SCOTLAND HISTORY

History Of The Highland Clearances by Alexander MacKenzie

Contempt,Sympathy and Romance: Lowland Perceptions of the Highlands and the Clearances during the Famine Years,1845-1855 by Krisztina Fenyo

Publisher's Synopsis
Using newspaper materials circa the mid-19th century, this book shows the usefulness of these sources for the evaluation of the range of Scottish public opinion in terms of the lowland perceptions of the Highlands and the Clearances during the Famine years of 1845-1855. Newspaper files of the period during the Famine years up to the Crimean War reveal that the most popular Lowland attitude towards the Highlanders at this time was one of contempt. They frankly regarded the Gaels as an inferior and often useless race, and the battle which sympathetic journalists fought against this majority view shows clearly these journalists' disillusionment at what they saw at the time as a hopeless struggle. At the same time, there were those who saw the Highlands through rose-coloured glasses, as they increasingly became an aristocratic playground, a nature reserve for tourists and a theme for pre-Celtic-twilight poets and novelists. But be it sympathy, contempt or romance, these three strands of public opinion in the Lowlands had one thing in common, they all saw the Highlanders as essentially a different race.

Patrick Sellar and the Highland Clearances by Eric Richards

Synopsis
In April 1816 Patrick Sellar was brought to trial in Inverness for culpable homicide for his treatment of the Highlanders of Strathnaver, the most northerly part of the Scottish highlands. In the process of evicting them from their ancient lands he had allegedly burnt houses, destroyed mills and wrecked pastures. There is perhaps no more hated nor reviled individual in Highland history. This outstanding new book, however, gives a balanced assessment of the man, a vivid account of a terrible episode in Highland history, and a riveting narration of a tormented life. Richard's book is an account of Sellar's life and times: that he was ruthless, avaricious, devious and cruel is beyond question. But his letters suggest a streak of idealism: did he really believe that the displaced highlanders would be better off, better fed, educated and housed in their new homes? Have the Highlands in the end become more productive and prosperous? In the course of his fast-moving and gripping account, Eric Richards looks carefully at these vexed questions.