In the Shadow of the Laird: Highland factors before and after Patrick Sellar - Softcover

Judith Ross Napier

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1789071895 ISBN 13: 9781789071894

Publisher: Acair Books, 2025

Synopsis

Norman MacCaig asked, in his renowned poem about Assynt, “Who owns this landscape?” His meditation on landlords, tenants, and poachers hauling a stag off the hill in the early morning, overlooked the part played by those who dominated Highland landed estates over centuries. The role of the factor – the land agent – has been, until now, largely ignored. Patrick Sellar, he with the head of a wolf, remains the only one anyone has ever heard of, his name shorthand for all those who ever occupied an estate office, before or since. Judith Ross Napier has explored unpublished diaries, archives, Napier Commission evidence, and spoken to factors themselves, to assess this most thankless of jobs. The book looks at how Highland factors operated under the scrutiny of proprietors on the one hand, of tenantry on the other, as well as their private thoughts and often isolated lives, from 1745 to the present. Unfettered power, brutality, certainly, even black magic, but evidence, too, of humour, wisdom and humanity so inspiring that, when one 18th century factor died, it was said that even the fields mourned him. While Patrick Sellar is inevitably present here, so too are many others, beloved and respected, a reminder that an entire profession has been too easily smeared by the infamy of Strathnaver 1814. One commentator noted: “When you talk to the factor, you are, in effect, talking to the shadow of the laird.” Here, the factors emerge from the shadows.

About this title

About the Author

Judith Ross Napier was brought up in Easter Ross in the North of Scotland and educated at Tain Royal Academy. After graduating from Aberdeen University she returned north, working as a reporter covering many land and crofting-related issues. She moved to Aberdeenshire where she continued freelance feature writing. She then worked for the National Trust for Scotland. She is also the author of The Assynt Crofter, which was shortlisted for the Highland Book Prize in 2018.

Edition details

• Publisher: Acair Books
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1789071895
• ISBN 13: 9781789071894
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352