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FOR Scotland, the 18th
Century dawned most inauspiciously. Ever since 1696 there had hung over
the land the gloom and horror of want and famine, a condition which was
destined to prevail for seven long years without the Heaven-sent
intervention of a Joseph. During that doleful period it is said that
practically no harvest was reaped. Through the summers heavy rains
drenched the undrained and poorly, cultivated fields, while cold
easterly mists obscured the sun, retarding growth and rendering the
unripe grain a prey to the early descending frosts, disappointing the
hopes of the farmers and plunging the already, poverty-stricken country
into hopeless famine and despair. So dire became the distress that
thousands are said to have perished from actual starvation, and so
hopeless and dispirited at last became the people, that the very burying
of the dead, even without a coffin, became, in many cases too great a
burden for the weak, emaciated and poverty-stricken survivors. Some, it
is said, at the approach- of death, and dreading exposure to dogs or
carrion birds, struggled to the church-yard to have a better chance of
decent burial. In the field, as late as December, or even January, might
be seen hunger-stricken people searching for and eagerly snatching from
the cruel teeth of Winter, some heretofore despised or overlooked
portion or forgotten handful of the frost-destroyed harvest. In the
death-fattened churchyards might be seen hungry people eagerly gathering
docks and nettles, there more plentiful than elsewhere, wherewith to
appease the cravings of hunger. In the eager search for food not even
the much despised snail was forgotten. In the fields these were eagerly
sought and gathered in summer and preserved for winter use. In this
extremity of destitution, it is said that in some parishes not less than
one third of the inhabitants perished. Under the terrible pressure the
instinct of self-preservation sometimes overmastered the nobler and
God-given qualities of altruism and love. Even natural affection—most
nearly perfect remnant of mail's primal nobility--sometimes yielded its
sceptre, parents in some cases selling their children into slavery in
the colonies in exchange for food.
For one brief day, July
26th, 1698, the sad procession of gloomy days already stretching into
years was varied by a day of brightness and of hope. On that day sailed
from the Port of Leith in three vessels, amid the plaudits and good
wishes of a vast crowd of Edinburgh's citizens the equipment and 1200
picked men of The Darian Expedition which had been fitted up at a cost
of four hundred thousand pounds, a sum that then represented a large
proportion of the available wealth of the country. On this expedition
the nation had set its hopes. The day was warm and bright and everything
seemed to augur success. But alas, no such hopes were to find
fulfilment. Before the century had ended the bubble burst, and a still
deeper gloom settled over the famine-stricken land.
To what extent the
district of Cromar participated in the sufferings of those dismal years,
no information has come to me. Tales of famine and distress in that
district toward the end of the 18th Century I often heard from the lips
of old men to whose fathers had come the bad experience of want and
hunger, but of local tradition of the famine that greeted the previous
century at its birth, I never heard. It may well be that famines were
then so frequent that those of centuries earlier in a community where no
written record was preserved may have become in popular imagination
blended into a single scene, and that the experience of earlier times
may in some cases have given colour to those of later years retailed by
some survivor for the benefit of a new generation whose later advent had
landed them in circumstances and under conditions more happy and
prosperous than those which their fathers had experienced. No doubt
famine in ancient times, however unwelcome, would cause no surprise. Its
advent would be regarded as something that had to be—something as
uncontrollable by prescience and providence as were the east winds and
the cold seasons of mist, rain and frost that periodically blasted the
crops or the visitations of smallpox and plague that from time to time
had been wont to decimate their population. They had not yet learned the
wisdom and necessity of selecting and saving productive and early
maturing seed-grain for the increase of the yearly yield and the
avoidance of late harvest and early frost. Nor had they yet made the
discovery that with more thorough drainage of their fields, and of their
swamps and marshes, not only would their lands he earlier in the season
prepared for the seed, but the
seasons themselves, through the increased heat radiation resulting from
drainage over a large area would become so affected as to extend
perceptibly the period of the crop-growing year.
THE STANDARD OF THE BRAES
o'MAR
In the Year 1707 the
union of England and Scotland was consummated, when Queen Anne, who
since 1702 had worn the crowns of the two kingdoms separately, became
the sovereign of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. On the death of
Queen Anne in 1714 George the First ascended the throne, though many
eyes in both countries were turned Iongingly towards James Edward the
exiled son of James the second.
In 1711 this unfortunate
Prince, known as "The Pretender," landed in Scotland, and in the month
of September of that year, his standard was raised at Braemar, under the
title of James III. In the month of August next preceeding that event,
the earl of Mar, for the purpose of rousing the clansmen for the support
of the prince, had made arrangements for a great deer hunt in the
highlands of Braemar, to which representatives of all the clans likely
to take part in the rising were invited. Present there was the Earl
himself, more than one marquis, and a large number of knights and
esquires and their followers, to the number in all of some 1500. Great
and small were in the highland dress, each clan distinguished by its
peculiar tartan. The rank and file were armed with claymore, dirk and
lochaber axe and with obsolete musket or longbow. To this rude equipment
with the aid of a hundred couples of Irish grey hounds had fallen in a
few hours four score deer. These provided venison in abundance for
tables which seem to have been loaded with other good things to which
the rude clansmen would ordinarily be strangers. Not only was the food
supply rich and abundant, but liquor which would not be less acceptable
to the natives, seems to have been supplied with liberal hand.
