Landowners Quotes

“Be they pharaohs or freeholders, barons or farmers, landowners have been the most capable, most intrepid, and most assertive members of civilized society.”
― David Marusek, Mind Over Ship

“What violent, good luck you had. When you bought your home you received stolen property, but the blood had dried, the war forgotten, and it seemed your god himself had granted you this land.”
― Edward J. Santella, American Ghosts

“This book attempts to evaluate the roles of the traditional landowners (whose reckless lifestyles led to bankruptcy and the acquisition of their lands by commercially-minded entrepreneurs); the new breed of accountant trustees (for whom financial probity was paramount); the Highland Potato Famine; James Cheyne, the clearing landlord; events elsewhere on Lismore, particularly on the Baleveolan estate, factored by Allan MacDougall; the influence of the Lismore Agricultural Society; investment in infrastructure on the Airds estate; the differing fates of farmers and cottars; the lack of alternative employment for the young; and opportunites elsewhere, particularly in the Central Belt of Scotland.”
― Robert Hay, How an Island Lost its People: Improvement, Clearance and Resettlement on Lismore, 1830 - 1914

“Landowners were indeed guilty of an astonishingly myopic cupidity, as exposed by the Reverend John Macdonald of Alvie in 1835. During the war, he pointed out, local rents had 'more than tripled', but 'the price of cattle and sheep was so high, that the tenants were enabled the bear these heavy burdens'. Twenty years on, however, 'it is entirely out of their power to pay the rents then imposed upon them. Since the peace, the price of cattle has been so much reduced, that sometimes three can scarcely be sold at the price formerly received for one; while the rent continue still the same.' Arrears, he predicted, would soar and tenants go bankrupt until landowners eventually fell victim to their own policies.”
― David Taylor, 'The People Are Not There': The Transformation of Badenoch 1800 - 1863

“...while the troubles sweeping Europe and southern Britain comprised liberal and radical elements protesting against powerful elites to secure better rights, in Badenoch it was the opposite - a subtle exercise of power by a small but influential outsider elite seeking to sweep aside the long-established rights of the lower orders, whose mere presence disrupted their leisure pursuits. There was, of course, a measure of protest, but the scattered and impoverished nature of local communities rendered them powerless. Land-owners knew well enough which side their bread was buttered on - a trend that became increasingly evident over the next two decades.”
― David Taylor, 'The People Are Not There': The Transformation of Badenoch 1800 - 1863

“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