A VALUABLE COUNTY HISTORY.*
IT is a very important literary enterprise which the Messrs. Blackwood have begun with the publication of this very Interesting volume by one of the most capable of living Scotch lawyers and men of letters on what is in many respects the quaintest and most interesting region of Scotland. It is to give a vivid representation of modern Scotland in the form of "county histories,"—to do for that modern Scotland, in fact, what was done in twenty-one volumes for the Scotland of a hundred years ago by what was known as The Statistical Account, published under the editorship of that indefatigable pamphleteer and (after his own fashion) philanthropist, Sir '6 A History of Fife and Kinross. By /E. J. G. Mackay. Sheriff of these Counties. Buinburgh mid London : Willisan Blackwood and Sons. 1896. John Sinclair of Ulbster, who almost rivalled Voltaire himself in literary energy, seeing that in the course of half a century he is credited with having produced thirty-nine volumes and three hundred and sixty-seven pamphlets. It would be hardly possible to exaggerate the importance of this Statistical Account, the bulk of the contributions to which were written by the parochial clergy. Nothing has been done quite like it since, although it would be well if such an enterprise were attempted again, and not for Scotland only, but for the United Kingdom. It would have, however, in all prob- ability, to be undertaken by the State, like the Ordnance Survey, for the parochial clergy could hardly be expected to do what their predecessors of a hundred years ago did—for nothing—and besides, the Established Church ministers have now their supremacy even as authorities upon their parishes challenged by rivals of almost innumerable denominations. Meanwhile this valuable, if not absolutely necessary, national labour has been in some measure anti- cipated by the Messrs. Blackwood, who have started a series of "County Histories," in which they will reproduce Scotland both of the past and of the present, according to well-known political and topographical divisions.
A very good beginning in this valuable work has been made with the handsome and substantial but not unwieldy volume which Sheriff /Eneas Mackay has produced upon "Fife and Kinross." Kinross indeed is little better than an appendage to Fife. It is the second smallest county in Scotland :— " It is an inland county, with no sea-coast to vary its occupa- tions or bring in foreign customs. Its coal mines are a mere fringe on those of Fife, and its industries are connected with the surface of the soil, part agricultural and part pastoral,—for it has, like Scotland, Highlands and Lowlands of US own."
To all intents and purposes, therefore, this is a book about Fife, and apart from the leading part which that county once played in ecclesiastical history, it is to some extent, in virti e of an isolation from the mainland which the erection of the Forth Bridge has only in part removed, Scotland itself in- tensified. As regards oddities of character, indeed, it is probably more truly representative of Scotland than any
other county :—
" This variety of character,' shrewdly observes Mr. Mackay, "has been increased by the multiplicity of little boroughs, with dignified yet homely provosts and bailies, shrewd lawyers, skilful doctors, substantial merchants, well-to-do tradesmen, and sturdy labourers and fishers, and the still greater number of villages, each an independent community. Inequalities of outward condition and of rank and talent correspond better with the facts of hinuan nature and better secure the stability of human society than the dull monotone of the Socialist's paradise, even when imagined by the poet or coloured by the painter to suit his own tastes."
Geography has, no doubt, had much to do with the peculiar character of the men and women of Fife ; its cen- tralised position and its isolation have brought them a know- ledge of the world, but have at the same time made them shrink within themselves with a certain amount of self- confidence and pride. But apart from this, Fife (and to a less extent Kinross, through the historic Lochleven) played, thanks to circumstances and St. Andrews, an important part in all the leading crises of Scotch history except one. It is but slightly associated with the War of Independence, although Macdnif, the Earl of Fife, fell at the battle of Falkirk, although Wallace, according to Blind Harry, took Cupar and St. Andrews, although Edward I. more than once visited Dunfermline, and although Bruce visited St. Andrews on July 5th, 1318, "when Bishop William of, Lamberton, seven bishops, fifteen abbots, and many other great gentlemen, of whom Bruce was the greatest, took part in the dedication of the Cathedral." In the days of the Stuart Kings, however, Fife assumed a position of great importance in the history of Scotland. Mr. Mackay does justice, one is glad to see, to the part "the Kingdom" took in the development of a Scotch Navy which, small though it.
was, was yet able to hold its own against that of England, and no doubt did more than is generally believed to prevent invasion :— "The little towns which girdle the shores of Fife from Queens ferry to St. Andrews, and from St. Andrews to Newburgh, were busy havens of foreign trade. The commerce of the Forth was chiefly with France and the Low Countries, but also with the ports of the North Sea and the Baltic. At these towns, or on the opposite coast of the Firth, most of the Scottish ships were built. Bruce had made the first experiment of a Scottish navy with the foresight which marked his character, anticipating the later days,
when the seas were to bring Scotland a more plentiful harvest than its soil. He had few imitators, till Bishop Kennedy built his barge, the St Salvator,' which cost as much as his college of the same name and his too ostentatious tomb, and James IV. the St. Michael.' The woods of Fife were now largely used for ship-building. The men of Fife were among the hardiest sailors. Sir Michael of Wemyss was the first Scottish admiral."