Tradition asserts that
the party came clown to Glen-Quoich where beside the water-fall of the
Quoich are "pot holes" worn in the rock in time of flood by stones
swirled round and round in a narrow eddying circle. Such a hole, of
considerable dimensions, the Earl of Mar determined to make tributary to
the interests of the Prince. Into its capacious interior he caused to be
poured several anchors of whisky, some hundredweights of honey and some
gallons of boiling water. From the liquor thus compounded, he
distributed bumper after bumper to the thirsty and delighted clansmen,
whose enthusiasm under such liquid inspiration, so generously bestowed
by the hands of a nobleman so affable and condescending, soon became
fired to the highest pitch.
In playful mood, some
stalwarts among the Grants of Rothimurcus made exhibition of their
prowess by lifting from the ground and almost to their knees a huge
block of stone, to the sad discomfiture of some Braemar men who could
not lift it from the ground. Standing byv, the Earl of Mar and
Rothimurcus discussed the prospects of the proposed rising, as to the
expediency of which the latter had expressed some doubt. Observing the
easy triumph of his men and the humiliation of the men of Mar,
Rothimurcus gleefully exclaimed "Do you call these boys men, my Lord?
Why, None of them can move that stone that my lads can make a plaything
of." The Earl manifested some annoyance, observing which Invercauld
walked up to Finlay Farquharson, one of his men, and obtained his
consent to try his hand. Finlay not only lifted the stone, but carrying
it in his arms, approached His Lordship asking what he would do with it.
"Throw it over my horse's neck" was His Lordship's reply. That feat
successfully accomplished, Finlay retired as if nothing had happened.
The Earl's invitation to Rothimurcus to repeat the feat was not
accepted. But Rothimurcus was, nevertheless, with his men, present at
the battle of Sheriffmuir. Although myself a loyal Mar man it is only
fair to state that another version of the story substitutes for its
Farquharson hero Nathaniel Forbes of Daluhandy, who afterwards attained
the rank of Captain under Mar.
On the sixth of September
1715, the Prince's standard was raised at the Castleton of Braemar with
great eclat, amid the cheers of ten thousand throats, though even in
that hour of elation, there was cast over the crowd a visible gloom as
the gilded ball that surmounted the standard fell to the ground,
suggestive to the superstitious mind of coming disaster.
All the Farquharsons were
there—Peter of Inverey, James of Balmoral, John of Invercauld, Harry of
White-house with the men of Cromar, Donald of Micras, Lawrence of
Cobbleton of Tulloch, Lewis of Auchindrine, Donald of Coldrach, and the
Broughderg Farquharsons with the men of Strath-Aven and Glenlivet. In
all, the Clan contributed many swords, but I am not aware that any of
our own family took part in the rising either then or in 1745.
Through all the
Highlands, the sympathy of the people was, no doubt, with the Prince,
but individual liberty among the common people under the feudal system
then prevailing had no recognition, and but meagre opportunity of self
expression was allowed. First in the system was the King. Under him were
the great lords to each of whom was granted by royal charter vast land
estates, with authority each within his own domain almost regal and
unlimited over the King's subjects. Under these superior lords came the
big lairds, or landlords, who held their lands under charters granted by
their superior, on condition, among other things, of yielding to their
lord's superior man-rent, that is military service, when so required.
These lairds, each in his own district were, however, great men and did
pretty much as they saw fit among their tenants and dependents. Under he
big lairds were a number of "Bonnet" or small lairds who, in turn, were
burdened with man-rent and other obligations to their immediate
superiors. These also were deemed great men and failed not to act the
part in their own spheres. Under the bonnet lairds were the "tacksmen"
who were gentlemen farmers, whose hands toil never stained, their work
being done by hired servants. They too had military obligations, not,
however, to the bonnet laird. but to the bonnet bird's superior. Their
land rent was payable to their immediate landlord but their man-rent
went to the latter's chief. Then followed crofters and cotters to whom
the tacksmen sub-let a large part of their holdings to return for rent,
mostly rendered in kind. These last were a peace-loving, quiet-living
and industrious class, and to it for the most part, at least, our
ancestry, most probably belonged.
Last of all came another
class, happily no longer existent as a class, who had no fixed place of
residence, but roamed the country begging, poaching and thieving. They
were known as "sorners" or "masterful beggars" and were always ready
either on their own account or for hire to perpetrate any villainy, deed
of darkness or of blood. If for robbery, or, as they called it "spulzie,"
or other crime, slow-footed justice pursued them, they betook themselves
to the hills whither few felt safe to follow. To the common industrious
people of the glens and of Cromar, these villains were a constant
terror. If their demands were refused, premises would be set on fire or
chattels stolen. Strange as it may seem to us, for these scoundrels the
chiefs and landed gentry, some of whom bore characters not less vile
than theirs, sometimes found dishonourable employment in the furtherance
of their evil purposes, so that they had some patronage and protection
from those whose duty it was to have had them suppressed.
