The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #34390   Message #463751
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
16-May-01 - 10:44 AM
Thread Name: Background to 'The Highland Clearances'
Subject: RE: Background to 'The Highland Clearances'
Some of this has already been said, but, having been away checking references and typing, I'll just drop it in, with apologies for any repetition:

Gillanders was James Falconer Gillanders of Highfield, factor of, amongst others, William Robertson, Laird of Kindeace.  Gillanders was particularly notorious for his evictions of inconvenient tenants, and the story of what happened in Strathcarron in 1854 -which received wide publicity at the time- is told in detail in Alexander Prebble's book, The Highland Clearances, which is fairly easy to find.  Basically, local constables were called in by Gillanders to help him enforce eviction orders, and a riot ensued; the policeman lost their heads and savagely beat a number of people, including women.  The reference to Victoria presumably refers to the fact that law-enforcement officers were officers of the Crown, and bore the Crown's insignia; certainly the batons carried by the policemen had the letters VR painted on them.

Victoria herself had of course nothing to do with the business, as the person who wrote this fairly modern song must have known; "German" would likely be the usual Jacobite reference to the House of Hanover, the traditional enemy to be blamed for pretty much everything.  "roofance" is a typo; instead read, "roof ance", that is, "roof once".  "Black is the wood" presumably refers to the fact that dwellings were often burnt after evictions.   "The Woods of Germany" may be a rather slanted way of saying that the land once lived on was later planted with trees, but I that is a guess only; forestation did take place, mind, but that may have been later.  Still, it is a recently composed song.

I would recommend Prebble's book, though as Murray remarks, with any account of such emotive subjects, there will always be disagreements as to interepretation, to anyone wishing to understand the complex nature of the tragedy of the Clearances, particularly anyone who presently believes that it was some sort of action taken by England against Scotland>

Malcolm