Land of Bent Grass
The Northern Isles. Edited by F. T. Wainwright. (Nelson, 30s.) EACH of these three volumes is a welcome eari" tribution to the literature of the Highlands and Islands. Everyone who has ever seen the great wall of the Grampians rising above Strathmore on their way north will surely agree that this ts the most distinctive and fascinating single region of Great Britain. Professor O'Dell's and 1)r. Walton's book is a general survey, rich in inalis and photographs. Their starting point is the PlaY- sical environment of the Highlands and theY carefully and lovingly describe the long, drowned valleys of the west coast, the great mass, of schists and granites which make up the huh' of the Grampians and the north-west Highlands' and, lastly, the gentle sandstones of Caithness and the Moray Firth area.
Then there is the Highland climate. Thus Dunrobin in east Sutherland has an average January temperature similar to that of the Thames estuary, 500 miles to the south, while the interior of the Highlands has a frost-free period of only two months from June to August' Only a very slight lowering of the summer teni; peratures would bring the Highland peaks itlit;, the zone of permanent snow. Geology and e mate lead inevitably to human geographY, ank these chapters are the best parts of the .ha° Man has had to work hard to survive in Highlands and Islands all down the centuries, the natural poverty of the region and the rugged environment combining to make settlement in- ordinately difficult. Fewer people live in this vast region now than in Glasgow, and not all the hydro-electric schemes, figheries and State- _a,s.sisted factories can prevent a population de- 'tine in an area the chief export of which is Still men.
With photographs by Paul Strand and corn- illentarY by Basil Davidson, Tir A'Mhuran, of the bent grass,' is an unusual (and disquieting) picture essay on South Uist. It i„ilurninates many of the forces at work in the nighlands and Islands catalogued by Professor 13:1)ell and Dr. Walton, but in addition to lack of resources and isolation, history has played a Harris, trick on South Uist. In contrast with
Lewis and North Uist, this island's Gaelic- '
,4-lPeaking Catholic culture survived the Reforma- m dtien, 0_,
. y to be proscribed by the authorities
,nrn18 the various dynastic wars of the seven- 'teeth and eighteenth centuries when Britain's enemies were Catholic powers. What political and religious persecution began, the crime of the Cr.nclosures finished, together with the subsequent t°reed emigration to North America. roday, the worst of the island's poverty is Ileviated by the National Assistance, but Gaelic 8inevitably a submerged culture. One can travel all Over South Uist, hear nothing but Gaelic srken and see nothing but English written. }Ins Davidson's commentary uncovers many tslPects of life on the island not apparent from the bar of the Lochboisdale hotel, while Strand's .o.otographs relentlessly convey the essence of 'Ins decaying pocket of Gaeldom. We see the Ic4achair on the edge of the ocean, the low cloud- ‘ove,red hills, the weather-beaten faces of the local men and women. But finally the images b desolation prevail, the graveyard of the peat- at.egt the horse's skull on the white sand, the t oandoned cooking pot, the tumbledown cot- ages on the pathetically barren soil, all monu- 'nen ts to a culture which for all its memorable 7,nd heroic tenacity is quietly dying here on tile Atlantic shore.
Less concerned with present-day conditions, artle Northern Isles is a new survey of the st,chology
e•-,e ,uand. and early history of Orkney and In his introduction, Dr. Wainwright Phasises the geographical isolation of the hinds as the key to their history. But the flds were not always on the periphery of a-ierope. , For a space of roughly 400 years, be- Out no 800, Orkney and Shetland care in the mainstream of history as they be- me a semi-independent Viking State which in- ,,th"'ted at times Caithness and Sutherland. Thus trl: outstanding essays in this collection are on Scandinavian settlement, its cultural history nussed in fascinating detail. „ lite Norse settlement made an indelible int- rressin v;„ n on the islands. The Norn tongue sur- I;red into the eighteenth century, and in Shet- Tes.
n"nd alone there are over 50,000 Norse place
eaa But with the end of the Norse line of islrss „,in 1231, the golden age of the northern inneryvas over, leaving behind as its supreme M -nn-lent the great sandstone cathedral of St. agnusat Kirkwall. Yet Orkney and Shetland not become part of Scotland until the late tuil° lteenth century, and 'even today, over a Ire,11sand Years after the Scandinavian settle- the islands remain thoroughly Scandinavian ive,haracter and outlook.' Here is a book quite isretsPensable for anyone visiting the northern rea,s.and which in any case provides irresistible "Ine for an armchair traveller.
DAVID REES
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