
not only produced articles used in warfare, but also such goods as we are
accustomed to procure at the ironmonger's.
It is certain that improved
processes-of iron-smelting were introduced at Furnace, Letterewe, and
perfected at the Red Smiddy, Poolewe, so that the results obtained at the
latter place were almost on a par with those of the newest methods of the
present day. The credit of these improvements must be given to Sir George
Hay. In resuscitating the ancient manufacture of iron, he brought the
intelligence of his cultivated mind to bear on the subject in a practical
and successful way.
The "new industry" thus commenced on the shores of
Loch Maree soon attracted the attention of the government. Reference has
already been made to the act of 27th January 1609, prohibiting the making of
iron with the natural woods of the Highlands. The act is printed verbatim in
Appendix G. There seems little doubt, as previously remarked, that it was
intended to injure Sir George Hay. It was probably passed on the instigation
of a political foe.
But Sir George must have still possessed considerable
influence at court, and the importance of his new industry must have
produced a strong impression, for on the 24th of December 1610, at
Whitehall, the king gave him what appears to have been a monopoly of the
manufacture of iron and glass throughout the whole of Scotland, for
thirty-one years from that date, and this gift was ratified by Act of
Parliament, dated 23d October 1612. The delay of two years in its
ratification seems a little strange, and perhaps indicates that whilst Sir
George continued such a favourite with his king as to receive from him so
valuable a "Christmas box," he still had enemies in the Privy Council or the
Parliament of Scotland. The ratification will be found in Appendix G; it
recites the license. It would appear from a Scots Act passed 16th November
1641, that several noblemen and gentlemen had obtained monopolies of other
manufactures,—probably about the same time. That act brought these
monopolies to an end in the same year (1641) that Sir George Hay's monopoly
of the manufacture of iron expired. Whether Sir George carried on ironworks
elsewhere than on Loch Maree we know not, but it is most likely that they
were his principal, if not his only, undertakings of the kind.
In 1613 a proclamation was made by
the Privy Council restraining the export of iron ore out of the country, so
that the enterprise of the new industry should not be hindered or
disappointed (Appendix G). If the act of 1609 prohibiting the making of iron
with wood had been obtained by an enemy of Sir George Hay's, the adverse
influence of the foe was now at an end. Possibly Sir George had by this time
returned from the Highlands, for we find that in 1616 he was appointed
Clerk-Register. If so, his personal influence may have overridden that of
his former political enemies. Under this proclamation Sir George became able
to procure the clayband ironstone almost at his own price. He used it
extensively both at Furnace (Letterewe) and at the Red Smiddy, as well as at
Talladale.
There is another record relating to Sir George Hay's
iron manufacture; it is the curious license anent selling of his iron,
granted to him by a Scots Act, dated 4th August 1621, and printed in
Appendix G. It purports to be a license to Sir George to carry his iron to
any port or harbour of the free burghs royal, and to dispose of the same to
any person notwithstanding the privileges and liberties of the burghs. This
license, granted fourteen years after the commencement of the Letterewe
ironworks, testifies to the vigour with which the enterprise had been
pushed. It would seem that the quantity of iron produced now only required a
free market. The monopoly granted to Sir George, the proclamation
restraining the export of iron ore, and the special license he now obtained
for selling his iron in royal burghs, were exceptional provisions, which
would now-a-days be considered antagonistic to cherished political
principles. To what extent Sir George profited from the advantages granted
to him we cannot tell. That he became a rich man there seems no doubt, and
the ironworks on Loch Maree may have added to his wealth.
