Respecting the estates of Drynie and Kilcoy, a correspondent, who says,
“I well remember my excessive grief when my father had to leave the
farm which his forefathers had farmed for five generations,” writes:--
“All the tenants to the east of Drynie, as far as Craigiehow, were
turned out, one by one, to make room for one large tenant, Mr.
Robertson, who had no less than four centres for stackyards. A most
prosperous tenantry were turned out to make room for him, and what is
the end of it all! Mr. Robertson has come to grief as a farmer, and now
holds a very humble position in the town of Inverness. Drumderfit used
to be occupied by fifteen or sixteen tenants who were gradually, and
from time to time, evicted, during the last fifty years. Balnakyle was
tenanted by five very comfortable and respectable farmers, four of whom
were turned out within the last thirty years; Balnaguie was occupied by
three; Torr by six; and Croft-cruive by five; the once famous names of
Drum-na-marg and Moreton are now extinct, as well as the old tenantry
whose forefathers farmed these places for generations. The present farm
of Kilcoy includes a number of holdings whose tenants were evicted
to make room for one large farmer;” and this is equally true of many
others in the district. Nothing can better illustrate the cruel manner
in which the ancient tenantry of the country have been treated than
these facts; and special comment on the evictions from Strathconon and
the Black Isle, after what has been said about others of a similar
character, would be superfluous.