Destitute islanders from Barra arrived on the Scottish mainland in late 1850 following successive failures of the island's annual potato crop. Their presence, behaviour and the actions of their erstwhile proprietor, Colonel John Gordon of Cluny garnered newspaper coverage and comment. During the previous five years, these same, predominantly Lowland papers reported on how proprietors, the state and the public reacted to the humanitarian crisis as it unfolded throughout the Highlands and Ireland. Centuries-old Lowland views as to why Highlanders were unable to sustain themselves resurfaced, often woven into journalistic commentary on the aforementioned responses. This paper considers the state of the island purchased by Cluny, his investment in improvements and the resulting return he expected to accrue. Journalist and anti-proprietor campaigner Donald Ross attempted to hold Cluny to account for his behaviour towards his tenants when famine struck. Ross brought the islanders’ plight to the attention of readers of his columns, while also orchestrating events which achieved both positive and critical comments in the press. Finally, an assessment is offered of the relative importance of the story to newspaper editors, their readerships and Cluny’s own public legacy.
{"title":"The Paupers, the Gallant Colonel and the Fourth Estate: Press Reporting of the Arrival of Barra Highlanders on the Scottish Mainland","authors":"Neil Bruce","doi":"10.3366/nor.2022.0260","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/nor.2022.0260","url":null,"abstract":"Destitute islanders from Barra arrived on the Scottish mainland in late 1850 following successive failures of the island's annual potato crop. Their presence, behaviour and the actions of their erstwhile proprietor, Colonel John Gordon of Cluny garnered newspaper coverage and comment. During the previous five years, these same, predominantly Lowland papers reported on how proprietors, the state and the public reacted to the humanitarian crisis as it unfolded throughout the Highlands and Ireland. Centuries-old Lowland views as to why Highlanders were unable to sustain themselves resurfaced, often woven into journalistic commentary on the aforementioned responses. This paper considers the state of the island purchased by Cluny, his investment in improvements and the resulting return he expected to accrue. Journalist and anti-proprietor campaigner Donald Ross attempted to hold Cluny to account for his behaviour towards his tenants when famine struck. Ross brought the islanders’ plight to the attention of readers of his columns, while also orchestrating events which achieved both positive and critical comments in the press. Finally, an assessment is offered of the relative importance of the story to newspaper editors, their readerships and Cluny’s own public legacy.","PeriodicalId":40928,"journal":{"name":"Northern Scotland","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43682847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article concludes that the Pluscarden rising is more than the localised protest that previous historians have accepted, and that it was a planned Royalist rising. The story of the rising is outlined before a detailed approach is taken to the people involved. The international context of Royalist planning is examined. A new analysis of the reasons for the rising is then put forward.
{"title":"The Pluscarden Rising","authors":"G. Watson","doi":"10.3366/nor.2022.0262","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/nor.2022.0262","url":null,"abstract":"This article concludes that the Pluscarden rising is more than the localised protest that previous historians have accepted, and that it was a planned Royalist rising. The story of the rising is outlined before a detailed approach is taken to the people involved. The international context of Royalist planning is examined. A new analysis of the reasons for the rising is then put forward.","PeriodicalId":40928,"journal":{"name":"Northern Scotland","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44285675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Allan I. Macinnes, Patricia Barton, and Kieran German (eds), Scottish Liturgical Traditions and Religious Politics: From Reformers to Jacobites, 1540–1764","authors":"Ben Rogers","doi":"10.3366/nor.2022.0266","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/nor.2022.0266","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":40928,"journal":{"name":"Northern Scotland","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43091495","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Eric Linklater's 1934 novel Magnus Merriman is recognised as a comic triumph for its satirical treatment of the Scottish Renaissance and the associated contemporary Scottish nationalist movement. This article argues that Magnus Merriman has deceptive depth because Linklater offers frequently profound insights into a compelling point in Scottish cultural and political history. The misadventures of the eponymous Magnus have strong parallels with Linklater's own belated entry into the Scottish Literary Renaissance and his disastrous attempt at standing for parliament as a Scottish nationalist candidate. The novel showcases Linklater's idiosyncratic political doctrine of ‘small nationalism’, and his unflattering portrayal of the National Party of Scotland is coloured by his disillusionment with it. The doomed poem written by Magnus, ‘ The Returning Sun’, symbolises the Scottish Renaissance, reflecting its shortcomings and the difficulty of forming a unified Scottish cultural identity. The character of Magnus himself embodies the lack of a single, coherent Scottish identity as a Scottish Renaissance anti-hero. Magnus's political and literary disappointments mean Linklater gives a pessimistic assessment of the relative failure of the Scottish Renaissance and the nationalist movement of the period. Linklater's irreverent examination of Scottish nationalism retains contemporary relevance. Magnus Merriman is more than just a hilarious comedy and represents a significant contribution to Scottish literature.
