AN OLD HIGHLAND FARM

Hokitika Guardian, 17 July 1926, Page 4

AN OLD HIGHLAND FARM

EVERYDAY LIFE IN 171i9-’B2. The Highlands of Scotland have always aroused a great deal of interest because of the grandeur of their scenery and the history of the romantic race of people who have occupied them. I The deeds of the latter on many fields of battle have come down to us in song and story, and awakened pride in everyone who can claim to have same Highland blood in his ancestry. How j the Highlanders, of past centuries lived in times of peace when'simply engaged in their everyday routine is not so well known. An excellent book from the pen of Miss I. E." Grant (London, Longmans, Green and Co.) fills in the story most- admirably, as far as the second .half of the eighteenth century is concerned. She Inis come into possession of an interesting farm account book, which records the transactions of William Mackintosh, of Balnespick, in the parish of Alvic, on the Upper Spey, for the years 17G9-1782.

This account-hook is not simply a record of monetary transactions, hut. as interpreted by Miss Grant, an intensely human' document. By wide collatevial reading, and much patient research she has woven round this ancient account-hook an lintercsting and vivid picture of the everyday life of the fanners, labourers and tradespeople who made up a little community which was probably quite typical of the times.

The primitve farming methods practised by the author of the accounthook are contrasted with the present day, and one of the most striking features brought out was the almost complete dependence of the community on its own products for the necessities of life and the incredibly small outgoings in casli on the part of such an important man as the tacksman (chief leaseholder) of the Dnvoch of Dunacliton.

Tho period referred to was long after the active cattle-lifting days, but one can readily realise that in bad seasons something approaching starvation must have been endured by many of these isolated communities, and can hardly wonder at the Highlanders occa.sion'ally casting envious eyes on the. cattle rattening on the more favoured lands of the south.

The book is a jiotalile contrbution to the social and agrarian history of tiro Highlanders, and lias quite a considerable interest to the general reader.