Inverness-shire

“ We met, and determined that the gentlemen should take a walking and fishing ramble through Ross-shire and Inverness-shire, while the ladies should remain at the country-house of a friend, who had already gathered round her a merry group of young people, lately set free from the restraints of school, and bent on enjoying the beauty and freedom of the Western Highlands. ”

“ We know that the founder of the name in Inverness-shire arrived there as the head of a powerful Lowland house, that he settled among the native Caledonians of the country, assumed possession of the lands then forming his estate; that the people, who were as Celtic as those in any portion of the Highlands, bearing such names [Pg 37] as Gille-Criosd, Mac-Killweralicke, Gill' Aindrea, etc., rallied around him, accepted his authority, became his followers, and gradually adopted the name. ”

“ INVERNESS-SHIRE, a highland county of Scotland, bounded N. by Ross and Cromarty, and the Beauly and Moray Firths, N.E. by the shires of Nairn and Elgin, E. by Banff and Aberdeen shires, S.E. by Perthshire, S. by Argyllshire and W. by the Atlantic. It includes the Outer Hebrides south of the northern boundary of Harris, and several of the Inner Hebrides (see Hebrides) and is the largest shire in Scotland. It occupies an area of 2,695,037 acres, or 4211 sq. m., of which more than one-third belongs to the islands. ”

“ Ever since the year 1691, there had been a garrison of government soldiers in Invergarry House, in Inverness-shire, the residence of Macdonald of Glengarry. The proprietor esteemed himself a sufferer to the extent of a hundred and fifty pounds a year, by damages to his lands and woods, besides the want of the use of his house, which had been reduced to a ruinous condition ”

“ The manuscript from which the ‘Memorial Concerning the Highlands’ is printed is holograph of the Rev. Alexander Macbean, minister of Inverness at the time of the ’Forty-five. Macbean was well qualified to write on this subject. I have been unable to discover the place of his birth, but it may be conjectured that, if not actually born in the Macbean country, his family came from there, i.e. that part of Inverness-shire lying to the east of Loch Ness, of which The Mackintosh was feudal superior. ”

“ Between 1720 and 1730, military roads were cut through parts of the Highlands, but they were ‘laid down by a practical soldier, and destined for warlike purposes, with scarcely any view towards the ends for which free and peaceful citizens open up a system of internal transit,’ Burton's History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 255. See also Chalmers' Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 36. This is confirmed by the fact, that even between Inverness and Edinburgh, ‘until 1755, the mail was conveyed by men on foot.’ Account of Inverness-shire, in McCulloch's British Empire, London, 1847, vol. ”

“ He inherited the restored family estates in 1782, on the death of his elder half-brother Lieutenant-general Simon Fraser [see Fraser, Simon, 1726-1782, Master of Lovat] , whom he also succeeded as M.P. for Inverness-shire, which he represented in succeeding parliaments down to 1796. On the extension of the Local Militia Act to Scotland (48 Geo. Ill, c. 50) he was appointed colonel of the 1st Inverness-shire local militia, with headquarters at Inverness. ”

“ George Macpherson of Invereshie married Grace, daughter of Colonel William Grant of Ballindalloch, and his elder son, William, dying, unmarried, in 1812, was succeeded by his nephew George, who, on the death of his maternal grand-uncle, General James Grant of Ballindalloch, 13th April 1806, inherited that estate, and in consequence assumed the name of Grant in addition to his own. He was MP. for the county of Sutherland for seventeen years, and was created a baronet 25th July 1838. He thus became Sir George Macpherson-Grant of Invereshie, Inverness-shire, and Ballindalloch, Elginshire. ”

“ Population and Government. — In 1891 the population numbered 9155 and in 1901 it was 9291, or 57 persons to the sq. m. Besides the county town of Nairn (pop. 5089) , there are the parishes of Ardclach (pop. 772) , and Auldearn (pop. of parish 1292, of village 313) . Nairn and Elgin shires combine to return one member to parliament, arid the county town belongs to the Inverness district group of parliamentary burghs (Forres, Fortrose, Inverness and Nairn) . The shire forms a sheriffdom with Inverness and Elgin and a sheriff-substitute sits alternately at Nairn and Elgin. ”

