Imperial gazeteer of Scotland, or, Dictionary of Scottish topography > Volume 2

HEBRIDES.
02
HEBRIDES.
by the manures plentifully furnished on the spot,
yields abundant crops of the common grains of the
district. Lismore is all limestone ; and, where
tolerably well-managed, exhibits great luxuriance
of vegetation. Gigha, though surfaced with reddish
clay and gravel, and an admixture of decomposed
schist, granite, quartz, and sandstone, and inferior
in natural capacities to other islands, is one wide
field of intersected agricultural beauty, and an evi-
dence to the world of what a large portion of the
Hebrides might become under the operations of im-
provement. Though, then, two-thirds of the whole
Hebridean surface must be deducted for moss — a
deduction from arable ground only, but a real and
valuable addition to the wealth of the district in the
supply of fuel, and, to a large extent, a territory
offering scope for the play of georgical enterprise —
and though a considerable fraction more must be
deducted for saud ; yet, considering how highland
is the character of the region, a large aggregate re-
mains to be classified as productive, and even as
highly fertile soil. Mr. James Macdonald, in 1821,
estimated the whole Hebrides, including the Clyde
islands, to contain 180,000 Scottish acres of arable
and meadow land ; 20,000 occupied by villages,
farm - houses, gardens, and gentlemen's parks ;
10,000 occupied as glebes and churchyards, and by
schoolmasters ; 5,000 under plantation and natural
wood; 700,000 of hill - pasture, paying rent and
partially enclosed; 30,000 of kelp-shores, dry only
at low-water ; 22,000 dug for peat, or occupied by
roads, ferry-houses, and boats; 25,000 of barren
sands ; and 600,000 of mountain, morass, and un-
d rained lake, yielding little rent; — in all 1,592,000
Scottish acres.
The Hebrides were, for sometime preceding 1811,
distributed into 49 estates ; 10 of which yielded from
£50 to £500 of yearly rental, 22 from £500 to
£3,000, and 8 from £3,000 to £18,000 ; and 6 of the
largest were in the possession of noblemen. But
in Mull and Skye, and some of the smaller islands,
the number of proprietors often fluctuates. A fifth
part of the wholp region is under strict entail ; and
three-fifths are the property of absentees. The
great estates are managed by resident stewards or
factors, who usually reside on them, and superin-
tend the conduct of the tenants. The state of pro-
perty is neither very favourable, nor the reverse, to
agricultural improvement. Nor, amid the mixture
of large and of small estates, is it easy to determine
on which class, in general, the spirit of improve-
ment has been most abroad. Four sets of men are
in contact with the soil, and wield its productive
destinies, — proprietors, who keep their lands under
their own management, — tacksmen, who hold lands
by lease of the proprietor, — tenants, who hold lands
without lease and during the proprietor's pleasure,
— and sub-tenants, who hold from year to year,
either of the proprietor or of the tacksman. Some
of the proprietors who work their own lands, have
extensive estates, and are keen and successful agri-
culturists ; and others are resident simply because
their properties want capacity to support both their
own families and those of tacksmen. The tacks-
men — a totally different class of persons from the
Lowland farmers, connected with the proprietors
by clanmanship or consanguinity, possessing leases
of from 9 to 99 or even a much larger number of
years, valuating their grounds, not by the acre or
by productiveness in corn, but solely by capacity
of rearing and maintaining cattle, and making pre-
tensions, in many instances just ones, to the status
of gentlemen — are, from various causes, in posses-
sion of the greater part of the Hebrides, and have,
with some exceptions, seriously prevented the in-
gress, or blocked up or impeded the march of agri-
cultural improvement. But while some — such as
those of Mr. Campbell of Islay— have, under the
inspection of their landlord, moved in the very van
of improvement, and been, in general, an honour to
their order, all, as a class, act a useful and even
necessary part in maintaining government and
good order in the district. Tenants are becoming
more numerous as the tacksmen die out, and pay
from £5 to £20 of yearly rent; but, in consequence
of the insecurity of their tenure, they seldom at-
tempt improvements. The sub-tenants are a class
similar to the cotters of the Lowlands, responsible
for a rent rarely exceeding £3, which they usually
pay in labour; and as they almost always support
large families in a state bordering on complete idle-
ness, they would fare much better, and prove more
useful members of society, were they, in the strict
sense of the word, day-labourers. They are op-
pressed and -rendered actionless by a spirit of en-
slavement ; they often prefer having their children
about them in a state of abject misery to what they
esteem the hardship of driving them into service ;
and, destitute of any prospect of independence, and
amounting in number to probably 40,000, they sit
so heavily on the soil as very greatly to daunt ex-
pectation of its being soon brought under those
georgical influences which have so generally dif-
fused beauty and exultancy over the face of the
Lowlands of the continent.
Until after the middle of the last century, the
land appears to have been occupied exclusively by
tacksmen, generally the kinsmen or dependents of
the proprietor, with sub-tenants holding of the
tacksmen, and joint-tenants holding farms in com-
mon, each with a defined share. About that date,
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, distributed
annually. Since the commencement of this cent-
ury, the arable land has in most cases been divid-
ed among the joint-tenants or crofters, in separate
portions, the pasture remaining as formerly in com-
mon. The first effect of this division into separate
crofts, was a great increase of produce, so that dis-
tricts which had formerly imported food, now be-
came 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 theii
farther subdivision, which could rarely be overcome.
But when each joint - tenant received his owr.
separate croft, this restraint for the most part ceased.
The crofters who had lived in hamlets or clusters
of cottages, now generally established themselves
separately on their crofts. " Their houses, erected
by themselves," says Sir John M'Neill, " 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 con-
sists 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 neighbour-
ing 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, provide seed and winter provender for his
animals ; of his furniture, his implements, the
rafters of his house, and generally a boat, or share
of a boat, nets, or other fishing gear, with some