BEFORE entering on the history of a Highland regiment, it may not be out of place to consider the state of the Highlands at the period when it was raised. The mountainous and thinly peopled part of Scotland known as the "Highlands" included the Western Isles from Lewis in the north to Bute and Arran in the south, and the mainland north and west of the "Highland line." This was drawn from Bute, by the Firth of Clyde, to Leven in Dumbartonshire; by Ardoch and Drymen in Stirlingshire, to near Doune, Crieff, and Dunkeld in Perthshire; Airlie, Prosen, and Glenesk in Angus; Glenmuick and Edinglassie in Aberdeen, Ballindalloch and Craigellachie in Banff; and, taking in part of Moray and nearly the whole of Nairn, included along with these parts of counties the whole of Argyll, Inverness, Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland and Caithness, with, perhaps, the exception of the district immediately around Wick.* This was the line of demarcation between Highlands and Lowlands adopted by the Government in considering the treatment of the forfeited estates and their proprietors after the failure of the rising in 1745, and was chiefly determined, apparently, by the use of the Gaelic language and the Highland dress. Till 1745- Bliadhna Thearlaich," as it is called in the Highlands the chiefs and gentry exercised almost absolute power on their estates. Their quarrels were frequently settled as "in the good old times of yore, when Buckler was defendant and plaintiff was Claymore"; and their people unhesitatingly backed them without the slightest inquiry into the merits of Stewart's "Highlanders of Scotland." + The "Year of Charles." the case. Political opinions were expressed in blows rather than by votes, and the tenants seldom differed, or, at any rate, seldom expressed a different opinion from the laird. Such instances did occasionally occur, but practically there was no law but the laird's above the "Highland line." The population was kept down by fighting, by smallpox and other diseases-more fatal when doctors were few and dwellings insanitary; by periodical famines and generally hard conditions of life, which prevented any but the strongest children from coming to maturity. After the "Forty-five," the hereditary jurisdiction was taken from the chiefs, the estates of those who had followed Prince Charlie being forfeited to the Crown. The Highland dress was abolished by Act of Parliament,* on purpose to break the clan spirit, the only exception made by the Act being in favour of "Officers and soldiers in His Majesty's army," Highland regiments being always allowed to wear it, as they have done ever since. For a civilian who persisted in wearing the kilt the punishment was six months' imprisonment for the first offence, and for the second, transportation to the American plantations, which was a life of slavery. It is hardly credible in the present day that the Government should care what clothes a man wore; but in 1747 troops were detached in many parts of the north, who patrolled certain districts, and made prisoner every man they met wearing the forbidden garb. In the "Life of General Wolfe," the hero of Quebec, and elsewhere, there are some curious reports by the officers of detachments. For instance, an officer at Fort-William writes (I quote from memory), “Sir, I have the honour to report that the patrol under my command this day took a man wearing the philabeg. He pled that it was not made of clan colours, but of plain stuff. As this was a moot point, we took it from off him, the sergeant cut it in pieces with his sword, and we let him go free." So the poor gentleman had to walk home in his shirt! *This Act was passed against the advice of Lord President Forbes, who stated that the Lowland clothing was not suited to the habits of a pastoral people in a country without roads or bridges, where they constantly had to ford rivers, and sleep out in the hills, and that in his opinion they could not carry on their business if they were not allowed to use their own dress. Another reports from Morven (Argyllshire) that the people of the district have given up the philabeg, but have not adopted the breeches as ordered, but a sort of loose dress sewn in the middle, and leaving the knees bare. The officer asks if this dress is objectionable, or if it may be allowed. It would probably give nearly as much trouble to make the people of Morven return to the kilt to-day as it took to make their grandfathers leave it off! This edict was not enforced very strictly for more than ten years, though it remained in force for thirty-five years: and one officer complains of the Sheriffs of Perthshire for not. convicting; and another at Braemar, mentioning a man who had been taken wearing the Highland dress, reports that "one Shaw, a half Laird," and his servant Allan Coutts, had encouraged the mob in Irish to rescue him, adding, "We want magistrates that will and dare exert themselves." Captain Beckwith, stationed at the head of Loch Arkaig, reports" On the 24th of last month one of my men brought I man to all appearance in a philabeg, but on close examination I found it to be a woman's petticoat (which answers every end of that part of the Highland dress). sent him to the Sheriff - Substitute, who dismissed him." Thus it seems probable that in some parts comparatively little notice was taken of it.