Smuggling background for Article I
Making whisky was
part of the fibre of every day existence for Scots. There were a number of
parliamentary interventions to impose taxes and controls on whisky but these
only served to make ‘smuggling’ or illicit distilling and selling of whisky
a matter for almost the entire country. Excisemen (or gaugers) were
appointed to collect whisky taxes and catch ‘smugglers’. In reality,
magistrates often imposed moderate fines and reaped their own rewards in
whisky. Like everyone else, the residents of Badbea had their own browsts and
sold whisky - that being one of the few ways they could get cash to meet the rent
demands of the Laird.
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| The Whiskey Still by McIan |
Northern Ensign, Thursday, July 17, 1879. Article I
Part B continued from previous blog.
In these
days of which I speak, smuggling was very common. Every house and family in the
village had their "browst" or two, every year, some oftener. The
excise laws were not so stringent then as they are now. A person caught in the
very act then got off with a fine of 5s or l0s. A visit to Bailie Waters, Wick,
before the court day by the accused party, and the relating of a sorrowful
tale, had always the effect of reducing the fine to the very lowest. Bailie
Waters was a man of a tender, sympathising heart, and no poor man ever failed
in finding in him a true friend. But the law was made more stringent, and put
in the form it stands in now, which did not, however, terrify the Badbea folks,
or make them give up the trade. Not at all, it only made them more vigilant.
They had a good friend in the innkeeper at Berriedale, John Dow. It was the
gaugers stationed at Dunbeath that came the way of Badbea, Berriedale, and neighbourhood.
They always called at the inn at Berriedale on their way west. No sooner did
they arrive there than John dispatched a messenger to Badbea to apprise them of
the approach of the enemy. The messenger lost no time in reaching Badbea- a
distance of three miles, all perspiring and worn-out after his long run, for he
ran the whole road. Then the hurry commenced. You could see three or four men
running in different directions, carrying sacks of malt on their shoulders,
some to the hills, and others to the rocks, all bent on concealing the precious
stuff form the hawk-eyed gauger. Then the dreaded party appeared, and began his
search. If successful, his find was scattered broadcast among the heather or
grass as the case might be, but was scarcely out of sight when numbers of
willing hands and fingers gathered what had been so ruthlessly scattered,
proving the truth of the saying that there is "a time to scatter and a
time to gather that which was scattered", and it is surprising how little
would be lost.
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| Excise men at an illicit still near Gairloch late 19th C Source: Am Baile Facebook |
Another
dreaded day was when the cutter, the smart "Atalanta", paid us a
visit. She would sail in close to the shore, her captain scanning the face of
the rocks with his glass, and woe betide the unfortunate bothy which came
within the focus of his keen eye. When a discovery was made, a boat was at once
manned and sent ashore, armed with cutlasses and pistol. These cutter-men
climbed the face of the most perpendicular rock, with as much ease as they
would climb the shrouds of the "Atalanta". Should they find any tubs
or barrels in the bothy, they were hurled down the face of the rock, and
reached the shore in staves. Then the match would be applied to the dry thatch
of the bothy, and in a few minutes, all that was left were only a few
smouldering embers.
The "Atalanta"
was no sooner out of sight than these staves lying scattered on the shore were
quickly collected together and handed over to David Sutherland, better known as
"David Badbea", who combined the offices of joiner and cooper, and in
twenty-four hours they were all in their former shape, and ready for use, and
there was no want of willing hands who restored the burnt down bothy to its
former state. It could not be said, however, that the gaugers were very
exacting or troublesome. Many a good quarter of barley was sold by the gauger
to the Badbea folks to be converted into Highland whisky, sent to their very
door by his own carts and many a good gallon of the whisky made from his own
barley did the gauger take in part payment for his victual. Your readers
will be very apt to think from the forgoing statement that vice must have
reigned triumphant in Badbea. Will they believe me when I tell them that in
Badbea I first saw the light of day, and lived in it till I grew up to the
years of manhood, and that I never saw a drunk person in it, nor ever heard of
one of its inhabitants utter a profane oath. So that while they engaged so
freely in a line of life contrary to the laws of the land, just because it was
so common they had no other vice of any kind.
Two Godly Men
Perhaps this
was to be accounted for from the example and precept of the godly John
Sutherland, "John Badbea" as he was familiarly called, who also held
meetings or readings in his own house every Sunday, when everyone in Badbea and
Auchnacraig, of which more by and by, regularly attended. John was assisted by
a few of the godly men in the place. Robert Grant, " Polbagh" was one
of these, and always closed the meeting with a prayer. Full of the spirit of
devotion, and unconscious perhaps of the impatience of a number of young ones,
he generally lengthened out his supplications to a good long hour. Indeed,
there were other folks there who, if they were asked their own opinion, would
be very apt to say that the good earnest man, was a shade too long in arriving
at the "Amen".
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| Cas Chrom or foot plough so useful in rocky landscapes |
I said
already that the inhabitants of Badbea lived a primitive life. This will appear
more striking when we find that there was only one horse in the whole village.
There was no a plough in it, a particularly made spade being the implement used
in place of a plough to till the ground. The harrow was dragged behind a man,
and the manure carried on women's backs in creels.
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| A crofter using a Cas Chrom to get beds ready for potatoes |
Yet there were as fine young men and maidens to be found in
Badbea as could be found anywhere. The young men of Badbea are scattered all
over the world, some of them leading men in New Zealand, and others of them
maintaining the honour of Britain's arms in Zululand, as we saw by your paper
last week, and those whose lot it has been to remain nearer the place of their
birth occupy as honourable and respectable a position in society as those who
were more favoured with a more refined upbringing.
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| Planting potatoes on Skye. |
Note: The photos and illustrations were not in the original Northern Ensign article.
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