Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of
Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands 1883 Part I
Alex Gunn concludes his statement:
"The
Highlander is blamed for laziness. I deny the charge. The Highlanders are not
lazy, but the treatment to which they have been subjected from time immemorial
at the hands of heartless and exacting Highland landlords has crushed their
spirits, when all their labour and industry go to enrich the landlord. Let the
Highlanders get fair play, and give them an inducement to exert themselves, and
they will work as much, and as willingly as any of Her Majesty's subjects."
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Sir John Sinclair was Laird of Langwell from
1791 to 1816 sending tenants to Badbea from 1793.
Photo Credit: Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster (1754 – 1835) by Benjamin West (1738 – 1820) Highland Council
"As
for the remedy for these crying evils, I have only to recommend what others
have so generally recommended, namely, give the land to men with security of
tenure, that is that if the man pays his rent he cannot be turned off his
holding, and also give compensation for improvements; but let no man be forced
to leave his native country, the place of his birth if there is an acre of
ground capable of cultivation. Let deer and sheep be reared where potatoes
won't grow, then there will be contentment and happiness, and not till
then."
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The Last of the Clan by the Scottish artist Thomas Faed
in 1865 sums up so much of Alex Gunn’s statement. The viewers perspective is
from the deck of a departing emigrant ship. The old clan elder with his
sorrowful head bowed depicts the Highlander’s ‘crushed spirit’ while others
watching the loved one’s depart, weep.
'When the
steamer had slowly backed out, and John MacAlpine had thrown off the hawser
[rope], we began to feel that our once powerful clan was now represented by a
feeble old man and his granddaughter, who, together with some outlying
kith-and-kin, myself among the number, owned not a single blade of grass in the
glen that was once all our own.' Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1865, this
painting was accompanied in the catalogue by this paragraph which was probably
written by the artist himself.
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| Potatoes growing in the Highlands on marginal land |
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