POLITY AND CUSTOMS.
Notwithstanding the introduction of Christianity in the seventh century,
the revival of religion at the time of the Reformation, and later on the
militant piety of the stern Covenanters, the people of Gairloch did not
make much progress until their previously continuous state of warfare
came to an end after the "Forty-five." The abandonment of the clan
system, the disarming of the Highlanders, and the proscription of their
distinctive dress, entirely changed the condition of the people, and
nearly assimilated them to their lowland neighbours as regarded many of
the outer circumstances of daily life. The lover of romance may
pardonably raise sentimental objections to the change, but it
unquestionably heralded a vast improvement in the general condition of
the Highland population.
The report in the Old Statistical Account (Appendix C) on the state of
Gairloch in 1792 contrasts very favourably with what is known of its
condition prior to the "Forty-five." The first parochial school appears
to have been established in Gairloch about 1730, and in 1792 there was
still only the one school; it was well into the nineteenth century
before the number of schools was increased. During the minority of the
present baronet the number grew, mostly at his expense, to sixteen. As
elsewhere education was formerly in the hands of the ecclesiastics, but
it was as a rule only to the higher classes that they imparted
instruction in the old days. Even the parochial school was up to the
passing of the present Education Act (1872) visited and examined by the
presbytery.
Few of the people could read or write until quite recently. On 6th March
1811 the Rev. James Russell, minister of Gairloch, reported "the number
of persons capable of reading English in the parish to be three hundred
and twenty-four; capable of reading Gaelic alone, seventy-two; and
unable to read either English or Gaelic, two thousand five hundred and
forty-nine." In the present day, under the School Board system,
established in 1873, education has reached a high pitch. The teachers in
the ten and a half schools of the parish pass at the annual examinations
by Her Majesty's inspectors about eighty per cent. of their scholars,
and it would surprise a stranger to witness the general intelligence and
acquirements of the school children. There are still a number of elderly
people in the parish who can neither read nor write, but the rising
generation are well educated.
Under the old clan system there was no organized method of relieving the
poor; indeed it is certain that the mass of the population was then in
miserable plight. With the progress of the church a system of relieving
paupers sprang up. Under the ministry of the Rev. D. Mackintosh, the
poor, to the number of eighty-four, had the annual collections made in
the church, with the interest of £20, distributed among them. The
collections averaged £6, 7s. This mode of assisting the poor continued
until the introduction of the present poor-law system, which is very
thoroughly applied to the parish. Only one remark need here be made
about it. It is, that though begging is almost unknown, and though the
people have a large measure of Highland pride, they are as a rule
callous to the humiliation of receiving relief from the poor-rates; nay
rather, some few even appear to think that they have a positive right to
draw parish pay, irrespective of the state of their purses.
The very few beggars seen in Gairloch are generally lowland tramps of
the drinking class. The travelling tinkers rarely beg; they pitch their
rude tents in sheltered places, and repair the tin pans of the
neighbourhood. Some few tinkers are well known, and are considered
respectable; others are not to be trusted. Gipsies are scarcely ever
seen so far north. There is a strange old man often to be noticed
wandering about Gairloch. He is a native of the parish, but is now
homeless and in his dotage. He goes about seeking, as he says, the road
to America. It seems that many a year ago he emigrated with his wife and
family to the United States. They all became more or less insane, and
all died except the father, this poor old man. He returned to Scotland,
and now divides his time among those who are kind to him,--and they are
not a few. Barring his absorbing anxiety he does not appear to be
unhappy. He always wears a tall hat, and is respectably dressed. Her
Majesty Queen Victoria mentions this old man in "More leaves from the
Journal of a Life in the Highlands." Describing the excursion to
Torridon, Her Majesty writes, "An old man, very tottery, passed where I
was sketching, and I asked the Duchess of Roxburghe to speak to him; he
seemed strange, said he had come from America, and was going to England,
and thought Torridon very ugly."
Among old customs still remaining in Gairloch are those connected with
marriages and funerals, and the New Year, which is the only festival
observed in the parish.
The marriage customs are a relic of the remote past. They consist of the
washing of the feet of the bride and bridegroom at their respective
homes on the evening before the wedding, and the putting to bed of the
married couple on the night of the ceremony. Captain Burt notices these
customs in 1730. Some of the younger people shirk these proceedings,
especially in the more accessible parts of the parish, but as a rule
they are strictly observed to the present day.
