GLENCALVIE.

Great cruelties were perpetrated at Glencalvie, Ross-shire, where

the evicted had to retire into the parish churchyard. There for more

than a week they found the only shelter obtainable in their native

land. No one dared to succour them, under a threat of receiving

similar treatment to those whose hard fate had driven them thus among

the tombs. Many of them, indeed, wished that their lot had landed

them under the sod with their ancestors and friends, rather than be

treated and driven out of house and home in such a ruthless manner.

A special commissioner sent down by the London _Times_ describes the

circumstances as follows:--

ARDGAY, NEAR TAIN, ROSS-SHIRE,

_15th May, 1845_.

Those who remember the misery and destitution to which large masses

of the population were thrown by the systematic “Clearances” (as

they are here called) carried on in Sutherlandshire some 20 years

ago, under the direction and on the estate of the late Marchioness

of Stafford--those who have not forgotten to what an extent the

ancient ties which bound clansmen to their chiefs were then torn

asunder--will regret to learn the heartless scourge with all its

sequences of misery, of destitution, and of crime, is again being

resorted to in Ross-shire. Amongst an imaginative people like the

Highlanders, who, poetic from dwelling amongst wild and romantic

scenery, shut out from the world and clinging to the traditions of

the past, it requires little, with fair treatment, to make them

almost idolise their heritor. They would spend the last drop of their

blood in his service. But this feeling of respectful attachment

to the landowners, which money cannot buy, is fast passing away.

This change is not without cause; and perhaps if the dark deeds of

calculating “feelosophy” transacted through the instrumentality of

factors in some of these lonely glens; if the almost inconceivable

misery and hopeless destitution in which, for the expected

acquisition of a few pounds, hundreds of peaceable and generally

industrious and contented peasants are driven out from the means of

self-support, to become wanderers and starving beggars, and in which

a brave and valuable population is destroyed--are exposed to the gaze

of the world, general indignation and disgust may effect what moral

obligations and humanity cannot. One of these clearances is about to

take place in the parish of Kincardine, from which I now write; and

throughout the whole district it has created the strongest feeling of

indignation.

This parish is divided into two districts each of great extent; one

is called the parliamentary district of Croick. The length of this

district is about 20 miles, with a breadth of from 10 to 15 miles.

It extends amongst the most remote and unfrequented parts of the

country, consisting chiefly of hills of heather and rock, peopled

only in a few straths and glens. This district was formerly thickly

peopled; but one of those clearances many years ago nearly swept away

the population, and now the whole number of its inhabitants amounts,

I am told, to only 370 souls. These are divided into three straths or

glens, and live in a strath called Amatnatua, another strath called

Greenyard, and in Glencalvie. It is the inhabitants of Glencalvie,

in number 90 people, whose turn it is now to be turned out of their

homes, all at once, the aged and the helpless as well as the young

and strong; nearly the whole of them without hope or prospect for

the future. The proprietor of this glen is Major Charles Robertson

of Kindeace, who is at present out with his regiment in Australia;

and his factor or steward who acts for him in his absence is Mr.

James Gillanders of Highfield Cottage, near Dingwall. Glencalvie is

situated about 25 miles from Tain, eastward. Bleak rough hills, whose

surface are almost all rock and heather, closed in on all sides,

leaving in the valley a gentle declivity of arable land of a very

poor description, dotted over by cairns of stone and rock, not, at

the utmost computation, of more than 15 to 20 acres in extent. For

this piece of indifferent land with a right of pasturage on the hills

impinging upon it--and on which, if it were not a fact that sheep do

live, you would not credit that they could live, so entirely does it

seem void of vegetation, beyond the brown heather, whilst its rocky

nature makes it dangerous and impossible even for a sheep walk--the

almost increditable rent of £55 10s. has been paid. I am convinced

that for the same land no farmer in England would give £15 at the

utmost.

Even respectable farmers here say they do not know how the people

raise the rent for it. Potatoes and barley were grown in the valley,

and some sheep and a few black cattle find provender amongst the

heather. Eighteen families have each a cottage in the valley; they

have always paid their rent punctually, and they have contrived to

support themselves in all ordinary seasons. They have no poor on the

poor roll, and they help one another over the winter. I am told that

not an inhabitant of this valley has been charged with any offence

for years back. During the war it furnished many soldiers; and an old

pensioner, 82 years of age, who has served in India, is now dying in

one of these cottages, where he was born. For the convenience of the

proprietor, some ten years ago, four of the principal tenants became

bound for the rest, to collect all the rents and pay the whole in one

sum.

The clearance of this valley, having attracted much notice, has been

thoroughly enquired into, and a kind of defence has been entered

upon respecting it, which I am told has been forwarded to the Lord

Advocate. Through the politeness of Mr. Mackenzie, writer, Tain, I

have been favoured with a copy of it. The only explanation or defence

of the clearance, that I can find in it, is that shortly after Mr.

Gillanders assumed the management of Major Robertson’s estate, he

found that it became absolutely necessary to adopt a different

system, in regard to the lands of Glencalvie, “from that hitherto

pursued.”