Scotland produced two really great sailors, Sir Andrew Wood and Sir Andrew Barton, both of whom were for a time quite a match for any commanders that England could send against them. Barton fell, in the long run, before Edward Howard, Earl of Surrey, and his ship 'The Lyon' became the second man-o'-war in the English Navy. The Scots resolved on revenging his death, and this desire helped to bring about the war which ended for them so disastrously in the battle of Flodden :—
"It had been intended to fight by sea as well as by land ; and the great St. Michael,' which is called by the Scottish chronicler the largest ship ever yet seen, had been built for the purpose. She took so much timber as to waste all the woods of Fife except Falkland, besides pines imported from the forests of Norway. Her cost, apart from her artillery, was £30,000. She was two hundred and forty feet long, fifty-six broad, and carried thirty- five cannons, besides smaller guns ; her crew was three hundred seamen besides officers, one thousand men-at-arms, and one hundred and twenty gunners. Wood was her master, and John Barton his skipper, but this vessel, like the Great Eastern' of our day, was found too unwieldy, and after Flodden, was sold to the King of France."
Fife was also identified in the time of James VI. with a very interesting adventure, which anticipated in its tragic close the celebrated Darien expedition. This was an attempt on the part of certain gentlemen of Fife to colonise the Hebridean island of Lewis, which "showed that Scotland was becoming too small for the increase and energy of its in- habitants," and "was a shadow cast before of the events which were to make Scotchmen amongst the leading colonists of the New World, and amongst the foremost adventurers in American and Australian settlement, in Arctic or African exploration." The story of the scheme which originated in the fertile but muddled brain of the "British Solomon," has an uncommonly modern look in some respects. Lewis was under the sway of a number of Celtic chiefs, who were notorious for their lawlessness, and who aroused the wrath of the in- habitants of Fife by hanging a number of fishermen belonging to the comity. It was determined in the end of the sixteenth century to take severe steps against the refractory chiefs. Their lands, and also the lands of other chiefs in Skye as well, were declared to be forfeited. "Lewis was granted to a company of adventurers, of which the chairman, to use nineteenth-century language, was the Duke of Lennox. But the directors and shareholders were almost all gentlemen of Fife,—Sir Patrick Leslie, commendator of Lindores ; Sir James Anstruther, younger of that ilk ; James Learmont, younger of Balcomie ; and James Spens, of Wormiston." They were to pay no rent for seven years, in consideration of the cost and danger to which they were put; but after that a rent in grain was to be paid for Lewis. An odd con- dition was inserted in this very primitive concession. Four parish churches were to be erected in Lewis and two in Skye, as the King was "most careful that the gentlemen and their successors should not be destitute of the comfort of spiritual pastors for preaching and administering the sacrament."
At last, in October, 1599, the expedition, some six hundred men strong, set sail for Lewis. On their arrival they started to build what the Celts termed "a pretty village," in other words, they laid the foundations of the now well-known and flourishing Stornoway. But the expelled Highland chieftains—they belonged mainly to the family of Macleod— attacked the Adventurers. After various experiences, indeed, the men of Fife, armed with letters of fire and sword, did temporarily reduce Lewis, and even fresh expeditions were fitted out in their aid. The Macleods, however, proved irrepressible, and, besides, the men of Fife were hampered by the intrigues of a cunning chieftain, Mackenzie of Kintail, who pretended to be on their side. Su in 1609 they dis- banded their forces such as these were, "and a small garrison left in the fort of Stornoway was surprised by Neil Macleod, who burnt the fort and sent the garrison back to Fife, receiving, besides a money payment, the lands of Letter- curry for compensation." Finally, " Kintail, who had used the Macleods against the Adventurers, now used the Adven- tarers' title to oust the Macleods. He substituted the rule of a Highland chief, who at least acknowledged the authority of the King, for one who recognised no laws, and despised a sheep-skin title. The civilisation, in the modern sense, of this part of the West Highlands, was delayed for more than a century." No doubt this is the case, but the experiment of the Fifemen in trying to " settle " Lewis offers all the materials for a romance of adventure which would perhaps, however, require the pen of a Stevenson to do justice to it.
It is a matter of course that in the bulk of his work Mr. Mackay should be found travelling over very familiar ground. The ecclesiastical history of Scotland is almost synonymous with that of Fife, which is associated not only with Roman Catholicism and Protestantism and the agony of the struggle between the two, but with "the Secession" which is identified with the name of Ebenezer Erskine, and with that much more formidable" Disruption" which ended in the foundation of the Free Church, and which is associated with the much greater name of Thomas Chalmers, who was a native of "the Kingdom." Upon this part of Mr. Mackay's work, therefore, it is unnecessary to dwell, or to say anything beyond a word commending his skill in dealing impartially with a subject that lends itself very readily to polemical writing. In a sense, fresher than ecclesiastical history of this kind, and more im- mediAtely interesting from the more modern point of view, is Mr. Mackay's view of Fife as an industrial centre. In spite of its long isolation "the Kingdom" has been wonderfully enterprising. Thus he points out that while steam was first employed on a large scale for power-loom weaving in London in 1812, Fife has the credit of making the next successful attempt in 1821. Fife is not superlatively great in literature, but Adam Smith was born in Kirkcaldy, and wrote The Wealth of Nations there. "The Kingdom" is also great in ballad-mongers, as is amply proved by its association with the names of Blind Harry, William Dunbar, Sir Robert Ayton, and Henryson of Dunfermline. Sheriff Mackay—as doubtless becomes one who is a good Highlander himself—makes a great deal of the various proverbs, such as "If you're Heelant, you're next door to the Fifer," which go to demonstrate "the fact written at large on the topography that the population of a district as a whole Lowland rather than Highland, was originally Celtic, speaking a dialect of the Gaelic tongue, honouring the Celtic saints, using the old Celtic ritual, following the customs of the old Celtic law as at Markinch or the sanctuary at Macduff's Cross, wearing the Celtic garb, playing the pipes, and singing to their tunes." We regret to part with a book which is a very admirable one in every respect, and which is one of the best studies in Scotch life and character, topography and industry, that has ever been published.
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