埃里克·林克莱特1934年的小说《马格努斯·梅里曼》被认为是喜剧的胜利，因为它讽刺了苏格兰文艺复兴和与之相关的当代苏格兰民族主义运动。本文认为马格努斯·梅里曼的深度具有欺骗性，因为林克莱特经常对苏格兰文化和政治历史上引人注目的一点提供深刻的见解。与他同名的马格努斯的不幸遭遇与林克莱特自己迟来的苏格兰文学文艺复兴以及他作为苏格兰民族主义候选人竞选议会的灾难性尝试有着强烈的相似之处。这部小说展示了林克莱特独特的“小民族主义”政治信条，他对苏格兰民族党(National Party of Scotland)的不讨喜的描绘因他对它的幻灭而蒙上了一层色彩。马格努斯写的那首注定失败的诗《归来的太阳》象征着苏格兰文艺复兴，反映了它的缺点和形成统一的苏格兰文化认同的困难。作为苏格兰文艺复兴时期的反英雄，马格努斯这个人物本身就缺乏一个单一的、连贯的苏格兰身份。马格努斯在政治和文学上的失望意味着林克莱特对苏格兰文艺复兴和民族主义运动的相对失败做出了悲观的评价。林克莱特对苏格兰民族主义不敬的审视保留了当代意义。马格努斯·梅里曼不仅仅是一部搞笑的喜剧，而且对苏格兰文学做出了重大贡献。
{"title":"‘Magnus's vision of a resurgent Scotland was elusive as a unicorn’: Scottish Nationalism in Eric Linklater's Magnus Merriman","authors":"A. Gilbert","doi":"10.3366/nor.2021.0247","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/nor.2021.0247","url":null,"abstract":"Eric Linklater's 1934 novel Magnus Merriman is recognised as a comic triumph for its satirical treatment of the Scottish Renaissance and the associated contemporary Scottish nationalist movement. This article argues that Magnus Merriman has deceptive depth because Linklater offers frequently profound insights into a compelling point in Scottish cultural and political history. The misadventures of the eponymous Magnus have strong parallels with Linklater's own belated entry into the Scottish Literary Renaissance and his disastrous attempt at standing for parliament as a Scottish nationalist candidate. The novel showcases Linklater's idiosyncratic political doctrine of ‘small nationalism’, and his unflattering portrayal of the National Party of Scotland is coloured by his disillusionment with it. The doomed poem written by Magnus, ‘ The Returning Sun’, symbolises the Scottish Renaissance, reflecting its shortcomings and the difficulty of forming a unified Scottish cultural identity. The character of Magnus himself embodies the lack of a single, coherent Scottish identity as a Scottish Renaissance anti-hero. Magnus's political and literary disappointments mean Linklater gives a pessimistic assessment of the relative failure of the Scottish Renaissance and the nationalist movement of the period. Linklater's irreverent examination of Scottish nationalism retains contemporary relevance. Magnus Merriman is more than just a hilarious comedy and represents a significant contribution to Scottish literature.","PeriodicalId":40928,"journal":{"name":"Northern Scotland","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69615204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The study of Scottish migration in the early modern period has experienced extensive growth in recent decades, but has tended to privilege overseas movement over the presence of Scots elsewhere in Britain. This is particularly true of migrants from the Scottish Highlands: much has been written about Highlanders in America or Continental Europe, but almost nothing is known about their experiences in England and Wales, and in particular in London, consistently the major destination of Scots moving southwards. This article seeks to address that gap by exploring the extent and nature of Highland migration to London during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It begins by surveying the surviving evidence for Highlanders’ presence in the English capital, suggesting that they were most readily to be found in the elite and mercantile sectors, and were comparatively rarer among the ranks of artisans, professionals, or the poor. It is also argued that Highlanders tended not to form a coherent ethnic ‘bloc’, but instead were subsumed within the wider Scottish diaspora. This, however, was paradoxical, because London was during this period developing a strong image of ‘the Highlanders’ as distinctive from ‘the Scot’. The article therefore goes on to explore the origins of Highlander imagery, and concludes that those Highlanders actually resident in London contributed very little to it. Instead, image-makers drew predominantly on pre-existing Scottish stereotypes, travellers’ reports, outlaw tales, and political discourse, for example surrounding Jacobitism. All of this suggests a degree of invisibility around the Highland community in early modern London, and that, the article suggests, underlines the fundamental blurriness of the Highland/Lowland divide within Scotland. It also indicates that a segmented, rather than ethno-cultural model of assimilation might offer the most reliable means of understanding the Scottish diaspora in early modern London.
