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300 Gaelic Society of Inverness.
different counties and burghs is frequently entered in the Acts of
supply. There were some corrections made on these i)roportions up
to 1095, but they were so trilling in amount that they do not call for
notice. Practically our apportionment of to-day is that of 16G7,and
our valued rent-roll is recognised as that of 1660 in accordance with
which the proportions were originally allocated. On that valuation
not only the land-tax but all local assessments without exception were
levied down to the passing of the Poor-Law Act of 1845; and some
ecclesiastical assessnunits are still regulated Ijy it. Though the
amount of the valuation in each parish remains unchanged, its
allocation among the heritors has been revised from time to time
by the Commissioners of Supply as properties changed hands; and
the valued rent-rolls thus become a simple means of tracing the
passage of property from one owner to another. Had we a complete
set we could without difficulty follow all the changes in landownership
that have taken place. As it is I am able with the
help of the roll of 1793 to assign to their respective owners in 1756
the Ross-shire Estates that appear in the roll of 1853, excepting
only those in the Parish of Roseniarkie where there are a large
number of small proi)rietors and where a division of the teinds
has altered the valuation of each separate j^arcel of land. I have
not, however, been able to trace back the changes to 1644, because
there is no correspondence between the valuations of 1644 and
1660, neither are the designations of the several estates siifficiently
particularised in the older roll to admit of the identitication of
their extent. When I speak of the Valuation Roll made uj) between
the years 1660 and 1855, it must be understood that I refer
not to the real rent but to the valued rent as fixed in 1660. The
Valuation Rolls issued from time to time between these years vary
from one another only in their detail of the distribution of property.
TJie total value is always the same. On comparing the valuations
of 1644 and 1660, however, this striking fact appears, that at the
later date the values had greatly fallen. In Ross-shire the valuation
of 1644, exclusive of the Lews, amounted to £102,025; in 1660
it was only £66,793, showing a depreciation of nearly 35 per cent.
One is at first tempted to conclude that the valuations had
been made on different bascjs, but yet the Scottish Parliament
having reverted in 1643 from the old extent to the actual annual
value, it does not seem probable that that equitable basis of taxation
should have been departed from in the subsequent revisals down
to the year 1660. On the other hand, if we consider that the intervening
sixteen years luul been years of great political excitement
—having witnessed the beheading of Charles I., the setting-up of