John Roy Mackenzie was the prudent,
business-like, and hospitable laird of Gairloch during the residence at
Letterewe of Sir George Hay, who appears to have had a furnace at Talladale
on John Roy's Gairloch estate. Doubtless some intercourse took place between
them, but as John Roy had been previously engaged in warfare, and could not,
so far as we can judge from the story of his youth, have been a man of much
culture, it is unlikely that he and Sir George became very intimate. But Sir
George, the learned lawyer and man of science, had a thoroughly congenial
friend in the great Latin scholar the kev. Farquhar MacRae, vicar of
Gairloch, whose house at Ardlair was but a three miles' walk or row from
Letterewe House. The account given in Appendix A proves that the friendship
of this accomplished and genial clergyman was much appreciated by Sir
George, who endeavoured to induce Mr MacRae
THE MINISTER'S STONE, ARDLAIR.
to accompany him when he himself
returned to the south. A remarkable rock or stone at Ardlair, called "The
minister's stone" (see illustration), is still pointed out as the place
where Mr MacRae used to preach in English and Gaelic No doubt he also
preached at Letterewe ; and we are told that he "did not only please the
country people, but also the strangers, especially George Hay." The
interesting memoir of Mr MacRae, in Appendix A, is well worth perusal; he
married in 1611, and brought his bride to the parsonage at Ardlair, where
several of his children were born. Unquestionably the refined life of the
vicar and his family at their beautiful and retired home, would be more
enjoyable to Sir George than the rougher habits of the natives of the
country, nay, even than the society of the fighting laird of Gairloch
himself.
The date when Sir George left Letterewe is not
certain; the reason of his departure is plain,—he had superior calls on his
presence in the south. After he left his Highland retreat his career was one
of unbroken success and distinction. In 1616 he was appointed
Clerk-Register, and on 16th July 1622 he was constituted High Chancellor of
Scotland. He was raised to the Peerage by the title of Viscount Duplin and
Lord Hay of Kinfauns in 1627, and was created Earl of Kinnoull by patent
dated at York 25th May 1633. As chancellor he won "the approbation of the
whole kingdom, and the applause of all good men, for his justice, integrity,
sound judgment, and eminent sufficiency." He died in London in 1634, aged
sixty-two. Some account of the statue of his lordship, of the epitaph on his
monument, and of the portraits of him still extant (see illustrations), will
be found in Appendix G. If we may trust the expressions contained in the
epitaph, it would almost appear that the iron-founder of Loch Maree became,
under his king, the ruler of fair Scotland, for he is termed " the great and
grave dictator of our clime."
But the departure of Sir George
from Letterewe did not stop the progress of his ironworks on Loch Maree. The
concession or monopoly granted by the crown had still many years to run, and
the works were unquestionably continued for a long further period under a
manager or factor. The last manager is said to have been called John Hay, a
name which obviously suggests that he was a relative of Sir George.
In the Gairloch churchyard is a
picturesque tombstone, evidently of considerable age. It has a well carved
skull and cross bones, and underneath them a shield (originally faced with a
brass), with a design below it resembling an inverted fleur-de-lis. At
either side of the shield are the letters I and H, of large size. The
inscription round the border of the stone is only partly legible. It runs as
follows :—
It is said that this stone was sent
to the port or wharf at Port na Heile, in Gairloch (the present Gairloch
pier), some years after the death of John Hay, to be placed over his grave;
that he was the last manager of the Letterewe ironworks ; that he died, and
was probably buried, at or near Letterewe; that the stone lay at the port
for many years; and that, ultimately, when the situation of John Hay's grave
had been forgotten, Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the second baronet and ninth
laird of Gairloch (who succeeded 1703, came of age 1721, and died 1766),
authorised one William Fraser to place the stone in the burial-place of his
(Fraser's) family, where it now lies. It is added that " Sir Alexander
received a stone from William Fraser for it."
These statements about the Hay
tombstone are from the mouth of James Mackenzie, who says that William
Fraser and his own grandfather were first cousins, and that the facts about
the gravestone were told him on their authority when he was young. He is
corroborated by other old Gairloch men.
