The Book of Barra. By Compton Mackenzie, Jolui Lome Campbell,
and Carl Hjahnar Borgstrom. (Routledge. 15s.)
Tim Island of Barra is about twelve miles long and six miles broad. Accompanied by its satellite islands, Vatersay! Sand. ray, pabbay, Mingulay and Bernara, it lies at the south-west end of the line of the Outer Hebrides. There are only two 'steamers a week to it from the mainland of Scotland, and they take a full twelve hours to reach it from Oban, as they - have to wind their way-in and out between islands and ports of call on their journey. There are three small townships (each with a Roman Catholic church) on the Island, though there are a number of crofts and small dwellings scattered about between the main centres of population. Apart from the
, romantic prospect of Kismul's Castle situated in the middle of the bay of C'astlebay, the lovely silver and gold sands on ' the Western side, the little beautiful lochs on the Island itself, and the general air of remoteness which pervades it, there is little that would strike the traveller who arrived upon the Island by chance.
. Barra, however, is the most remarkable island in the whole huge archipelago of the Hebrides. It is an island in time
• as well as place. It is .a microcosm of all that is best, and much of what was best in the Highlands of Scotland. Despite
• the terrible evictions, forced emigrations and other attacks upon the individuality of the Highlanders, which were their co llllll on fate in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the people of Barra survived in an extraordinary way. They kept their faith, their rights and, in the long run, their lands. For those who look upon what has happened to the Highlands of Scotland in the last hundred and fifty years as one of the blackest events in the history of Scotland, the Island of Barra is a shining light in the darkness. On Barra there is 'living proof (though God knows how sadly it is harassed) that the old way of living there worked and is capable of working still. it is an island which, once visited, ft is:im- possible to forget;
Harm is remote in-place as well as Utile, and little has been written about it save by the sentimental visitors. That little that is worth while, however,. has .been.-collected iii pie Book of Barra under the editorship of Mr. John Lorne Campbell, and very good reading it makes, too—not only tor the lover of Barra who has long been hungry for writings about the real, authentic Past of the Island, but also for anyone Who is interested in Sbotland'today and yesterday.
Mr. Campbell's collection begins with the account giyep by Donald Munro, High Dean of the Islands in 1549, and ends With the -repoit of the Crofters Commission in Barra in '1883, That Crofters Commission was the result of the eventual rising of the people against their land being taken from them throughout the nineteenth century. He has also collected memoirs of travellers in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and has published for the first time the letters from the two MiteNeilis of Barra (hereditary chiefs of the Island) at the beginning of the nineteenth century—the very worst part of the emigration period. These letters show at once the sad remnants of the true patriarchal spirit that remained in a few of the Island chiefs, and also their encroach- ing selfishness and their neglect of their dependants, which was so characteristic of that time.
Mr. Campbell has concluded his book with the subsequent
history of Barra from 1888 to 1934, written by himself, which Continues the ftdry of how the people of the Island withstood the policy of emigration and eviction. He also adds a chapter on the Norse.place names of Barra, contributed by Carl Hja I n tar iimgstrom. One of the most interesting parts of the book. however, is the lung introduction written by Mr. Compton :Mackenzie on the subject of Catholic Barra. The story of the Catholic Highlands and Islands of Scotland has never yet been fully told. Their history can only be pieced together from scraps of information. Such a complete history of one Catholic !island as Barra, however, is peculiarly valuable. Nothing that , Mr. Compton Mackenzie writes can be dull, but when he has a 'subject so near to his own heart, it would be difficult to find anyone who found this chapter anything but enthralling. The rest of the book is largely 'coneeined--With the struggle of the Islanders to keep theancient rights.
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