Government Drainage Act

(Letter above referred to)

EVICTIONS ON THE ESTATE OF LANGWELL FROM 1830-31 TO 1855

(To the Editor of the Dundee and Perth Saturday Post) Part D 

“Badbea comes next in course, the inhabitants of which were employed in reclaiming a wild piece of ground on a hill-side at Ousdale for Mr Horne, where he availed himself of the Government Drainage Act. They were made to toil and travel two miles each way for 1s a day, and Mr Horne was very fortunate in the choice of a man to set over them, as he spared neither bone nor sinew. The heads of families were obliged to take all their family to the work that could work, and if any young man was found spirited enough to go and work where he would be better remunerated for his labour, his parents were marked, and they did not escape punishment."  

The Ousdale broch surrounded by steep hillsides

The Ousdale bridge showing steep hillsides never suitable for fattening sheep.

"But the work at Ousdale was finished, and Mr Horne could find nothing more for them to do, and as a matter of course six families were single out to be set adrift by next Whitsunday, and to find no shelter on the paternal estate of Langwell. This appeared the harder when it is considered that some of them had been in the place for 50 or 60 years, and one family occupied the house possessed by their forebears for four generations, and others reared families of 10 and 11 children under the same roof. They were promised payment for all the foreign timber in their houses, but one day a couple of men appeared on the scene, leaped on the top of the house, and with shovels and graipe peeled the roofs of the house, leaving nothing but the bare roofs and the bare walls." 

A roofless Badbea house

"When the poor people demanded payment as promised, they were told they could take the timber if they chose, but no payment would be made, and there was no redress. These men were the scum of the estate, always ready to perform any dirty work the laird wanted done. This was the year 1845. Before this happened the village of Badbea was surrounded by a five-feet stone wall, a sure indication of the coming storm."

The stone wall taken from Badbea looking south toward Ousdale

"The inhabitants of Badrinsary laboured hard and sore in their new place, and by dint of hard labour and perseverance, they latterly became pretty comfortable, but their doom was speeding on, and this year, at Whitsunday, every one of them was swept away, and no shelter for them on the paternal estate. We can guess who are to occupy their places – Mr Horne’s sheep. There can be little doubt as to the fate of those still remaining on the estate. It is only a matter of time and they too will be swept away. One would have thought that after the exposure made in Parliament by the indefatigable Mr Ellice, M.P., of the Knoydart evictions it would have struck terror into the hearts of others. But it would seem as if nothing would make them depart from this curse of our land, or that the war in which we are engaged as a nation, which makes such heavy demand on our men and money, would make them pause and consider the danger of such a course of policy.

Ousdale Cheviot ewes and lambs on the top side of the Badbea stone wall

Mr Editor, I have trespassed too much on your valuable time and space, but the well-merited castigation you dealt the Duke of Sutherland for his conduct towards his poor and oppressed people this year, encouraged me to trouble you with these few simple facts, and facts they are which I defy Mr Horne or anyone who may take his part to controvert. I do not state them from hearsay; I state them from personal knowledge, and as one who has suffered by his conduct, and I only wonder that no one was bold enough to come forward and plead the cause of the poor. It may be said that what is past cannot be recalled. True, but there are other evictions to follow if public opinion does not avert the blow and shield them from the power and tyranny of the strong. Should you find a spare corner in your spirited journal for these remarks, you will confer a favour on your obedient servant.

A NATIVE OF BADBEA, Peebles, 19^th Sept., 1855

My Comments:

Much of this letter is repeated in Alexander Gunn’s report to the Crofter Commission in 1883 but bearing in mind that he first wrote this in 1855 when Horne was still proprietor of Langwell he was sure to have a reaction from Horne – which as we have seen, he got.

It seems likely that the Government Drainage Act referred to was dated 1846.

Alexander Gunn's father was evicted from Badbea at this time.

It seems amazing that 163 years after Alexander Gunn bravely first published this letter in  the Dundee and Perth Saturday Post in 1855 and again in the Northern Ensign in 1892 I can repost it for the world to see. Sadly many of Gunn's dreams and ambitions for his native land never came true. The Ousdale farm is still there farmed productively but the wild land between Ousdale and Langwell is still unproductive. The wall fencing off Badbea is still there. Badbea is still inhospitable and dangerous - an impossible place to live and rear a large family. The people have gone. There are Cheviots on the heather but it is not good sheep country. The remains of the Badbea houses are there. Gunn was right in his estimation that the best land use was not Horne's sheep  - Horne eventually was financially embarrased and had to sell. Langwell is now a shooting estate. But bravo Alexander Gunn - you never let 'sleeping dogs lie'.