The Clearances. anon

[trinkie]

The Clearances.
anon

We speak of Sutherland the Earl
A Duke of later days
Of Young and Loch and Seller too
The men of evil ways.

A noble Earl, an Englishman
A puny child was he
Who from the Yorkshire Gowers
A Leveson came to be.

Alas, I cannot to you relate
Any deeds of greatness done
No martial deeds upon the seas
No battles neath the sun.

His family obtained from marriage
For marriage was their pride
Their wealth and power and property
But valour was denied.

The evil Factor of the Earl
Patrick Seller was his name
Who carried out the clearances
With naked sword and flame.

Sheep to them was the excuse
For rapine fire and sword
They burnt the crofts they maimed and fought
For arson was abroad.

Those Highland homes and heather stood
Where life had been serene
But the Earl of Sutherland changed all that
With blood where peace had been.

The cleric Sage he blest his flock
And to them he gave this sign
What did my lord of Sutherland
Was by a will Divine.

An old woman in her cottage
Her cow out in the byre
Did not escape to tell the tale
Of savagery and fire.

A statue from Ben-Braggie views
A land it's image sacked
It is my Grace of Sutherland
Twas mercy that he lacked.

Now my proud Highlander
One wonders to this day
Why for all this misery
No one was made to pay.

[helenwyler]

Thanks for that Trinkie:D! I've been reading up on the Clearances recently and that's a great poem.

I came across this in 'The Making of the Crofting Community' by James Hunter.

It's a poem satirising the cash-strapped MacLeod of Dunvegan, written by Roderick Morrison (the Blind Gaelic Bard aka An Clarsair Dall). Translated by William Matheson.

'The equivalent of seven collections are borrowed
To pay for a shod, loud-snorting horse;
a lordly saddle under the bottom;
and he would,of course, be much the better of a golden bridle...
Five golden guineas - that is spent on a cord for the hat,
and as much again for the hat itself...
The price of a mart [cattle beast] or more is paid for a pair of stockings
of the best kind, and the change is not counted...
He comes out of the shop
with the latest fashion from France,
and the fine clothes worn on his person yesterday
with no little satisfaction are tossed into a corner...

When he returns again to view his own country,
though thousands of pounds have already been sent away,
a cattle levy is imposed on the tenantry,
and so the marts are exported,
having been cured and sold at the market.
Thus do the debts increase
to be demanded from his son after him.'