{"title":"Highlanders and the City: Migration, Segmentation, and the Image of the Highlander in Early Modern London, 1603-c.1750","authors":"A. Kennedy","doi":"10.3366/nor.2021.0245","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/nor.2021.0245","url":null,"abstract":"The study of Scottish migration in the early modern period has experienced extensive growth in recent decades, but has tended to privilege overseas movement over the presence of Scots elsewhere in Britain. This is particularly true of migrants from the Scottish Highlands: much has been written about Highlanders in America or Continental Europe, but almost nothing is known about their experiences in England and Wales, and in particular in London, consistently the major destination of Scots moving southwards. This article seeks to address that gap by exploring the extent and nature of Highland migration to London during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It begins by surveying the surviving evidence for Highlanders’ presence in the English capital, suggesting that they were most readily to be found in the elite and mercantile sectors, and were comparatively rarer among the ranks of artisans, professionals, or the poor. It is also argued that Highlanders tended not to form a coherent ethnic ‘bloc’, but instead were subsumed within the wider Scottish diaspora. This, however, was paradoxical, because London was during this period developing a strong image of ‘the Highlanders’ as distinctive from ‘the Scot’. The article therefore goes on to explore the origins of Highlander imagery, and concludes that those Highlanders actually resident in London contributed very little to it. Instead, image-makers drew predominantly on pre-existing Scottish stereotypes, travellers’ reports, outlaw tales, and political discourse, for example surrounding Jacobitism. All of this suggests a degree of invisibility around the Highland community in early modern London, and that, the article suggests, underlines the fundamental blurriness of the Highland/Lowland divide within Scotland. It also indicates that a segmented, rather than ethno-cultural model of assimilation might offer the most reliable means of understanding the Scottish diaspora in early modern London.","PeriodicalId":40928,"journal":{"name":"Northern Scotland","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48092148","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
E. Ritchie, Neil Bruce, H. Barton, J. Bockoven, Hayley Taylor
Despite the theorising of Enlightenment and Romantic thinkers, no crystallised notion of childhood was particularly widespread or applied in the rural north. However, the evidence does suggest gradual phases, contingent on class, gender and circumstance, which tended to commence between the ages of five and eight and were distinguished by formal education or starting to assist in the family economy in a meaningful way. At the other end of childhood, taking up full-time employment or leaving home to work, study or marry therefore tended to be the rite of passage through which youngsters entered either adolescence or adulthood, but the ages at which this happened were highly circumstantial. The evidence suggests that there was no widespread dominant notion of childhood as a distinct life stage requiring specialised care and attention in rural communities during the period in which it was becoming established among theorists and the urban middle classes. For most the daily realities of labour, challenging economic circumstances, densely populated households, let alone the upheavals of clearance and emigration that affected so many, meant there was little time, energy or mental and emotional space to absorb and implement new philosophies. Rather, the needs of families meant that continuing older practices of gradually increasing responsibilities and responding to circumstances made most sense among the thatched longhouses and blackhouses of Scotland's rural north.
