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Smuggling in the Highlands. 269
the pe;ice were abiiiidant among the iuliabitants, yieklinjj; a good
liarvcst of business to the procurators of Dingwall. When the
exemption ceased, the peoi)le became more peaceal)le, and the
prosperity of attorneyism in Dingwall received a marked abatement.
(Dom. An. of Scot., Vol. III.)
Colonel Warrand, who kindly permitted me to peruse the
Culloden Acts, stated that the sites of four distilleries can be still
traced in Feriiitosh. An oiler of £3000 recently made for permission
to erect a distillery in the locality was refused by Culloden,
who feared that such a manufactory might be detrimental to the
best interests of the people. Although there is no distillery, nor,
so far as I am aware, even a smuggler in the locality, an enterprising
London s])irit-dealer still supplies real " Ferintosh," at
least he has a notice in his window to that etfect. This alone is
sufficient to show how highly prized Ferintosh whisky must have
been, and we have further proof in Uilleam Ross' " Moladh
an Uisge-Bheatha" (1762-90) :—
"Stuth glan na Toiseachd gun truailleadh,
Gur ioc-shlaint choir am beil buaidh e;
' S tu thogadh m' inntinn gu suairceas,
'S cha b'e druaip na Frainge."
And again in his " Mac-na-Bracha "
—
Stuth glan na Toiseachd gun truailleadh.
An ioc-shlaint is uaisle t'ann ;
'S fearr do leigheas na gach lighich,
Bha no bhitheas a measg Ghall.
'Stoigh leinn drama, lion a' ghlaine,
Cuir an t-searrag sin a nail,
Mac-na-brach' an gille gasda,
Cha bu rapairean a chlann.
The duty had been 3d. and 6d. per gallon from 1709 to 1742.
It had been raised gradually until in 1784, when the Ferintosh exemption
ceased, it was 3s. ll{d. and 15 per cent., the gallons
charged in that year being 239,350, and the duty paid £65,497. 15s.
4d.,the population being 1,441,808. Owing to the difficulty and cost
of collection in the thinly pojjulated portions of Scotland, the duties,
while low, had been farmed out for periods not exceeding three
years. Mr Campbell of Islay fiirmed the Excise Revenue of that
island for a small sum as late as 1795, and even .so late as 1804
the Commissioners were wont to receive lists of the names of persons
recommended by the heritors of the Highland parishes, from