The Crofter in History Author:Colin Campbell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. CONDITION OF THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. Enough has been said to prove that even long before the bre... more »aking up of the clan system the Highlanders were far from enjoying that absolute immunity from oppression which has been imagined. On the other hand it is a gross error to represent them as being everywhere under a feudal despotism. If we turn to the records of the sixteenth century we shall find them enjoying, under the more powerful and settled clans, a system of rural economy, regulated by laws and customs which may well excite the admiration of a modern land reformer. In the "Black Book of Taymouth," examples of tenures will be found typical of feudalism. There is a tack obliging the holders " to mak slauchter " upon the Clan Gregor. The lessees undertake, " with the haill companie and forces," to "enter a deidlie feid with the Clan Gregor," and "continew thairin, and in making of slauchter upon them and thair adherents, baythpriuelie and oppenlie." Another binds the lessee to be " ane leill and trew servand to me and my airis at all tymes, baith upon hors and futt as he salbe requirit." The condition of a third is the "yearly payment of a sheaf of arrows." A fourth well illustrates the premium set by feudalism on population. It binds the tenant to keep a sufficient number of sub-tenants, and not to set the lands in schieling. There cannot be the least doubt that so long as such conditions were observed the tacksmen and their sub-tenants were undisturbed in the enjoyment of their holdings. Not less interesting are the records of the Baron Court printed in the same work. They prove that stricter rules of estate management prevailed than are common at the present day. Nor are these rules always imposed as the arbitrar...« less