Lairds Quotes

“I was drunk on love and her thighs. You were just drunk"
The Tartan Swap”
― Kimber H. Kinkaid

“The estate on which my Uncle Sandy had been a tenant was one of those on which the relations of landlord and tenant were spoken of as being on a paternal footing; the idea of its being a commercial relationship was strongly resented and declared to be the suggestion of radicalism of a very red type, only fitted, if not designed, to excite prejudice against the landlord class, whose distinctive benevolence forbad their ever going farther than to take what they wanted, and proclaim the grand old doctrine of 'LIVE and let live.”
― William Alexander, My Uncle the Baillie

“I would tax unaccountable private land ownership through land value taxation, and use the proceeds to finance community buyouts. Unless they serve community in ways that local communities want, get the lairds to finance their own clearance!”
― Alastair McIntosh, Reforesting Scotland 68, Autumn/Winter 2023

“But the Scottish patron on tour took home with him from Italy much more than his cargo of paintings, sculptures and antique marbles, the tangible souvenirs of his excursion to the south. He took home as well a sophistication of taste and an appreciation of the virtues of classicism which only contact with the Mediterranean inheritance could impart. Only sixty years before the building of the pedimented façade of Duff House in Banff, with its urns and roof-line statuary more in keeping with a southern sky, the typical laird's house in Scotland was still inspired by an economy of display and a strength of fabric deriving from less settled times. The 18th century saw the transportation to Scotland of the idea of the Italian palace, and Hopetoun or Floors or Chatelherault owe their existence to this inspiration.”
― Basil C. Skinner, Scots in Italy in the 18th Century

“For years the Church of Scotland, the Established Church, had been tearing itself apart. Two key issues dominated: patronage - the right of landowners to appoint and even force ministers on an unwilling congregation - and the interference of the state in church affairs. On one side were the Moderates, supporters of patronage, friends of the lairds, and, according to an earlier General Assembly report, often 'inattentive to the interests of religion'... The rival faction, the Evangelicals, opposed patronage, wanted complete church independence, and insisted on a far stricter interpretation of religious doctrine. So entrenched were the divisions that it brought the Disruption of 1843 - perhaps 'the most momentous single event of the nineteenth century' - with 470 ministers out of 1,200, plus their elders, congregations and 400 schoolteachers breaking away to create the Free Church.”
― David Taylor, 'The People Are Not There': The Transformation of Badenoch 1800 - 1863

“Her back pressed against his chest, slick with sweat and tremblin’ with exhaustion, but still unyieldin’.

“Damn ye,” Alyssa gasped between clenched teeth, her voice sharp as the ache twistin’ through her belly. “If I dinnae hate ye by the time this is done, I’ll eat my plaid.”

Tryss’s breath hitched in a laugh. “Well, that’s nae very nice. Why say such things tae me when I love ye so?”
― Kimber H Kinkaid, The Tartan Swap: A Highland Clan War Romance