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Large 8vos (24cm), 5 Volumes. Two folding maps. Half black calf by Harrison of Pall Mall. All edges red. Marbled endpapers. Bookplates to all volumes (rear paste-down of VOL I) of Lillian Napier, with a gift inscription to each dated 19/12/69. Lillian Napier, née Francey (d.1972) was the wife of Lord Francis Napier's grandson, Major Claude Inverness Napier. The gift inscriptions are to Lillian's son-in-law, [Capt] Mark Wilson. Vol I - Report; Vol II - Evidence I : Evidence taken by the Commission at Skye (Braes, Skeabost, Uig, Stenscholl (Staffin), Waternish, Broadford, Dunvegan, Glendale, Isle Ornsay, Portree, Bracadale and Raasay), Barra, Uist, Harris etc. (May, 1883). Examination of local individuals including crofters, fishermen, factors, managers, farmers, ministers; Vol III - Evidence II: Direct continuation of volume I. Minutes of evidence taken at Harris, St. Kilda, Lewis (including Stornoway), Shetland, Unst, Orkney, Sutherland (June-July, 1883); Vol IV - Evidence III : Evidence taken at Sutherland (continued), Ross-shire, Glenshiel, Inverness, Argyll, Caithness, Sutherland (July-October, 1883); Vol V - Evidence IV: Continuation of minutes of evidence volumes I - III. Evidence taken at Sutherland, Ross, Inverness, Lanark, Edinburgh, Argyll; Some wear and scuffing to leather, but bindings all very secure. A little light foxing here and there. A very presentable set, with very pleasing provenance, of a work that has been described thus:, "The Napier Commission report is arguably the most important body of writing in English to have issued from the Highlands and Islands in the last 200 years. We are still living with its political consequences." (Roger Hutchinson, West Highland Free Press, Isle of Skye, Scotland, 7 October, 2005, p. 12). The Commission was chaired by Francis Napier (10th Lord Napier; 1st Baron Ettrick) (1819-1898). A Diplomat and colonial administrator he joined the Diplomatic Service in 1840. He served in a succession of posts in Vienna, Constantinople, Naples, Washington and the Hague before being appointed British Ambassador in St Petersburg in 1860 and then in Berlin from 1864. In 1866 he was appointed as Governor of Madras and, faced with a serious famine, initiated a programme of irrigation to mitigate its effects. In 1872 he served briefly as Viceroy of India before retiring to Britain. The 19th century was a period of turmoil and hardship for many people in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The collapse of the kelp industry, the potato famine and periodic recessions formed the background to what is now known as the Highland Clearances when many agricultural tenants left or were forcibly removed from their land. The Napier Commission was appointed by Parliament in 1883 to inquire into conditions in the Highlands and Islands. Its recommendations formed the basis for the Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886. It introduced a unique form of land tenure, now known as crofting tenure. This gave crofters (agricultural tenants with smallholdings) in the crofting counties of Argyll, Inverness, Ross and Cromarty, Sutherland, Caithness, security of tenure for the first time. The investigation was carried out in the localities concerned during 1883, and testimony was received from 775 witnesses. In their massive Report the Commissioners reported that the crofters and cottars. "in addition to the evils attached to an unproductive soil, high elevations, and a variable and boisterous climate, suffer from several causes of indigence, discouragement and irritation which are subject to remedial treatment. These may be enumerated as follows: undue contraction of the area of holdings; insecurity of tenure; want of compensation for improvements; defective communications; withdrawal of the soil in connection with the purposes of sport to these we may add. defects in education, defects in the machinery of justice and want of facilities for emigration." The Commission began its work in the Braes area of Skye where.
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