Although this John Hay, whose
father appears from the tombstone to have been Mr Hay of Kirkland, was
probably a relation of Sir George Hay, it is impossible to fix the degree of
relationship. Sir George Hay's father had three sons, Patrick, George, and
Peter. This Peter was designated as of Kirkland of Megginch. He had a son
called Francis, whose great-grandson Thomas succeeded to the earldom of
Kinnoull, on the direct line of Sir George Hay, the first -earl, becoming
extinct in the person of William, the fifth earl, in 1709. Possibly Peter
Hay had a son known as James Hay of Kirkland, or else some collateral
relation of the family bore that designation, for we gather from a short
account of the parish of St Martins, Perthshire, contained in a footnote to
the account of that parish in the Old Statistical Account, that a James Hay
acquired Kirkland by an exchange with Mr John Strachan, minister of St
Martins. The son, Thomas, of this minister, " after his return from his
travels, when he had waited on the earl of Kinnowel his son as his governour
for the space of three years, became conjunct with his father, and died
minister there in the year 1671." Kirkland was a "good manor house;" it was
built of old by the abbot of Halyrood-house, and was afterwards the
minister's manse. It is possible that this Kirkland may not have been the
same as Kirkland of Megginch. In all probability, however, John Hay, the
last manager of the Loch Maree ironworks, was a son of James Hay, and the
latter was a relative of the great Sir George. It was indeed natural that
Sir George should prefer to entrust his ironworks to a relative rather than
to a stranger.
After the death of the Earl of
Kinnoull, his ironworks appear to liave fallen into a languishing condition,
possibly from the timber being exhausted. In Knox's Tour it is stated that
Mr Alexander Mackenzie of Lochend, in 1786, told the author (Mr Knox) that
cannon were still made at Poolewe in 1668. Mr Mackenzie said his grandfather
had " lent ten thousand marks to the person or persons who carried on the
works, for which he got in return the back of an old grate and some
hammers." It is curious that these relics are the only remains known to have
existed (except the breech of a cannon and some small pigs of iron) of the
productions of the Loch Maree ironworks. The "back of an old grate" was no
doubt the same as that which Mr Dounie told Pennant of, and the hammers, or
at least one of them, must have been the same as •existed in living memory.
(See Part I., chap, xx.)
So far as we can judge, the ironworks were
discontinued soon after the date of the loan mentioned by Mr Mackenzie of
Lochend. Thus the undertaking was carried on for a period of at least sixty
years. Local tradition affirms that the industry was prolonged into the
eighteenth century, but there is nothing to confirm the tradition •except
the story of the Gille Buidhe (Part I., chap, xiv.); it speaks of men living
in 1746 as being sons of one of the last of the Letterewe ironworkers.
The artisans employed by Sir George
Hay are said by some to have been from Fife, by others to have been Welsh,
and by all to have been " English." But this last term only means that the
ironworkers spoke English, for as truly remarked by the Rev. Donald MacRae,
minister of Poolewe (Appendix E), "Highlanders look upon all who do not
speak the Gaelic language as Sasganaich [Sasunnacfi] or Englishmen."
The names Cross, Bethune or Beaton,
and Kemp, are still known in Gairloch parish as belonging to descendants of
the ironworkers. Cross is a common Lancashire name. Mr D. William Kemp, of
Trinity, who has read a valuable paper on old ironworks in Suther-landshire
to the Scottish Society of Arts, says that the name Kemp is very uncommon in
Wales, but is a north of England name, and was common in Cumberland after
the fourteenth century, artisans of that surname having settled in that
county in the reign of Edward III.
It is probable that Sir George
Hay's artisans were mostly from Fife; they were very likely some of the men
who had been taken by the "Fife Adventurers" to the Lews, with the object
(frustrated as we have seen) of establishing a colony there. To these
Fifeshire men were no doubt added a few (including a Cross and a Kemp) who
had come with iron ore from Lancashire or Cumberland. Of course all of them
were ignorant of Gaelic.
