Pentland Road - 2

The authority of the great Dr Johnson, who was no admirer of the Gaelic language, may be cited in proof of the absurdity of the system which he found prevailing in the Hebrides in 1773—the native language proscribed in the schools, and the children taught to read ' a language which they may never use nor understand.' The illiberal prejudice which caused this neglect of the native language was shared, curiously enough, by the illiterate parents and the educated men who had the instruction of their children in charge. The opinion of the ignorant on a question of practical education was accepted and cited, in this country, as it has been in Ireland, as if it were of any value. The result has been that the intelligent education of the Highland people, and even the progress of the English language in the country, have been retarded in a degree of which the statistics already given in reference to the adults are an illustration. Many of them, we believe, were taught to read English...

According to the census return of 1881, the number of persons in Scotland who speak Gaelic habitually is 231,594; and of these, 184,230 belong to the counties of Argyll, Inverness, Ross, and Sutherland. Gaelic is still the native and habitual speech of a very large proportion of the population of these four counties, the percentage being—in Argyllshire, 60.8; in Inverness-shire, 70.8 ; in Ross-shire, 71.4 ; and in Sutherland, 75.3. Total population in Scotland in 1881: 3.7 million, Sutherland 22,376; Ross 79,476; Inverness 86,389 and Argyll 80,761. Source: Report by Napier Commission, 1883. 

I have now completed the transcription of the whole body of evidence, submitted to Lord Napier and his Commission in 1883. The last section, taken at Lanark and Edinburgh, is available for reading here . What remains for me to do is the Appendices, which comprise another few hundred pages. The evidence is split up over several more blogsites. Argyll Inverness-shire Isle of Skye Orkney Outer Hebrides Ross-shire Shetland Sutherland & Caithness

The last witness to speak at the Napier Commission's session in Edinburgh, journalist Alexander Robinson, succinctly describes the pointlessness of a deer forest.  46,182. [...] Their flesh [of deer] is of no commercial value in our markets, and the sole reason for the maintenance of these vast preserves is the gratification certain people receive from witnessing the destruction and death struggles of the antlered monarch of the glen. The same sort of pleasure could be obtained in any abbatoir at no cost to the highly refined observer[...]

Proceeding through the evidence from the Napier Commission at Edinburgh, I came across this discussion between George Auldjo Jamieson and the Commission.The central question is: is there not a duty from the State to keep the people on the land. In other words, the clearances are against the interests of the state... Mr Jamieson does not agree. 45430. The people were useful, you say, and the landholders never thought of removing them from the land; but may the time not come when the State may think it proper to retain those people for certain purposes ? —That assumes that the State is to take charge of these people, as the Highland proprietors took charge of their population. 45431. Any way you choose to put it. May not the exigencies of the State render it right that the State should take some means to protect the people and keep them in their own land, if they have no hold on the soil at present ? —I can see no such duty devolving on the State with reference to any part of its ...

Landowner George Grant Mackay gives evidence to Lord Napier's Commission at Edinburgh on 22 October 1883. His attitudes to crofters are best summarised in this brief exchange with Lord Napier. 45180. These people are not fitted for independence ? —They are not, I am sure of it. They are people who ought to be taken in hand by intelligent men and managed just as you would children.

Malcolm Ferguson represented the people of Iona at the Commission's hearing in Lanark. In his opening statement he alleges that: [...]a bull infected with foot-and-mouth disease was bought in the south by the late factor for his own stock in Mull, but on observing that he was infected with the disease, was landed in Iona, by which our cattle in the whole island became infected, and some of them died by it. That the late factor sent sheep which were infected with scab and other diseases on to the island to winter ; these sheep strayed on our crofts and common pasture, and infected our sheep with those diseases which were never known before on the island ; and fearing we might drive them away he ordered our dogs to be killed, and actually sent his gamekeeper to kill them. Upon interrogation by Sir Kenneth Mackenzie and Lord Napier, further details emerge 44207. There is a reference here to the factor having introduced disease into the island by having sent a diseased bull to Ion...