“ The district comprehends the whole of the counties of Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, Cromarty, Inverness, and Argyle, large parts of Nairn, Perth, Dumbarton, and Bute, and considerable portions of Elgin, Banff, Aberdeen, Forfar, and Stirling. Considerable parts of this district, however, such as Caithness-shire, the island of Bute, and some large tracts of moor or valley or flanking plain, do not exhibit the physical features which are strictly Highland.
A district so extensive can be but faintly pictured in a general and rapid description. ”

“ Wesley describes Inverness as the largest town he had seen in Scotland after Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen. "It stands in a pleasant and fruitful country, and has all things needful for life and godliness. The people in general speak remarkably good English, and are of a friendly, courteous behaviour." ”

“ The mountains are half-wooded at first, and then wholly so; they dwindle down; the widening valleys are covered with harvest; the fresh and green verdure of the herbage which supplies forage begins to clothe the hollows and the slopes. We enter Inverness, and we are surprised to find at almost the extreme north of Scotland, on the border of the Highlands, a pretty and lively modern town. It stretches along the two banks of a clear and rapid river. Many houses are newly-built; we note a church, a castle, an iron bridge. In every part are marks of cleanliness, forethought, and special care. ”

“ Oban, Fort-William, and Inverness are the chief bases of West Highland touring. To Lorne and to Lochaber we shall return anon. Of Inverness, properly a Highland frontier city, if capital of the Highland Railway, enough has been said in my former volume; but here I would take the opportunity of correcting a slight anachronism by which I there spoke of Inverness Castle as used for a prison. I learn that within the last two or three years it has been freed from this degradation. The Highlands have not much need of prisons ”

“ To the north of Inverness stretches a supremely beautiful country where rivers flow among lofty hills to meet scarp and headland that jut perilously above the gulf. A well-travelled road unites Inverness with Margaree Harbour and Cheticamp. The entire distance of 40 miles may be made over the cliff road. But the pleasantest way is to drive by way of Margaree Forks up the far-sung valley of the Northeast Branch. ”

“ At Inverness the Lowland life came to an end. To the west of that town no road had ever been made till some years after the rising of 1715. All beyond was the work of General Wade and the other military engineers. "Here," writes Johnson, "the appearance of life began to alter. I had seen a few women with plaids at Aberdeen, but at Inverness the Highland manners are common. There is, I think, a kirk in which only the Erse language is used." The plaid, which was not peculiar to the Highlands, had been rapidly going out of fashion. ”

“ Smart, cheerful, and regularly built, Inverness has the air of a lowland town, spread out on a river plain, across which fragments of the Highlands have drifted from the grand mountains in view, as the Alps from Berne. The Ness has the distinction of being the shortest river in Britain, shorter even than London’s New River; but its course of only a few miles, from Loch Ness to the Moray Firth’s inner recess, is enough to make it a resort for big salmon and small shipping. ”

“ A very good bridge over the Ness leads to that ferry, and to Beauley, and the country of Aird, or Frazer country; and by another road south-west, to the places that lie upon the north-west side of Loch Ness, Glen Urquhart, &c. When I was at Inverness there was not a trace of its ancient castle; some person having lately removed the small remains of its ruin to build offices, or some such thing, for his own convenience:—what an Hottentot! There is at Inverness a provost, or mayor, and twenty-four other magistrates. ”

“ As a center for tourists, Inverness is increasingly popular and motor cars are very common. The roads of the surrounding country are generally excellent, and a trip of two hundred miles will take one to John O'Groats, the extreme northern point of Scotland. The country around has many spots of interest. Cawdor Castle, where tradition says Macbeth murdered Duncan, is on the Nairn road, and on the way to this one may also visit Culloden Moor, a grim, shelterless waste, where the adherents of Prince Charlie were defeated April 16th, 1746. ”

“ Macbain, "that the Gaelic Christian names (Donald, Duncan, Kenneth, Murdoch, and Angus) , are not higher in the list."
The name of the first recorded inhabitant of Inverness (A.D. 1200) is Geoffrey Blount, a feudal warrior no doubt (French blond) . In the thirteenth century we have the names Noreys, Grant, and Hay. In the fourteenth century the leading name is Pilch, derived from peluche, the French for "plush." In the fifteenth century, Reid, Vaus, and Cuthbert are prominent citizens. Vaus is said to mean "of the vales," i.e., de Vallibus; Reid is Scotch for "red" ”

