Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, visited Scotland at the behest of American journalists who were perturbed at the plight of the Clearance refugees. She stayed with the Duke and the Duchess of Sutherland and wrote a book called Sunny Memories in which she 'found the people to be in good circumstance'. A Scottish emigrant to Canada, Donald Mcleod, wrote an answer called Gloomy Memories which is really worth a read. This was long before John Prebble's excellent Highland Clearances. I wrote a number of songs myself before Prebble's book, portraying villains like Patrick Sellar, the Duke and the Duchess of Sutherland and victims like Henny Munro, a soldier's widow, returning from the Peninsular wars who suffered more in Scotland than she did abroad. Cheers, Jim McLean