At the Napier Commission's session at Lanark, in October 1883, the Commission Agent for the Dominion Government of Canada highlighted the benefits of emigration of crofters. In pointing out the disadvantages of not emigrating, Mr Thomas Grahame did not mince his words.    Another point which has struck me as of importance is this, that whatever may be accomplished in the way of emigration, it would be a great mistake in the existence of those who remain to have so many of them continue in the state of life in which they are at present; neither one thing nor another, dragging out a miserable, lazy, and uncleanly existence; and this is to a very great extent, doubtless, from having no certain fixed mode of occupation. They are fishermen at some times, crofters at others, gillies on some occasions, but without sufficient continuous occupation to steady them in life. What I would suggest in this respect is, that if they are fishermen they should have nothing to do with the land....

In the evidence that the Commission took at Lochaline is a frank exchange of views between Mr Fraser-Mackintosh and Lochaline estate manager William Henderson Harvie on the reason why people were cleared off the estate. Mr Fraser-Mackintosh does not mince his words.  36612. You have given us a full and frank statement about the estate so far as you know it; have you ever heard the statement made with regard to property, I can do what I like with my own ? —Yes, but I don't believe that. 36613. Have you heard the other statement that property has its duties as well as its rights? —Yes. 36614. And which of these do you go upon? —Property has its duties as well as its rights. 36615. I may take it for granted in this case that the rights of property were exercised when these people were put away? —Yes. 36616. Take the alternative now; what in the nature of duty was done by the estate for those people? —I tell you I can give no information about it further than I have done...

I am currently transcribing the evidence from the Napier Commission from its session at Lochaline in August 1883. Lochaline is a small village on the Morvern peninsula, facing the island of Mull across the Sound of Mull. The complaints from the crofters and cottars there were hard hitting, as they have been all over the Highlands and Islands thus far. I copy a few salient quotes from the answer to question 36138. On the subject of milk: We feel very much the want of milk for our families. Many of us would be very glad if we could get a cow's grass even without arable land at a reasonable rent which we could pay. The rent for a cow's grass, without any arable land, charged by the late proprietrix is £ 3 a year, which we consider an intentional discouragement against any one aspiring to the dignity of keeping a cow. We know that the want of good milk, such as most of us have been accustomed to in our younger days, has a deteriorating influence upon ourselves, and more especi...

Private NORMAN MORRISON Last address in Lewis: 10 South Dell Son of Murdo and Flora Morrison of 10 South Dell Service unit: 3rd Gordon Highlanders Service number: 3/5645 Discharged at Aberdeen on 29 May 1916 due to gunshot wounds and TB Date of death: 16 March 1917 at the age of 23 Died of wounds at home Interred: Old Ness Cemetery, Swainbost, lair 95 Local memorial: North Lewis, Cross That is the summary information I have on Norman, none of whose family now remain in Ness. He died at home in South Dell, ten months after his discharge from the army. Until two years ago, he rested in an unmarked grave in the Old Ness Cemetery, and a cursory reference to him in the Roll of Honour was all that pointed to his sacrifice. He was not recorded with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission either. Well, let us have a look at his army career. 3 May 1910. At the age of 17 years and 9 months, Norman, a fisherman, enrolls with the reserves of the 3rd battalion the Gordon Highlanders at...

Dr Victor Alexander Ross, serving the parish of Uig, gives evidence to the Dewar Commission which is sitting at Garynahine in October 1912. He attributes health problems to (among other things) tea drinking.  11,413. Are there many cases that you can attribute to over-tea-drinking ? —Yes ; many cases, especially on the female side. 11,414. Do they not take much porridge ? —No, unfortunately it has gone out. 11,415. They give the tea to the children too ? —Yes. It is not tea ; it is a sort of bark. It is that sort of tea that constricts your tongue when you take it.