* Still, there was always the possibility of being punished, and when, about 1782, the "Diskilting Act," as it was called, was repealed by the influence of the Duke of Montrose, there were great rejoicings; the event was celebrated by the famous poet Duncan Ban M'Intyre and others, and the dress was again worn, but not so universally as it had been before, as the people gradually learnt to be artisans, and to adopt habits of trade and industry, for which it is not so well adapted as for war, the chase, or pastoral pursuits. Still, at the latter end of the 18th century, when the Gordon Highlanders were raised, it was in most districts the ordinary wear. Of recent years it has been worn In 1757 a man named M'Alpine or Drummond M'Gregor was acquitted in Perthshire, on his proving that his kilt had been stitched in the middle. Some men, wishing to keep within the law, which had not specified on what part of the body the breeches were to be worn, carried a pair over their shoulders on their sticks !—Stewart's "Highlanders of Scotland.” chiefly by soldiers and sportsmen. It is the recognised military uniform of the north. At this period (1794) the land continued, as formerly, to be let out in large tracts by the lairds to gentlemen "tacksmen," often their kinsmen; and the smaller tenants paid rent in money, kind, or labour, not to the laird, but to the tacksmen, who were, in fact, middlemen, and had great power over the tenants and cottars on their farms. Cattle were the principal stock of the country, sheep-farming being introduced only about this time, and not becoming general until much later. Drovers collected great herds, and employed a number of active gillies to drive them to the southern markets. There was little other employment, and little money; even well on in the 19th century ploughmen's wages were £2, 10s. for the half-year. Few could speak English. The Caledonian Canal was not made till after Waterloo. There was no field for emigration except Canada, and to get there was difficult and costly. There were no county or burgh police, now a favourite employment with young Highlanders: the Post Office was in its infancy, and the railways, which now employ an army of men, did not exist. The kelp industry and the herring fishery occupied part of the island population; illicit distillation (for whisky had begun to replace ale as the favourite drink of the Highlanders), oak-barking in spring, or shearing the corn in the neighbouring lowlands in autumn, gave a questionable or occasional employment to some on the mainland, but there was practically no outlet except the army for enterprising young men. In 1793, the Rev. J. L. Buchanan published an account of the state of the Western Isles, where he had spent nine years as missionary minister from the Church of Scotland, commissioned by the S.P.C.K. In the introduction he apologises to his readers for any grammatical errors, as he had seldom spoken Tacksmen, from having a "tack" or lease of the lands, in distinction to the small tenants, who had no leases. The forfeited estates were restored in 1784. * † At this period only three postmen were employed in Liverpool, at 7s. a week each, and four in Glasgow. The salary of the postmaster at Arbroath was only £20 a year, and of a clerk in the Glasgow Post Office £30. Hyde's "One Hundred Years by Post." English during that period. He describes the huts of the small tenants as "remarkably naked, open, destitute of furniture;" they sleep in a blanket in any corner; cows, goats, and poultry have the common benefit of the fire. The windows are but holes made through the thatch immediately above the side walls. In gentlemen's kitchens, which are separate from the main house, men and women all sleep together. Men's money wages are from 10s. to 40s. a year, and out of it to pay for damage by carelessness. Two meals daily is usual for small tenants and scallags.* Salt is very scarce, and their always that. diet of fish and potatoes, or sometimes, if in good circumstances, broth with bread, potatoes, and mutton, is often eaten without salt; barley or bere meal the only bread, and not The land is worked with the cas chrom" and The scallag is sometimes formally tied up and flogged. Mr Buchanan gives credit to the minister of Tygheary, in North Uist, who has also a large farm, for "never having been known to kick, beat, or scourge, or in any way lift his hand against his scallags in the whole course of his life." The scallag builds his own house with sods and wood. If he is sent to another part of the farm, he carries his cabers with him and forms a new hut. He works four or five days for his master, and on the sixth cultivates a patch of land for himself; he is allowed brogues of horse or cow-hide or sealskin to wear in carrying seaware over rocks, etc., but often goes barefoot, with perhaps "mogans," i.c., hose-legs and bare feet. He is also given tartan hose, a coarse coat, and a blanket or two. Mr Buchanan says the large landowners are generally more considerate to their people than the smaller lairds or tacksmen, though many of these are very kindly. Among the proprietors he mentions as kind masters-the word applied by small tenants to the laird-are the Duke of Argyll and MacKenzie of Torridon. He notices the change from servitude to freedom in Lewis, brought about by MacKenzie, "the present noble-minded proprietor." He alludes to the example set by Lord MacDonald of Sleat, which he hopes will soon be followed by others, of taking the small tenants out of the control of the tacksmen, and giving them holdings direct *Farm-servants. |