Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 4

HEBRIDES
lake is sea,' but this is very much exaggerated ; and
although the islands as a whole are by no means very
fertile, there are yet many districts where the land is
fairly productive, and they are indeed more populous
and aggregately more productive than the same extent
of many parts of the mainland Highlands, or even of
the mountainous parts of Northumberland, Cumberland,
and Westmoreland. Islay, for example, has 36 square
miles of a thin stratum of decomposed limestone, occa-
sionally intermixed with clay and gravel, 6everal miles
of rich clay land, and some thousands of acres of good
loam. Gigha, with red clay and gravel, and inferior to
many of the islands in natural capabilities, affords an
excellent example of what might, by vigorous and judi-
cious management, be accomplished in many seemingly
inhospitable parts of the Highlands. Jura, though
seeming to a cursory glance to be mostly mere barren
mountain, yet contains some fertile patches of clayey
gravel and patches of stony loam, as well as many
hundred acres of improvable moss. Mull, though pre-
dominantly upland moor, has a considerable tract of
soil formed from disintegrated basalt, and producing
good grassy sheep pasture. Lismore has abundance of
grass, and where well managed the calcareous soil yields
good results under tillage. Skye possesses all the
varieties of soil found in the Scottish Lowlands, except
pure sand, and, notwithstanding the prevalence of barren
mountains and marshy moor, there are patches of con-
siderable fertility. In one parish alone there are 4000
acres of as fine loam and loamy clay on a gravelly
bottom as are to be found anywhere in Scotland. The
Outer Hebrides, over most of the seaboard and in por-
tions of the interior, have a soil of disintegrated gneiss
or granite, which, when mixed with clay or shell sand,
or when manured with the sea-weed that lies plentifully
at hand, yields abundant crops of oats and bere. All
along the western side of this chain there is a good deal
of sand-drift, but the action of this may here be regarded
as beneficial. The tenant of the land is for the time
being injured, and the land rendered barren in places
where the sand rests too deep, yet the sand is shell-sand,
and where it does not lie too deep is of immense benefit
to the soil. In North and South TJist, in Barra, in
Coll, in Harris, in Colonsay, and in many of the other
islands as well, the sand is drifted into the interior,
where, at the marshy ground along the base of the
hills, it meets with the moisture it needs, and peat, on
which it acts as a manure. ' It brings on a coat of
verdure, where nothing grew before but heath ; whence
that which on the flat and arid shores is the cause of
small spots of barrenness, is, in its progress, the source
of extensive fertility. The springing of white clover is
one among the results which prove this good effect, as
that is an invariable result of the application of cal-
careous matter to Highland pastures. The proprietors
have not hitherto been aware of the nature of this pro-
cess, of so much importance in the agriculture of these
islands. They have forgotten to note the difference
between their own lands and those which sand injures ;
judging by habit, and forgetting to observe or reason.'
About two-thirds of the entire Hebrides may be reckoned
as moor or moss, and there is a considerable portion
bare rock or pure sand ; but the moss is of great value
and importance, both as capable of improvement into
pasture or arable land and as providing the only fuel
used throughout the islands. It has been estimated
that of the whole area about 200,000 acres are arable
and meadow land ; about 23,000 are occupied by vil-
lages, farmhouses, gardens, and gentlemen's parks ; about
11,000 are occupied as glebes, churchyards, and school-
masters' crofts ; about 800,000 as hill pasture, paying
rent, and partially enclosed ; about 26,000 dug for peat
or occupied by roads, etc. ; about 30,000 is barren sand
and bare rock ; and about 700,000 is occupied by moor,
marsh, and undrained lochs.
The Hebrides were in the beginning of the present
century distributed into 49 estates, 10 of which yielded
from £50 to £500 of yearly rental, 22 from £500 to
£3000, and 8 from £3000 to £18,000. Six of the largest
258
HEBRIDES
were in possession of noblemen. About one-fifth of all
the land is under strict entail, and about three-fifths
belong to absentees. The great estates are managed by
factors, who usually reside on them. In the actual
working of the soil four different classes are con-
cerned : first, proprietors, who keep their lands under
their own management ; second, tacksmen, who hold
land under ' tacks ' or leases, and with rents of over £50,
and sometimes amounting to several hundred pounds
a year ; third, tenants who hold lands of the proprietor
without leases, and whose rents are from £20 to £50
a year ; fourth, crofters holding land without lease either
of the proprietor or of the tacksman, and whose rents
never exceed £20 a year, and are generally very con-
siderably below that sum. This class may be taken to
include the cottars of some districts, who are sub-tenants
holding from year to year. Some of the proprietors
who work their own lands have extensive estates, and
are keen and successful agriculturists. The tacksmen
used formerly to be connected with the proprietors by
clanship or blood, and formed a body of resident gentry ;
but after the rebellion of 1745, most of the chiefs anct
other proprietors suddenly raised the rents, and deprived
the tacksmen of the power of sub-letting their lands.
The sudden rise of rents took the tenants by surprise,
and large numbers of them emigrated in disgust and
despair. The present tacksmen are simply the larger
tenants, with security of holding, and it is much to be
regretted that similar security is not given to the smaller
tenants, as to the lack of it is due the utter absence of
any attempt at improvement. The crofters and cottars,
who form the great bulk of the population, are very
similar to the cottars of the mainland, and a consider-
able portion of their small rents is often paid in labour.
Generally with large families — whom they in many cases
prefer to have with them in a state of abject misery
rather than send them out to service, which they esteem
a great hardship — they would in most cases be very
much happier in the actual position of ordinary day-
labourers.
When the old tacksman system was broken up, about
the middle of last century, many of the farms held by
tacksmen seem to have been taken directly from the
proprietor by joint-tenants, who grazed their stock upon
the pasture in common, and tilled the arable land in
' run-rig,' that is, in alternate 'rigs' or ridges, distri-
buted annually. Since the commencement of this cen-
tury, the arable land has in most cases been divided
among the joint-tenants or crofters in separate portions,
the pasture remaining as formerly in common. The
first effect of this division into separate crofts was a
great increase of produce, so that districts which had
formerly imported food now became self-supporting.
But evils followed which had not been foreseen. So
long as the farms were held in joint-tenancy there was
a barrier to their further sub-division which could rarely
be overcome. But when each joint-tenant received his
own separate croft, this restraint for the most part
ceased. The crofters who had lived in hamlets or clus-
ters of cottages now generally established themselves
separately on their crofts. ' Their houses, erected by
themselves,' says Sir John M'Neill, who was appointed
by Government to report on the district in 1850, in
consequence of the great distress in 1846, 'are of stone
and earth, or clay. The only materials they purchase
are the doors, and, in most cases, the rafters of the roof
on which are laid thin turf, covered with thatch. The
crofter's furniture consists of some rude bedsteads, a
table, some stools, chests, and a few cooking utensils.
At one end of the house, often entering by the same
door, is the byre for his cattle ; at the other, the barn
for his crop. His fuel is the peat he cuts in the neigh-
bouring moss, of which an allotted portion is often
attached to each croft. His capital consists of his cattle,
his sheep, and perhaps one or more horses or ponies ;
of his crop that is to feed him till next harvest, pro-
vide seed and winter provender for his animals ; of
his furniture, his implements, the rafters of his house,
and, generallv, a boat, or share of a boat, nets or other