John Campbell gave evidence to the Napier Commission at its session in Tobermory on 10 August 1883. He represented the villagers of Dervaig, in the north of the island of Mull. At the age of 51, he had seen active service in the army, and but little thanks he got for it upon return to his home turf. 35962. Mr Fraser-Mackintosh. —Are there any men in the army from Dervaig but yourself? —In the time of the Crimean war there were seven of us out of that locality in Her Majesty's service, and four of us went up the Alma, and I am the most insignificant of the whole. We went through the whole of the Crimean war. Three of us again went through the whole of the Indian Mutiny. In Afghanistan we were represented by one of our number, and he was killed in the last battle. That is the last belonging to our place who was in Her Majesty's service. 35963. What regiment was he in? —The 79th and 92nd. I was in the 79th at first, and transferred to the 92nd in India. 35964. In wh...

Private J McLeod, 21 Upper Shader Died on 24 Nov 1899 at Belmont, aged 21 South Africa Field Force, 1st Battalion Scots Guards, no 969 Private J Mckenzie, 5 Laxay Son of Alexander Mackenzie and Catherine Mackenzie Died on 18 Feb 1900 at Paardeberg, aged 26 South Africa Field Force, 2nd Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, no 4048 Alexander Macaulay, 10 Keose Son of Angus Macaulay and Christina Smith Born 8 November 1873 Died in 1901 South Africa Field Force, Seaforth Highlanders Angus Chisholm, 10 Lemreway Son of Kenneth Chisholm and Mary Carmichael Born 1870 Died South Africa Field Force

Whilst researching one of the soldiers, whose portraits are put up by the Imperial War Museum's Flickr feed, I came across this harrowing letter from the wife / widow of Robert Burns of Edinburgh. Robert had been posted missing on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. That day alone, 60,000 British troops were lost. Robert Burns went missing, and it took until the next May for him to be formally declared dead. His identity disc was retrieved and forwarded to his wife, Elisabeth. She acknowledged receipt of the disc, but enclosed the following letter. Sir, I herewith return paper duly signed in acknowledgemnet of identity disc supposed to belong to my husband, Pte Robert Burns no 18808 16th R.S. I dont wish to seem arbitrary with respect to army authority, I still believe my husband to be living though I have no more authority for saying this than my own private feeling in the matter. Yours truly [signed]

I have now commenced the transcription of the evidence from Tiree, as contained in the Napier Report of 1883. After going through an awful lot of waffle about the relative value deer forests versus sheep farms in the evidence from Inverness, the accounts from Tiree have brought me back down to earth with a jolt. I hand over to Donald Macdonald, Balemartin, Tiree, as he spoke on 7 August 1883 about four evictions being perpetrated in singularly callous and cruel fashion. 1st, Neil M.'Donald, crofter at Mannal, was about thirty-four years ago, for no well-grounded reasons, evicted from his home and farm by the factor, John Campbell, Esq. He had no other home to go to, and was forbidden by the factor to build a house in any part of the island. The factor also threatened with instant eviction any crofter or cottar who might out of pity afford him even one night's shelter from the cold. So his only place of shelter was a small boat turned upside down, with a hole in the centre for...

Dr Murdoch Mackenzie, whose evidence is taken in (among others) page 225 of the Dewar Report, is questioned about the average diet of the crofter.  10,680. Can you tell us how the crofter lives; can you tell us their menu for the day ? —Porridge and milk to begin with. 10,681. Have they much milk here ? —No. From now onwards to the end of spring their supply of milk is very deficient. 10,682. That is because the cows are dry ? —Yes. 10,683. That could be improved ? —Yes. There is great difficulty in Lewis in getting milk for the children. 10,684. What do they take? —They get Swiss condensed milk. It is rather rich in sugar, and it does not make as much bone as the ordinary milk. 10,685. (Dr Mackenzie). Have you much rickets among the children? —Yes. 10,686. (Chairman). What have they for dinner usually ? —Salt herring very frequently, and then there is fish and the egg. 10,687. Do they use it very much ? —In our parish they do. 10,688. The children must be...