Funerals are not now accompanied by such striking peculiarities. Until
the last few years, when a death occurred all the people of the township
ceased working until after the funeral, which was attended by every
adult male. Of course drinking was much in vogue, and the well known
Irish wakes were closely imitated. Now, only those invited to a funeral
are expected to attend, and the whisky is confined to the serving of a
dram all round (preceded by a prayer) before the funeral procession
starts, with additional "nips" whenever a halt is made for rest on the
way to the place of burial, and these halts are not infrequent. Until
quite lately it was customary for each man accompanying the funeral to
throw a stone on the spot where the coffin was placed when a halt was
made, thus forming a considerable heap; sometimes the number of stones
thrown was the same as the years of age of the deceased. This custom has
been generally discontinued in Gairloch since the roads were made,
though it is still in vogue in the wilder parts of the adjoining
parishes of Applecross and Lochbroom. The use of whisky at funerals is
not now universal in the parish of Gairloch; some ministers wisely
discourage it, partly on account of its generally evil tendency, and
partly because the providing of it is a serious burden on the family of
the deceased, already weighted by other expenses in connection with the
death or previous sickness.
New Year's eve and New Year's day are kept according to the old style,
on the 12th and 13th of January, and both days are general holidays.
There is always a keen contest for the "first-footing" at midnight on
New Year's eve; the one who succeeds in first entering a neighbour's
house claims the inevitable dram. Occasionally a shinty or "clubbing"
match takes place on New Year's day.
Some old weights and measures are still adhered to; milk is sold by the
pint, which is half a gallon.
The administration of justice in Gairloch is in the present day
conducted as in other parts of the country, by the sheriff and justices
of the peace; but until the time of Sir Hector Mackenzie, the eleventh
laird of Gairloch, they say justice was administered by the chief in a
rough and ready fashion. In the paddock below Flowerdale House,
immediately adjoining on the east the field in which the Tigh Dige
formerly stood, is a small round plantation on a circular plot of land,
which deserves its title--the island--as it is surrounded by a wet
ditch; it is shown on the six-inch ordnance map. It was formerly quite
an island, and was approached by a plank or small foot-bridge. Simon
Chisholm, the present forester and head-gardener at Flowerdale,
remembers when there were the large stumps of five forest trees on this
little island, one in the centre and the other four around it. In the
line of the hedge which divides this paddock from the field to the west
were several other large trees, some of the stumps of which remain to
this day. When a trial was to take place the laird of Gairloch stood at
the large tree in the centre of the "Island of justice," and one of the
principal clansmen at each of the other four trees. These four men acted
as jurymen or assessors, whilst the laird himself performed the
functions of judge. The accused person was placed at a large tree
immediately facing the island, and within forty yards of it, whilst the
accuser or pursuer and the witnesses stood at other trees. When the
accused was found guilty of a capital crime, the sentence of death was
executed at the place still called Cnoc a croiche, or "Gallows hill,"
about half a mile distant from the island of justice. The Gallows hill
is a small knowe close below the high road, on the south side of the
ridge called the Crasg, between the present Gairloch Free church and the
old Gairloch churchyard, and it overlooks the latter. A few stones still
shew that there used to be a wall which formed a small platform on which
the gallows stood; they say this wall was more complete within living
memory than it now is. The ravine or fissure immediately below the
platform provided an effectual "drop." When the body was cut down it
would fall to the sea-shore below, and perhaps at high tide into the sea
itself. The face of the sloping rock, immediately below the platform
where the gallows stood, looks almost as if it had been worn smooth by
the number of bodies of executed criminals dashed against it in their
fall. This old manner of trial is said to have continued until the
eighteenth century. But it must not be supposed that Sir Hector
Mackenzie, who regularly dispensed justice among his Gairloch people
from 1770 to 1826, adhered to the primitive form.
Folk-lore is little thought of now-a-days in Gairloch. Among the old men
who still love it, and from whom many of the traditions and stories
given in this book have been derived, are James Mackenzie of Kirkton,
Kenneth Fraser of Leac-nan-Saighead, Roderick Mackenzie of Lonmor
(Ruaridh-an-Torra), George Maclennan of Londubh, Alexander Maclennan of
Poolewe, John M'Lean of Strath, Kenneth and George Maclennan of Tollie
Croft, Donald Ross of Kenlochewe, and Simon Chisholm of Flowerdale. Some
of them can speak English fluently.
[Illustration: ANTIQUITY NO. 7.--BRONZE SPEAR FOUND AT CROFT.
SCALE--HALF TRUE SIZE.]