The companions of Pickle: Being a sequel to 'Pickle the spy'Lang, Andrew
History
The companions of Pickle: Being a sequel to 'Pickle the spy'
Lang, Andrew
Jacobites
‘The lands of Cullachie was only set till lately from year to year, the
tenants were frequently removed, I know of no written rentall, it is
not customary ... Discharges were not formerly required, nor were they
necssary.’
Glengarry explains all this to his Agent on January 6, 1759:—
‘When I got disposition to my Father’s estate I was then under age, at
this time Lady Glengarry, _how_ [who] then had so much to Say with her
husband, the Disposition Grant was concealed from her, and as the Bill
granted by Lochgarry was in her Custody, had they demanded it would have
Discovered the Scheme in my favours, I granted my Obligatory to Lochgery
that these Bills should never make against him.’
The sense can be puzzled out of the anacoloutha.
On February 3, 1759, he repeats his story:—
‘I will only observe that the reason of the bills not being cancelled
or retired by Lockgerry, was that they were then in Lady Glengarry’s
custody, and that the disposition of my Father’s estate in my favour was
keept secret from her, which would have been discovered had Lochgerry
demanded his bills, and this occasioned my giving him my obligation they
should never make against him.’
The whole affair is a specimen of the informal manner in which Highland
business was done. The frequency of ‘removals’ of tenants also throws
doubt on the theory that Evictions were a novelty introduced by the
Commissioners of Forfeited Estates. The anarchy after Culloden is shown
by the squatting of tenants on whatever farms they chose to select.
The Judges could not be induced to accept Glengarry’s account of the
redemption of Cullachy, as he had no documentary evidence, and Cullachy
appears, after the Chiefs death, among his mortgaged lands.[117]
The latest of the drafts in Glengarry’s Letter Book are of December 1758,
January 1759. He appears much aggrieved by Colonel Trapaud, Governor
of Fort Augustus, for the following cause: his ground-steward had been
claimed, unjustly it seems, as a deserter from the army. A party of
soldiers then acted in the manner described in the following draft, which
has no date or address:—
‘The party in the dead of night was posted round my hutt, of which I was
ignorant untill my servants were stopped from going from door to door.
Alarmed at this, I suspected some straglers were come to break open some
valts in the old Castle, which was formerly Done.’
The indignant chief drafts the following remonstrance to Colonel Trapaud:—
‘I never thought to have reason to write you in so cooll a
strain. My own Behaviour, not to mention the pollitess showen
to you by my friends in Generall since you lived in this
countrey claimd a more Gentle return, and as our Actions are
always above Board It depends upon yourself that the same
Harmony Should allways subsist, and I will be very happie still
to remain,
Sir,
Your sincere friend and Humble servant.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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