COUNTIES OF PvOSS AND CROMAETY, 89 



16 bolls of barley from my father, and those 16 bolls scarcely 

 made 8 bolls of meal. Many cattle died in the spring, but none 

 of the inhabitants succumbed to the hardships of the famine. I 

 was told, however, that many deaths would have occurred had 

 it not been that cargoes of white pease (which had been intended 

 for the troops engaged in the American war, but which on the 

 announcement of peace were sent northwards) came to Eoss- 

 shire, and the pease distributed among the more needful. My 

 father was present at the distribution. The following year was 

 as singularly dry as 1782 was exceptionally wet. The crop was 

 very early, some of it having been stored by the end of August ; 

 but, owing to the inferior quality of much of the seed of the crop 

 of 1782, the general yield was very poor. Many farm^ers fell in 

 arrears, and some of them never got over it." The year 1792 

 was quite as remarkable in Eoss-shire, though from a different 

 cause. A few years before this sheep-farming was begun in the 

 county of Eoss, and the natives believing that this innovation 

 would compromise their comforts and privileges, began about this 

 year to display formidable opposition to the movement. Mr 

 Wallace says : — '' The native farmers, tradesmen, and labourers, 

 resolved to gacher the whole stock of sheep in Sutherland and 

 lioss and drive them over the southern borders into Inverness- 

 shire. Accordingly, the arrangements for the outrage against 

 sheep farmers were made known by proclamation at the church 

 doors. A mob of people met, and having collected above 10,000 

 sheep, they were proceeding with their flock along the heights 

 of the parish of Alness, when they learned that Colonel Sir 

 Hector Munro of Novar was on his way from Fort George with 

 a company of the 42 d Highlanders to suppress their depreda- 

 tions. The sheep gatherers dispersed immediately, but a good 

 many were apprehended and tried in the Circuit Court at Inver- 

 ness. Two were transported, but the others got off with im- 

 prisonment. The commencement of this affair was as follows : — 

 Captain Allan Cameron and his brother Alexander Cameron took 

 the farms of Tyrish and Culcraigie, along with the extensive 

 grazing of Gildermorry on the heights of Alness. The cattle of 

 the Ardross tenants had previously been grazed all summer on 

 Gildermorry, and having wandered back to their old pastures, 

 the Camerons poinded them, and enclosed them in a large fank 

 which tliey had built for the purpose. That day the Ardross 

 tenants were hearty at a wedding at Strathriesdale, but on hear- 

 ing what had happened to their cattle they proceeded in a body 

 to Gildermorry, where an ugly iiglit took place between them 

 and the Camerons. And thus the feelin^' ai^ainst the introduc- 

 tion of sheep-farming waxed into wrath and displayed itself as 

 already noticed." The year 1800 seems to have been a very dry 

 year, scarcely a single drop of rain having fallen during the 



