The Sutherland Evictions of 1814; Former and Recent Statements Respecting Them Examined (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1883. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... 27 chapter H. the incidents of 1814-16, and the trial. The river Naver, issuing from the loch of the same name, and running its course of some eighteen or twenty miles nearly due north to its mouth in the Pentland Firth, divides the strath into two portions of unequal natural fertility. The picturesque mountain of Cliebrig, rising on the other side of Loch Naver to a height of over 3,000 feet, closes in the scene to the south, and the strath, as it now appears, has a certain pastoral beauty. The left or western side rises in most places gradually from the river bank, and in the lower portion of it extends in long low haughs or meadows, suitable for tillage. In the year 1814 it contained a considerable population, holding under tacksmen. With this bank and its population the present narrative is not concerned. No one on that side of the river Naver was affected by any 'clearances' carried out during Mr. Sellar's factorship.1 The right bank, that on the east side, rises in most places abruptly from the river, and the nearer hills 1 It was the ' clearance' from this bank and what he termed the 'vast heaps of ruined claehans' he 'came upon' during his walk down that side of the river (see introductory chapter to Lays of the Highlands and Islands, by Professor Blackie, London, 1872), over which Professor Blackie, twenty years ago, shed the tears to which he refers in his letter of December 5 (Appendix, p. xoix.). To this 'clearance' he constantly refers, applying first one opprobrious epithet to it and then another. It was not carried out by Mr. Sellar. ascend to a greater height, and more steeply than those on the opposite side. There are few signs now on that bank of former settlements (at least in the upper part of the strath, where the clearances of 1814 took pla...