Scottish Poets: Tom Leonard

In the early 1890's there was widespread discontentment amongst Highland crofters. They had little security of tenure. Few had written leases and many were dependent entirely on the goodwill of their landlords. All too often crofters were still moved off less fertile holdings to make way for sheep, grazing or for shooting. Many crofters also faced crippling poverty. Plots were too small to support families. But crofters were frequently prevented from increasing their holdings to a size that was sufficient and sustainable. Eventually matters did boil over. In April 1882 there was the Battle of the Braes on Skye at the foot of Ben Lee. Lord MacDonald tried to deprive crofters of some pasturage to which they claimed a right. Crofters then refused to pay rent. On 7th April an attempt was made to serve a "summonds of ejection" on them. The crofters responded by burning the "summonds" and by chasing off a sheriff's assistant. On 17th April some 50 Glasgow police officers were sent to effect the arrest of six ringleaders. They too were set upon by the crofters. The Government was worried. So much so that at one stage a gunboat appeared in Portree Harbour! Eventually, in March 1883, a Royal Commission was set up in response to the unrest. And in 1885 two Highland Land League candidates and three "independent Crofters" won seats in the North West of Scotland in that year's General Election. In 1886 the Crofters Act was passed as a result. It gave security of tenure to most smallholders in crofting communities. It also established a Crofting Commission to hear appeals and determine fair rents. Rents fell by 30% as a result. Arrears fell by 60%.

Recently I was in North Yorkshire and by the A167 near Northallerton I came across a monument to a battle fought in 1138 that was called the "Battle of the Standard." The Battle had been the first major clash between England and Scotland for some 200 years. Yet it had been an "unusual" clash which had more to do with "internal English politics" than any "enmity between the two kingdoms" (Matthews 2003). In 1135 King Henry I of England had died. The Crown was left to his daughter Matilda. But in the event power was seized by King Henry's nephew, Count Stephen of Blois. Matilda had support though, including from her maternal uncle, King David I of Scotland. In 1138 King David decided to launch a full scale invasion with up to 25,000 men. Stephen was preoccupied with rebel barons in the south. So it was left to Archbishop Thurston of York and his priests to raise local militias in the north. Thurston revelled in this task. To fight the Scottish was "to do God's work" he said. Thurston also organised the construction of THE STANDARD. It consisted of a "large wagon pulled by an oxen on which was mounted a ship's mast." This would be used as a rallying point and it would give its' name to the Battle (Matthews 2003). The battle itself took place on 22 August 1138 at Cowton Moor, just north of Northallerton. There the English took up position on the crest of a hill. The Scots, attacking uphill, came under the withering fire of English archers. Thousands died. David, conceding defeat, had to withdraw. Back in Carlisle he regrouped and -despite having lost the battle- was able, within a month, to negotiate a "very favourable truce" (Ibbotson 2009).

Sir Walter Scott isn't everyone's cup of tea! Yet he does have some admirers on the left..Marxist George Luckas being one! Scott was born in Edinburgh in 1771 and went to the Royal High School and then on to University. After studying law he became an Advocate in 1792 and in 1799 was appointed Sheriff of Selkirk (be became a Clerk of Session in 1806). Increasingly however he was turning his hand to writing --poetry, ballads, novels. LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL (1805) was an early narrative poem. And WQVERLEY, published anonymously in 1814, was his first novel. Thereafter Scott had a prodigious literary output. He had to pay for his lifestyle as a border laird based at Abbottsford. Plus Donnachie (2001) notes that he was a partner in Constable and Ballantyne, Edinburgh printers and publishers, who collapsed in 1826. He undertook to repay creditors a debt of £100,000. Worth a read is ROB ROY (1818) and A LEGEND OF MONTROSE (1819). But his best novel is perhaps REDGAUNTLET (1824) and it has a Jacobite theme exploring as it does tensions and divisions that divided Scotland in 1745!