Burt's Letters from the North of Scotland

by Edmund Burt

In 1724, Edmund Burt was sent to Scotland to work as a contractor for the government. His work on the military roads opened up the north and gave him unparalleled access throughout the area, allowing him to meet the people of the Highlands and observe their way of life. This book paints a sympathetic picture of the grinding hardship and poverty faced by so much of the ordinary population. Written in a witty and satirical style, this entertaining account is one of the most detailed sources of information on life and customs in the Highlands during the 18th century.

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1754

About the author

Edmund Burt (died 1755) was an English official who worked closely with General Wade in Scotland between 1724 and 1728. Based in Inverness, he was the collector of rents from the unsold Forfeited Estates during Wade's construction of roads through the Highlands. In 1729 he was appointed manager of the lead mines at Strontian in Argyll.

Burt's letter about Scotland were written in 1725–26, although not published until long afterwards. Burt's death was announced in the Scots Magazine for 1755. The first edition of the Letters appeared in London in 1754. Subsequent editions appeared in Dublin in 1755, in London in 1759 and 1815, and at Haarlem and Hanover. The latest was edited by Robert Jamieson, with contributions by author:Sir Walter Scott], London in 1818.

Reviews

[Ian]

A re-read for me. Edmund Burt was a surveyor who arrived in the Scottish Highlands in 1725 to work with General Wade, who was charged with building the first roads in the Highlands, to assist the military. At the time the Highlands were a source of frequent rebellions against the British Crown. When Burt arrived it was less than 20 years after the Treaty of Union, a decade on from the 1715 rebellion and a mere 6 years from the abortive rebellion in 1719; but crucially he saw the Highlands before the 1745 rebellion, the aftermath of which saw the near complete destruction of their old way of life.

Travellers in this era were never shy of providing forthright opinions about the places they described, and Burt is frequently rude about Scotland and its inhabitants. Any Scot reading this today will probably have to suppress patriotic outrage over the insults that come our way from these pages. For all that, this provides some wonderful insights into 18th century Highland life.

The book is divided into 2 volumes. The first contains letters written from the town of Inverness. These are interesting enough but for me Vol 2 is the best, since it covers the rural Highlands. Burt explains:

"In England the name of Scotsman is used indiscriminately to signify any one of the male part of the natives of North Britain, but the Highlanders differ from the low country in almost every circumstance of life. Their language, customs, manners, dress etc are unlike, and neither of them would be contented to be taken for the other.”

Burt was an extremely sharp observer, and it would make this review far too long to include even a fraction of what he covers. To choose one example, the clan system, and the idea of the Highlands as a martial society, is something that seems to have exercised a romantic fascination all the way from Walter Scott to Outlander. Burt observed it for real:

“Some of these chiefs have not only personal dislikes and enmity to each other, but there are also hereditary feuds between clan and clan, which have been handed down from one generation to another for several ages. These quarrels descend to the meanest vassal, and thus, sometimes, an innocent person suffers for crimes committed by his tribe at a vast distance of time before his being began.”

On one journey Burt employed a guide who explained that he was a weaver by trade, but his house and loom had been burned by redcoats during the 1715 rising. He was forced to work as a guide as he could not afford to replace his loom. Burt makes what I suspect is an accurate observation:

“…were it not for their fond attachment to their chiefs, and the advantage these gentlemen take of their slave-like notions of patriarchal power, I verily believe there are few among them that would engage in an enterprise so dangerous to them as rebellion.”

I acknowledge of course that this sort of book is a minority interest. I enjoyed it partly because I’m a history nerd, and partly because of my local interest. At one point Burt relates how:

“in a wild part of Argyllshire, there was no bread of any kind till the discovery of some lead mines, which brought strangers among the inhabitants, who before fed upon the milk of their cows, goats and sheep”.

I know exactly where those lead mines are, they lie about 15 miles west of where I live today. Fortunately, we no longer have to rely on sheep’s milk for our sustenance.

Fascinating stuff!