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Clyde, Robert Donald (1990) The rehabilitation of the Highlander, 1745- 1830 : changing visions of Gaeldom. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1952/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] The Rehabilitation of the Highlander, 1745-1830: Changing Visions of Gaeldom By Robert Donald Clyde Submitted for the Degree of Ph. D. in the University of Glasgow may 1990 0 Robert Donald Clyde, 1990 Q) Acknowledg mn r- I like to would offer my gratitude to the staffs of the National Library of Scotland and the Scottish Record Office for their unfailing courtesy and assistance. I also wish to thank the staffs of the libraries of the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen for their considerable help. I want to thank all the friends I have made since coming to Scotland, in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and of course Glasgow, for all their kindness and generosity. My friends and family in Texas have given me love and attention through my years away from home. The constant encouragement and support of my parents has known no bounds, and this thesis is for them as much as it is for me. (ii) Contents Pages Acknowledgements i Contents ii Summary iii Chapters Introduction 1 1. Improvers and Government Agencies 37 2. Civilizers, Educators, and Evangelizers 94 3. Travellers 186 4. Romanticists 223 5. Militarists 291 Conclusion 351 Bibliography 366 (iii) Summary This thesis sets out to explore the rehabilitation of the Scottish Gaels from the, time of tie Jacobite Rebellion of 1745 to 1830. "Rehabilitation" is a subjective term, and can refer to the restoration of someone or something to a former position of reputation or rank. Here, however, it is meant as a readaption to society, or in the case of the inhabitants of the Highlands and Islands, their transformation from a race of ferocious and rebellious barbarians, as they were commonly regarded during the Forty-Five, into loyal and peaceable and God-fearing British subjects, as they undoubted were by the 1820s. The changes in attitudes of various commentators involved in this process are remarkable and reflect the replacement of myth with myth that characterized the general improvement in the Gaels' image. Long before the Forty-Five, the people of the Lowlands and England regarded the Highlands and Islands as a wild and inhospitable place inhabited by people in a barbaric state totally untouched by modern civilization, but it was not until 1745 that they were seen as an intolerable threat to the established order. It was not merely the adherence of some clans to the Jacobite cause that made the Gaels so detested, but also their very different wav of life. In the aftermath of the battle of Culloden, Whig commentators stressed that the "Highland problem" was primarily one of (iv) law and order, believing that Jacobitism and crime (also thought to be endemic in the Highlands) were inextricably linked. Once it became evident that Jacobitism was extinct as a political force, attention was turned towards "improving" the Highland economy and "civilizing" the people. Those eager to apply the tenets of Improvement to the Highlands and Islands attacked the clan system as the root of the region's lack of prosperity, and at the heart of their proposals was the replacement of traditional or "feudal" relationships with commercial or "modern" ones. Once educated in the values of loyalty and industry, it was thought, the common people would be freed to pursue their own interests; and the chiefs and clan gentry would be freed of their hereditary responsibilities in order to reorganize their estates along commercial lines and assume the role of landed proprietors. Enterprising clan chiefs such as the Dukes of Argyll had begun this process well before the Forty-Five; and the schemes undertaken by interventionist agencies such as the Annexed Estates Board and later the British Fisheries Society suggested additional measures that increase the income -had the potential to greatly of a previously unproductive estate. Although some improvement schemes required a labour force, Highland chief-cum- proprietors came to prefer capital-intensive enterprises such as sheep farming to those which aimed to retain the people on their estates for purposes other than military recruitment. During this period, much was written by factors, estate managers, agriculturalists and others, who (v) rarely confined themselves to discussions of soil and climate; the prejudiced attitudes they held towards the especially those who resisted their plans, were -Gaels,., either implied or explicit and often surfaced when attempting to illustrate the difficulties, involved in dealing with a "'recalcitrant" or "slpthful" populace. The success of all attempts to "improve" the Highlands and Islands was believed to require the moral and spiritual rehabilitation of the Gaels. In the years after the Forty-- Five, non-during Episcopalian and Roman Catholic clergymen were widely considered to be the active agents of the Stuart cause, and their presence in the region was seen to constitute a political threat as well as being obstructive to any form of progress. The improved provision of schools and churches that would teach the Gaels to become hard- working, loyal to the British constitution and faithful to the tenets of the Church of Scotland was considered vital. The responsibility for bringing about the educational transformation of the Highlands fell largely to the Society in Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge, a Lowland- based body which operated schools in the region and which laid a heavy emphasis upon literacy in English and used only religious texts. The monumental task of providing every Gael with an education was beyond the scope of any outside agency, however, for in the end it was an indigenous evangelical movement that moved most people in the Highlands and Islands to embrace Presbyterianism. The Gaels had in effect "civilized" themselves, and this change was reflected in Gaelic poetry, which went from praising the heroic and (vi) martial exploits of legendary characters to expressing sorrow for past sins and which advocated a withdrawal from worldly affairs. _. In the period 1745-1830, dozens of accounts of tours of the Highlands and Islands were published. Most of the travellers made their journeys with the intention of writing a book about their experiences upon their return to the Lowlands or England. While these accounts are neither objective nor particularly well-informed, they reveal the changing attitudes towards the Gaels. Most accounts published in the thirty years or so after the Forty-Five were written from a Whig perspective which generally condemn the Gaels for their alleged backwardness while praising the attempts by Highland proprietors to "rationalize" their properties. Dr Samuel Johnson's account of his tour of 1773 marked a departure from the standard line, and he doubted the wisdom of those who would bring civilization to the Gaels. To the Lowlanders, he wrote, "the state of the mountains and the islands is equally unknown with that of Borneo or Sumatra: Of both they have only heard a little, and guess the rest. They are strangers to the language and the manners, to the advantages and wants of the people, whose life they would model, and whose evils they would remedy. " Other travellers were less sagacious, however, and following the publication of James Macpherson's "translations" of ancient Gaelic poetry (known as Ossian) which first appeared in the early 1760s, increasing numbers of visitors from the Lowlands. England, and further afield went to the Highlands in search of the "noble savage" (vii) portrayed by Macpherson. Ossian suggested to writers and artists throughout Europe that---the--Highlands led_. -and -Islands--could ._-not. __be--equal as__a_. ___ setting for 'brave deeds and---sublime scenes. With the arrival of Romanticism in the early 19th century, Gaeldom was increasingly seen to represent a heroic but dead culture and therefore perfectly suited to Romantic ideals. The most famous writer on Highland themes was Sir Walter Scott. Scott's poems and historical novels with Highland subjects (such as "The Lady of the Lake" and Waverley) had a huge readership throughout the English-speaking world, but closer to home, his recasting of the Gaels' past, especially regarding their involvement in Jacobitism, provided an alternative to the view that Scottish history ended at the 0 Union. Scott's artistic direction of George IV's visit to Edinburgh in 1822 stamped a Highland theme on the occasion, and the establishment of Highland dress as the national costume of all Scotsmen was only one myth created in that year. The most important factor in the rehabilitation of the Gaels, however, was the service of tens of thousands of men in the Highland regiments of the British army. In 1745-6, the Jacobite clans had come distressingly near to upsetting I the established order, but by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the, Highland soldier had come to be considered Britain's finest and most resolute defender, utterly fearless and loyal to the end. Although regimental histories give a full and glowing account of the Highlanders (viii) in battle, other sources give an indication of the coercion exercised by chiefs in gaining recruits for the regiments.

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