To the class last
mentioned the service of the Pretender made a strong appeal, and into
his ranks man}' of them were drawn, some by choice, and not a few by
compulsion. Bold and daring as many of them no doubt were, I cannot
believe that out of such materials good soldiers can he made, at least
quickly. Certainly their absence was not regretted by the industrious
population left behind. Indeed the only advantages resulting from the
ill-advised, ill-conducted and ill-fated rebellion was the temporary
withdrawal and the war-wastage of the worthless characters and
degenerates of this parasitic class.
The rebellion was soon
over. Southward rolled the tide of war and none of its carnage stained
the Braes o' Mar or purpled the limpid waters of the murmuring Dee. Into
its vortex, however descended the untutored sons of the heather and
crag, many of whom were never more to tread the dark heath of "Morven of
snow" or view the proud summit of "dark Lochnagar." Several of the
leaders went to the scaffold, some fled and others were banished, while
Invercauld and others languished long in prison; but most if not all
survivors eventually had their possessions, as well as their former
rights, restored to them. This leniency had a most beneficial effect
upon the chiefs and proprietors, whose energies thenceforward found
expression in improving their estates, rather than in extending their
boundaries by raid and foray. It is probable that notwithstanding the
influence of the protestant clergy which strongly favoured the house of
Hanover the sympathies of even their people were in many cases with the
Pretender. However that may have been, both chiefs and clansmen seem to
have been disposed to accept of his defeat as final, and to settle down
to make the best of the situation in which they now found themselves.
This is proved by the fact that in the rebellion of 1745 it was with the
greatest difficulty, and only through the application of force, that
Prince Charlie's supporters were able to bring to his standard any
effective help from Deeside or Cromar.
As already stated, the
eighteenth century dawned in famine and wretchedness. That fact does not
appear to have had the effect upon the proprietors which such conditions
ought to have produced. Their condition at that time, is described by
Mr. Michie in his "Logie Coldstone" as that of "extravagance and
impecuniosity," or, in more homely phrase, as "Highland pride and
poverty." Their extravagance it would seem consisted not so much in
expensive personal habits as in a vain display of personal importance
which, as the author just quoted remarks, has been fitly satirized by
Gaultier in one of his ballads:
"First came Grant o'
Rothimurcus
"And on his thigh a sword and durk is,
"Every man as proud's a Turk is,
"Next came Grant o' Tullichgorum
"Proud the mithers were that bore them,
Fee fa fum."
Vieing with the lairds in
this foolishness, says Mr. Michie, an array of bonnet lairds, portioners
and others, even farmers or tacksmen by the dozen, styling themselves
gentlemen, brought upon themselves ruin by a like extravagance.
Between these and the
idle slungs, sorners or masterful beggars, the crofters and tenants must
have had a hard time. From the lips of one of the latter, unjustly
constituted the vicarious bearer of the pride-produced burdens of his
landlord may well have originated the expression, more pithy than
elegant, said to have been actually used by a tenant to an exacting and
merciless landlord, "A hungry louse bites sair."
"FORTY-FIVE."
In the rising of 1745,
the Farquharsons were represented by Francis of Monaltrie, James of
Balmoral and Harry of Whitehouse, but Farquharson of Invercauld and
others held back. Charles Gordon of Blelack and Gordon of Pronie, in
addition to the Farquharsons of Whitehouse, seem to have been the only
men of note hailing from Cromar.
From several letters
still preserved, it is shown that the heart of the people generally, was
not in the cause. Lewis Gordon, brother of the Duke of that ilk, writing
to his Lieut.-Colonel in Aberdeen on Oct. 29th, 1745, enjoins him to
stop the mouths of the presbyterian ministers who, he said, were
injuring the cause of the Prince by telling their people a parcel of
infamous lies.
An attempt at obedience
to this mouth-stopping command was made by the Lady of Blelack, mother
of Charles Gordon, at an ordinary Sunday service in the parish church of
Coldstone. The minister was engaged in prayer, to which her ladyship had
been giving at least some heed, for, on hearing the petition that God
would scatter the army of the rebels and bring their counsels to nought,
the lady interrupted him with an oath, and asked, "How dare you say that
and my Charlie wi' them?"
Though the Invercauld
Farquharsons took no part in the rising a sister of the laird who had
married the chief of the McIntoshes, although her husband was an officer
in the king's service, strongly espoused the cause of the prince, and
raised her husband's clan in his support. To these were also joined, it
is said, three hundred Farquharsons, so that the Farquharson clan must
have contributed to the service of the prince a considerable force, no
less than five hundred, it is said, having joined his standard tinder
Francis Farquharson of Monaltrie. The lady McIntosh, being temporarily
chief officer of the newly raised McIntosh contingent, would seem to
have discharged the duties of that high office with commendable
intelligence and courage. On one occasion she is said to have been the
means of saving the Prince, while her guest, from capture. To her also
came the honour of accepting the submission of her own husband who had
been arrested by some of her men. As he presented his sword, in token of
submission, she saluted him in true military style:-
"Your servant, Captain"
to which he replied "Your servant, colonel." Thenceforth, she was known
as "Colonel Anne." |
