COUNTIES OF EOSS AND CEOMARTY. 77 



St Malrube, with more peaceful purpose landed on the west 

 coast among the Applecross Hills; and at Boat Cove, in that 

 district, they founded a monastery, which, says a recent writer, 

 " shed the first genial rays of Christianity over the heathenism 

 of the "West." The centre of the Christian colony then formed 

 is still distinguished by a stone cross ; while it is said by some 

 that the remains of an old burying ground, which are seen in one 

 of the small islands of Loch Maree, mark the spot where the 

 good St Malrube lived and died. From this they argue that 

 Loch Maree took its name from St Malrube. It is more pro- 

 bable, however, that the name of this magnificent sheet of water 

 was derived from a St Maree, who came direct from lona and 

 took up his residence in one of the small islets at the north end 

 of the loch. 



Since the advent of the present century the social condition of 

 the people throughout the counties generally has improved very 

 much indeed. The working class are better fed, better housed, 

 better educated, and better remunerated for their labour ; and, on 

 the whole, it must be said that the working population of Eoss 

 and Cromarty is in a very satisfactory and comfortable condition. 

 The educational machinery in several of the districts on the west 

 coast and in Lewis was for long very inferior and incomplete — a 

 Gaelic teacher, with a salary of L.15 or L.20 a year, being the only 

 educational luminary some of the parishes could boast of. The 

 Education (Scotland) Act, however, has supplied all these wants, 

 and, with such liberal encouragement as is now given by Parlia- 

 ment, education in the Highlands should soon reach a very 

 different degree of quality from that at which it has for so long 

 been stationary. A large number of very fine new schools have 

 been built throughout the counties during the past two or three 

 years, and a whole host of highly certificated teachers have been 

 introduced. The landlords of Eoss and Cromarty are thoroughly 

 intelligent, liberal minded, practical men, many of them enthusi- 

 astic agriculturists ; while the farmers, generally speaking, are 

 shrewd, independent, industrious, and painstaking. A good deal 

 of southern blood has been infused into the eastern districts during 

 the past fifty or sixty years, by far the majority of the larger arable 

 farms in the counties, as well as a good many extensive sheep 

 runs, being held by gentlemen hailing from the south or south- 

 eastern counties of Scotland. The natives are (piiet, easy-goiug, 

 kind-hearted, contented people, of liigli moral character, and very 

 fair ijitelligence. Gaelic, broad Scotch, and the purest of Knglisli 

 are all heard in curious confusion in every disti-ict of the county. 

 In Easter Eoss tlie labouring classes only speak Gaelic, but on the 

 west coast the Celtic language still stands supreme. Many hun- 

 dreds of the natives in fact cauiiot speak a single woul of 



