On Wednesday, 5 February 1992 00:05:56 UTC, Tom Costello  wrote:   
   > In article <1992Feb4.103134.18368@pcsbst.pcs.com>, billp@pcsbst.pcs.com   
   (Bill Potter) writes:   
   > stuff ommitted   
   > |> "A dance called America" which is about the forced emmigration   
   > |> from the Highlands during the time of the clearances. I had   
   > |> thought the title to be a clever bit of imagery, never    
   > |> myself thinking that it has a historical background.   
   > |>    
   > |> Last Friday I came across the following passage.   
   > |>    
   > |> 	   Three-fifths of the Highland proprietors were now absentee   
   > |> 	landlords, and their dispossessed or unwanted tenants were   
   > |> 	now dregs in the cup of their good fortune, The spirited   
   > |>    
   > |> 	   
   > more stuff omitted,	...   
   > |>    
   > |>         ... but figures given in a Parliamentary report of 1803 suggest   
   > |> 	that at least ten thousand people had gone from the Highlands   
   > |> 	and Isles in the previous three years. Upon each turn of the    
   > |> 	dance a hand was outstretched for a new partner, and the   
   > |> 	letters of the departed exiles called upon their friends   
   > |> 	to take ship and join them.   
   > |>         (from Mutiny, John Prebble, Penguin, 1977, pp441-2)   
   > |>    
   > |>    
   > |> Does anyone have the opporunity to look up the original Boswell   
   > |> and quote it here?   
   > |> ===========================================================   
   =================   
   > |> Bill Potter    : unido!pcsbst!billp       : 1992 - 500th Anniv. of a lost   
   > |> PCS GmbH       : billp@pcsbst.pcs.com     : Italian sailor and 200th   
   Anniv.   
   > |> D8000 Muenchen : You can't sink a RAINBOW : of the year of the sheep.   
   > |> ===========================================================   
   =================   
   >    
   >    
   > I really don't have any idea where this myth of the highland clearances   
   > comes from.  The emigration from Scotland at that time was constant   
   > accross crofters and townsfolk.  There were in total four "burnings"   
   > reported, at the time the so called clearances were taking place.   
   >    
   > Why do some people feel that they have to claim their ancestors   
   > went through great hardship, at the hands of oppressors, when   
   > in fact they didn't   
   >    
   > Just wondering,   
   >    
   > Tom   
      
   Hi Tom,   
      
   it might be a good idea to learn a little more about the Highland Clearances.   
      
   The brutality handed out to the Scots was beyond barbaric.   
   I'm from Inverness, and I can tell you that the Highland Clearances were very   
   real.   
      
   There is a fabulous play called 'The Cheviot, The Stag and the Back, Black   
   oil". If you get an opportunity to see it, it will fill in many gaps in your   
   knowledge. Alternately if you ever come to Inverness let me know and I'll give   
   you a tour and fill in    
   the history.   
      
   :-)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)