{"title":"‘Take up the Man and lay down the Boy’: Defining Rural Childhood in Northern Scotland during the Enlightenment","authors":"E. Ritchie, Neil Bruce, H. Barton, J. Bockoven, Hayley Taylor","doi":"10.3366/NOR.2021.0236","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/NOR.2021.0236","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the theorising of Enlightenment and Romantic thinkers, no crystallised notion of childhood was particularly widespread or applied in the rural north. However, the evidence does suggest gradual phases, contingent on class, gender and circumstance, which tended to commence between the ages of five and eight and were distinguished by formal education or starting to assist in the family economy in a meaningful way. At the other end of childhood, taking up full-time employment or leaving home to work, study or marry therefore tended to be the rite of passage through which youngsters entered either adolescence or adulthood, but the ages at which this happened were highly circumstantial. The evidence suggests that there was no widespread dominant notion of childhood as a distinct life stage requiring specialised care and attention in rural communities during the period in which it was becoming established among theorists and the urban middle classes. For most the daily realities of labour, challenging economic circumstances, densely populated households, let alone the upheavals of clearance and emigration that affected so many, meant there was little time, energy or mental and emotional space to absorb and implement new philosophies. Rather, the needs of families meant that continuing older practices of gradually increasing responsibilities and responding to circumstances made most sense among the thatched longhouses and blackhouses of Scotland's rural north.","PeriodicalId":40928,"journal":{"name":"Northern Scotland","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49139332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Although Strathspey experienced many of the same trends – agricultural ‘improvement’, enclosure of commons, creation of deer forests, emigration – present elsewhere in Northern Scotland during the nineteenth century, the region was not a flashpoint for unrest. Careful management on behalf of the ruling family, the earls of Seafield, who were the hereditary chiefs of Grant, the local clan; a consistent policy preference to work with existing farming tenants, and a traditional paternalism, all contributed to social stability. The region was not exempt from protest against the impact of the considerable programme of ‘improvement’ pursued from 1853. There were accusations of ‘depopulation’ and ‘clearance’ in Strathspey, but the influence of those who benefitted from the changes, together with the intrinsic and pervasive authority of the Seafield estate, confined discontent to the constitutional channels opening up as the century progressed. Strong expressions of loyalty to the Seafield proprietors were also a feature of the times. Aspects of this narrative of mutual loyalty are examined, and then the spectrum of reaction to improvement and clearance, the growing lobby for land reform, and the experience of depopulation. Although the influence of the Strathspey factor, John Smith, was important in channelling public discourse, a dilution of estate authority as the century progressed is recognised. The article seeks to broaden perceptions of the history of the Highlands by considering a region of the Gaidhealtachd outwith the far North and the North-West.
{"title":"Loyalty and Dissent: Improvement and Clearance in Strathspey after 1853","authors":"F. Bardgett","doi":"10.3366/NOR.2021.0232","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/NOR.2021.0232","url":null,"abstract":"Although Strathspey experienced many of the same trends – agricultural ‘improvement’, enclosure of commons, creation of deer forests, emigration – present elsewhere in Northern Scotland during the nineteenth century, the region was not a flashpoint for unrest. Careful management on behalf of the ruling family, the earls of Seafield, who were the hereditary chiefs of Grant, the local clan; a consistent policy preference to work with existing farming tenants, and a traditional paternalism, all contributed to social stability. The region was not exempt from protest against the impact of the considerable programme of ‘improvement’ pursued from 1853. There were accusations of ‘depopulation’ and ‘clearance’ in Strathspey, but the influence of those who benefitted from the changes, together with the intrinsic and pervasive authority of the Seafield estate, confined discontent to the constitutional channels opening up as the century progressed. Strong expressions of loyalty to the Seafield proprietors were also a feature of the times. Aspects of this narrative of mutual loyalty are examined, and then the spectrum of reaction to improvement and clearance, the growing lobby for land reform, and the experience of depopulation. Although the influence of the Strathspey factor, John Smith, was important in channelling public discourse, a dilution of estate authority as the century progressed is recognised. The article seeks to broaden perceptions of the history of the Highlands by considering a region of the Gaidhealtachd outwith the far North and the North-West.","PeriodicalId":40928,"journal":{"name":"Northern Scotland","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69615190","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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