The “different system” as it appears was to turn the barley and

potato grounds into a sheep walk, and the “absolute necessity” for it

is an alleged increase of rent.

It was accordingly, in 1843, attempted to serve summonses of

removal upon the tenants. They were in no arrears of rent, they

had no burdens in poor; for 500 years their fathers had peaceably

occupied the glen, and the people were naturally indignant. Who

can be surprised that, on the constables going amongst them with

the summonses, they acted in a manner which, while it showed their

excitement, not the less evinced their wish to avoid breaking the

law? The women met the constables beyond the boundaries, over

the river, and seized the hand of the one who held the notices;

whilst some held it out by the wrist, others held a live coal to

the papers and set fire to them. They were afraid of being charged

with destroying the notices, and they sought thus to evade the

consequences. This act of resistance on their part has been made the

most of. One of the men told me, hearing they were to be turned out

because they did not pay rent enough, that they offered to pay £15

a year more, and afterwards to pay as much rent as any other man

would give for the place. The following year (1844), however, the

four chief tenants were decoyed to Tain, under the assurance that

Mr. Gillanders was going to settle with them, they believing that

their holdings were to be continued to them. The notices were then,

as they say, in a treacherous and tricky manner, served upon them,

however. Having been served, “a decreet of removal” was obtained

against them, under which, of course, if they refused to turn out

they would be put out by force. Finding themselves in this position,

they entered into an arrangement with Mr. Gillanders, in which after

several propositions on either side, it was agreed that they should

remain until the 12th of May, to give them time to provide themselves

with holdings elsewhere, Mr. Gillanders agreeing to pay them £100 on

quitting, and to take their stock on at a valuation. They were also

to have liberty to carry away the timber of their houses, which was

really worthless, except for firewood. On their part they agreed to

leave peaceably, and not to lay down any crop. Beyond the excessive

harshness of removing the people at all, it is but right to say that

the mode of proceeding in the removal hitherto has been temperate and

considerate.

Two respectable farmers became bound for the people that they would

carry out their part of the agreement, and the time of removal has

since been extended to the 25th of this month. In the defence got

up for this proceeding it is stated that all have been provided

for; this is not only not the case, but seems to be intentionally

deceptive. In speaking of all, the four principal tenants only are

meant; for, according to the factor, these were all he had to do

with; but this is not the case even in regard to the four principal

tenants. Two only, a father and son, have got a piece of black moor,

near Tain, 25 miles off, without any house or shed on it, out of

which they hope to obtain subsistence. For this they are to pay £1

rent for 7 acres the first year; £2 for the second year; and £3 for

a continuation. Another old man with a family has got a house and a

small lot of land in Edderton, about 20 miles off. These three, the

whole who have obtained places where they may hope to make a living.

The old pensioner, if removing does not kill him, has obtained for

himself and family, and for his son’s family, a house at a rent of £3

or £4, some ten miles off, without any land or means of subsistence

attached to it. This old soldier has been offered 2s. a week by

the factor to support him while he lived. He was one of the four

principal tenants bound for the rent; and he indignantly refused to

be kept as a pauper.

A widow with four children, two imbecile, has obtained two small

apartments in a bothy or turf hut near Bonar Bridge, for which she is

to pay £2 rent, without any land or means of subsistence. Another,

a man with a wife and four children, has got an apartment at Bonar

Bridge, at £1 rent. He goes there quite destitute, without means of

living. Six only of eighteen households, therefore, have been able

to obtain places in which to put their heads; and of these, three

only have any means of subsistence before them. The rest are hopeless

and helpless. Two or three of the men told me they have been round

to every factor and proprietor in the neighbourhood, and they could

obtain no place, and nothing to do, and they did not know where to go

to, or what to do to live.

And for what are all these people to be reduced from comfort to

beggary? For what is this virtuous and contented community to be

scattered? I confess I can find no answer. It is said that the factor

would rather have one tenant than many, as it saves him trouble!

But so long as the rent is punctually paid as this has been, it is

contrary to all experience to suppose that one large tenant will pay

more rent than many small ones, or that a sheep walk can pay more

rent than cultivated land.

Let me add that so far from the clearance at Glencalvie being a

solitary instance in this neighbourhood, it is one of many. The

tenants of Newmore, near Tain, who I am told, amount to 16 families,

are to be weeded out (as they express it here) on the 25th, by the

same Mr. Gillanders. The same factor manages the Strathconon estate,

about 30 miles from Newmore, from which during the last four years,

some hundreds of families have been weeded. The Government Church

of that district, built eighteen years ago, to meet the necessities

of the population, is now almost unnecessary from the want of

population. At Black Isle, near Dingwall, the same agent is pursuing

the same course, and so strong is the feeling of the poor Highlanders

at these outrageous proceedings, so far as they are concerned wholly

unwarranted from any cause whatever, that I am informed on the best

authority, and by those who go amongst them and hear what they say,

that it is owing to the influence of religion alone that they refrain

from breaking out into open and turbulent resistance of the law. I

enclose you the defence of this proceeding, with a list of the names

and numbers of each family in Glencalvie--in all 92 persons.[12]

[12] London _Times_ of Tuesday, 20th May, 1845.