Pages 224 and 225 of the evidence from the Dewar Commission sheds light on the background to the large numbers of Lewismen who were in the Royal Naval Reserve at the time of the First World War. The war broke out less than two years after Sir John Dewar came to Stornoway. 10,676. A good many of them are on Naval Reserve? ——Yes ; there are something like 1800 men on the Naval Reserve. Every man in Lewis is trained man. They are all Militiaman or Reserve man. Every able-bodied man is a trained man. 10,677. They have a considerable income from the Naval Reserve and from the Militia too ? —Yes, as a retaining fee from the Naval Reserve they get £6, and they have to go every second year on board ship, and they get 10s. a week and subsistence money and travelling expenses. The whole amount coming from the Reserve alone to the island is about £15,000. The whole reserve battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders are Lewis men, and a considerable proportion of the Camerons and the Gordons also...

The Dewar Report reveals some startling statistics as to the prevalence of infectious diseases in the Isle of Lewis around 1912 10,592. [...]You have had fifty-two deaths from whooping-cough last year. That is an enormous number of deaths ? —Yes. 10,593 You have typhus with you almost constantly. It is really not out of the island for two years on end ? —About that—perhaps not quite so bad. On the numbers and distribution of doctors 10,600. How many doctors have you in the whole island ? —In the parish of Stornoway there are two and an assistant, and there are three in the outlying districts. That is six altogether in private practice. That is 5000 a head, on the average. 10,601. It comes to roughly 4000 people per doctor in the burgh of Stornoway, and about 5000 to 6000 people in the other places per doctor ? —Yes. 10,614. You referred to the parishes of Barvas and Uig ; there are two doctors there. The doctor for the parish of Barvas has twenty-four miles to go, but th...

10,550. It is not the custom here that the nurse should live in the patient’s house? In Lewis the habit does not exist to any great extent of the nurse living in the house? —No, not to any great extent. 10,551. Not even in maternity cases ? —No, she is only a night in the house on occasions. 10,552. (Chairman.) We had evidence on the Mainland that the nurse not only lived in the house, but milked the cows, and that sort of thing, in Sutherland ? —I am quite aware of that. That does not exist in Lewis as a regular practice. 10,553. (Lady Tullibardine.) Do you find that the nurse if not sleeping in the house can give sufficient attention to satisfy the family ? —The people are satisfied because they don’t expect more., but from my point of view, it is not enough. 10,554. You don’t think she gives sufficient medical skill ? —Of course in a confinement a woman likes to have a nurse if she can afford it for a week or more. Here, under the present conditions, these nurses are wit...

The medical view of conditions in blackhouses in 1912. It would be another 40 to 60 years before all people in Lewis were housed in modern housing; and their livestock somewhere else.  10,578. Is it the case that in a large number of the houses, the cows, and sometimes the sheep, are housed in the house along with the people ? —Yes. 10,579. Even for confinements, it is important to have fully trained nurses, because in many of of the cases it is not a proper place for a woman to be confined at all? —No, of course you have got to make the best of the conditions. 10,580. You made the statement just now about the cattle in the houses, that it still exists in the majority of the townships ? —In all the townships, With some exceptions. 10,581.. Don’t they go in by separate doors? —Some do. 10,582. Do you think that these are fit places for the domiciliary treatment of tuberculosis in any form? —No. 10,583. You can say, as medical officer of health, having been a practi...

In October 1912, a Royal Commission visited Stornoway, under the chairmanship of Sir John A. Dewar, to investigate the provision of medical services in Lewis. Over the next few days, as I transcribe the report, I shall post some quotations to illustrate what conditions were like in the early years of the 20th century. In this section, the discussion is with Dr Donald Murray, the then Medical Officer of Health, on the positioning of nurses across the island, in particular in the parish of Uig. The comments on the use of the telephone are noteworthy, as are the numbers of population of the various townships. The population of Brenish, 241 in 1912, is nowadays only a few dozen. 10,456. There is a nurse at Crowlista in the parish of Uig, but you think there should be another there ? —Yes. 10,457. Where would you place her ? —Within easy reach of Brenish. 10,458. Could you tell us the population there ? —241. 10,459. Should there be a nurse for that population of 241 ? —I admi...