These ironworkers remained in Gairloch for several
generations; | some of them became permanently settled in the parish. It is
said that at one time an epidemic of smallpox carried off a number of them.
Narrators of Gairloch traditions differ as to where the iron-workers buried
their dead. Some believe it was at the burial-place on flat ground near the
head of Loch Maree, which is accordingly called to this day Cladh nan
Sasunnach, or "the Englishman's churchyard," but others say, with more
probability, that the beautiful burial-ground on Isle Maree was their place
of sepulture. This last view is in accord with the information obtained by
Dr Arthur Mitchell (Part II., chap, xi.), and appears to be the better
opinion.
I do not think the Cladh nan Sasunnach was used for
interment so recently as the time of Sir George Hay's undertaking. I
examined this strange place on 12th May 1884. There are indications of
twenty-four graves, all with the feet pointed towards the east, and all
covered more or less with large unwrought stones. There are head and foot
stones more or less distinct to all the graves, which, from their
dimensions, might well be called the graves of giants. I opened two of the
graves in different parts of the group to the depth of four or five feet, in
fact as far as the ground was workable with ordinary pick and spade. In the
first grave opened, a cavity, filled with water, eighteen inches deep and
much wider than the grave, was reached at a depth of between twro and three
feet, and below that the stratum was nearly as hard as concrete. There were
no indications whatever of organic remains. In the case of the second grave
opened, which was the largest and most marked of the group, no water was
reached and no remains were found. To the depth of about four feet the
gravel was comparatively loose, as if it had been wrought at some time.
Below that it was so hard that evidently it had never been moved by man.
Now, had there been interments here in the seventeenth century, there must
surely have been some traces of them. My own opinion is, that these graves
date back some centuries earlier than the ironworks, in fact to the period
when tradition says it was usual to bury the dead in shallow graves scraped
out of hard gravel, and then to cover the graves with large stones, the
hardness of the gravel and the weight of the superincumbent stones being
intended to hinder wolves from exhuming the bodies.
We should like to know more about
the ironworks, and particularly about the men who were employed at the
furnaces, and their families and circumstances. The struggles that had
engaged the MacBeaths, Macdonalds, M'Leods, and Mackenzies for two
centuries, and had rendered Gairloch a veritable baftlefield, were at an end
in Sir George Hay's time. With the exception of occasional raids on Gairloch
by Lochaber and other cattle-lifters, there was now peace throughout the
parish. The Scots Act of 27th January 1609 (Appendix G) speaks of the
"present generall obedience" of I the Highlands, as contrasted with the
previous " savagness of the I inhabitants." Letterewe was then, as now, a
peculiarly retired spot; J there is still no access to it for wheeled
vehicles; Sir George Hay's choice of it as a retreat from political troubles
confirms the view that it was safe and secluded; the mountains behind
Letterewe had long been a favourite hunting-ground of the lords of Kintail
(Part I., ' chap, iv.); and we may well believe that Sir George and his men
I were able not only to carry on their business without interruption, but
also to enjoy in peace the sport afforded by the district. At the same time,
it must be remembered that the natives were still in a half savage
condition, miserably fed, clothed, and housed, and entirely destitute of
education. Very loose notions of morality were prevalent; and to a great
extent the old principle that "might is right" still ruled the daily life of
the people. They say that some of the ironworkers, severed from home ties,
and finding themselves far away from the executive of the law, became
reprobates. One of the latest of the ironworkers, or a son of one of them,
was known as the Sasunnach Mor, or "Big Englishman"; he is said to have been
a wild character. A crofter and carter now living* at Londubh is a
great-grandson of the Sasunnach Mor; the last Mackenzie of Kernsary
testified, in the presence of persons now living, to the descent of this
Londubh crofter from the Sasunnach Mor. But whatever were the
idiosyncrasies, either of the early or of the latest ironworkers, there can
be no doubt that they all led rough and almost lawless lives in their wild
Highland homes. |
