Page 30 - Gloomy Memories by Donald MacLeod Eyewitness to Highland Clearances

ISSUE : Issue 46

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1987/8/1

OfO'o'' rifl B ' Practical, inexpensive ways to escape big heating bills. 1 Nobody likes to throw away money, but that is exactly • what you are doing if you waste heat in your home. For instance, did you know that by lowering your thermostat five degrees during the night, you could save nearly 10 per cent of your annual space heating costs? Hot running water is a great modern • ' convenience, but how hot does it have to '** be? You can save money by making [ijjist hot enough to run comfortably on your hand. Simply turn down the heat setting on your hot water heater and save. 00 • ,00'0*' ?o'-. tf% A certain amount of condensation is ?f • normal, but too much can ruin a house. Control the amount of moisture introduced into your home and exhaust those areas which are moisture sources, such as the kitchen, bath? room or laundry area. Call us for simple and practical tips to reduce condensation. Heat loss around doors (the attic hatch is a door too), windows, electrical switches and outlets, the sill plate and other draft sources can be as much as 30 per cent of total home heat loss. Call us, we'll recom? mend simple steps and quality materials to help you eliminate drafts and make your home more comfortable. 4. RT Take a look at your furnace. Do you know if it *' • is operating efficiently? Can you reduce the nozzle size now that you've added insulation? Probably! Could it be modified for better efficiency? How about getting it tested? Improvements to heating systems usually return your investment quickly. We have the facts about different heating systems and how they can be improved. Just call. No matter how elementary you think your g> questions may be, call us. It's absolutely " • free and we want to help. We'll give you unbiased answers as well as send you the most up-to-date literature on home energy management. Call us. Itp'tDbeinformed 1-424-5727 In Halifax please call 424-8614 1' Energy, Mines and Resources Canada Hon. Marcel Masse, L'Hon. Marcel Masse, Minister Ministre >C Department of Mines and Energy The whole country, with the excep? tion of a comparatively small part of one parish, held by Mr. Dempster of Skibo, and similar portions on the outskirts of the county held by two or three other proprietors, is now in the hands of the Sutherland family, who, very rarely, perhaps only once in four or five years, visit their Highland estates. Hence the impunity afforded to the actors in the scenes of devastation and cruelty • the wholesale expulsion of the people, and pulling down and burning their habitations, which latter proceeding was peculiar to Sutherlandshire During the year 1809, in the par? ishes of Dornoch, Rogart, Loth, Clyne, and Golspie, an extensive removal took place; several hundred families were turned out, but under circumstances of greater severity than the preceding. Every means were resorted to, to discourage the people, and to persuade them to give up their holdings quietly, and quit the country; and to those who could not be induced to do so, scraps of moor, and bog lands were offered in Dornoch moor, and Brora links, on which it was next to im? possible to exist, in order that they may be scared into going en? tirely away. At this time, the es? tate was under the management of Mr. Young, a corn-dealer, as chief, and Mr. Patrick Sellar, a writer, as un? der- factor, the later of whom will make a conspicuous figure in my fu? ture communications. These gentle? men were both from Morayshire; and, in order to favour their own coun? try people, and get rid of the na? tives, the former were constantly employed in all the improvements and public works under their direc? tion, while the latter were taken at inferior wages, and only when strangers could not be had. Thus, a large portion of the people of these five parishes were, in the course of two or three years, al? most entirely rooted out, and those few who took the miserable allot? ments above mentioned, and some of their descendants, continue to ex? ist on them in great poverty In the year 1811 a new era of depop? ulation commenced; summonses of re? moval were served on large portions of the inhabitants. The lands were divided into extensive lots, and ad? vertised to be let as sheep farms. Strangers were seen daily travers? ing the country, viewing these lots, previous to bidding for them In the-month of March, 1814, a great number of the inhabitants of the parishes of Farr and Kildonan

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