“ The open spaces in the town include Victoria park, Maggot Green and the ground where the Northern Meeting—the most important athletic gathering in Scotland—is held at the end of September. Inverness is the great distributing centre for the Highlands. Its industries, however, are not extensive, and consist mainly of tweed (tartan) manufactures, brewing, distilling, tanning, soap and candle-making; there are also nurseries, iron-foundries, saw-mills, granite works, and the shops of the Highland Railway Company. ”

“ It happened on one occasion that Gibbon More chanced to go to a fair or market at Inverness. The streets were crowded with people, as well as with horses, cows, and oxen of all sorts. There might have been observed the eagle-winged bonnet of the chief, followed by his tail of clansmen and dependants; and chieftains were seen promiscuously mingled with cattle-boys, gillies, and serfs of every degree and denomination, thronging the public way. ”

“ On Saturday afternoon I left Elgin for Forres, with the hope of better weather. During the walk I could hardly persuade myself I was out of Aberdeenshire, the country is so very like, but it is rather flatter. Next morning was clear and cloudless, and the sun shone bright over a country drenched and covered with water. I wished that day to reach Inverness, but a new difficulty appeared. I was told that the Findhorn was so swollen that no mortal man could get across. ”

“ The soil is a brackish sand. Formerly Fort King George, garrisoned by an independent company, stood within a mile and a half of the new town, but had been abandoned and destroyed on account of a want of supplies and communication with Carolina. The village was called New Inverness, in honor of the city they had left in Scotland; while the surrounding district was named Darien, on account of the settlement attempted on the Isthmus of Darien, in 1698-1701. ”

“ Between Elgin and Inverness, it is true, we shall see but few of the great sheep-farmers and flock-masters of the west country, who converge on the annual tryst from other points of the compass and by various routes—by the Skye railway, by that portion of the Highland line which extends north of Inverness, through Ross into Sutherland, by the Caledonian Canal, etc. But it is promised to me that I shall see many of the notable agriculturists of Moray land, who go to the market as buyers ”

“ Thus the fortified houses near Inverness, had all the importance of border fortresses; and the reduction of Inverness, for the Hanover interest, would relieve their owners of their perilous position, by giving their friends the command of the pass between the North Highlands and the rest of Scotland. The small body under Rose and Forbes, with Lovat’s, and a party of the Grants, amounted in all to about 1,300 men—a considerable force in that war of small armies. They laid plans for systematically investing Inverness ”

“ The same coast is much more comfortably served by railway as far as Inverness, the starting-point being Point Tupper, C. B., on the opposite side of the Strait from Mulgrave. Intercolonial trains are transported by ferry, en route to Sydney via the Bras d'Or Lakes. (See fine print following "Inverness County.")
Inverness County.
Once across the majestic canal provided by nature as a passage from the ocean to the lower Gulf of St. Lawrence, one has entered a kingdom where Nature in all things reigns undisputed. Cape Breton has no sophisticated cities or pretentious resorts. ”

“ North of Inverness, matters were, if possible, still worse. There was no bridge over the Beauly or the Conan. The drovers coming south swam the rivers with their cattle. There being no roads, there was little use for carts. In the whole county of Caithness, there was scarcely a farmer who owned a wheel-cart. Burdens were conveyed usually on the backs of ponies, but quite as often on the backs of women.* [8] The interior of the county of Sutherland being almost inaccessible, the only track lay along the shore, among rocks and sand, and was covered by the sea at every tide. ”

“ I travelled partly on horseback and partly on foot through almost every county that lies southern of Inverness; I have read the map of Scotland upon the great scale of nature, from the summits of Ben Nevis and Ben Lomond; I have visited that island whence savage and roaming bands derived the benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion. Yes, amid the ruins of Iona I have abjured the rigid philosophy which would conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground that has been dignified by wisdom, by bravery, and by virtue. ”