THE BOOK: "Recollections of an Argyllshire Drover" & Other West Highland Chronicles Eric Cregeen's groundbreaking research into the Argyll Estate Papers and into the oral tradition of the Scottish West Highlands are at the heart of this collection. During his appointment at the University of Edinburgh's School of Scottish Studies, Cregeen tape-recorded tradition bearers in both Gaelic and English, gathering information that is today priceless, such as the descriptions of the last Argyll drover. He was a founding member of the Scottish Oral History movement, but his tragically early death in 1983 robbed Scotland of a great scholar, social historian and folklorist and of other proposed books. This collection, selected and edited by Dr Margaret Bennett, will be welcomed by a wide range of readers, especially those who share Cregeen's enthusiasm for 'approaching the history of the Highlands with a mind alert to the claims of oral tradition.' The book begins with a masterful introductory essay by the editor and also includes a comprehensive bibliography of Cregeen's work. This edition brings invaluable and beautifully written material to a new generation keen to reconnect with Scotland's Highland history and tradition.

THE BOOK: "Recollections of an Argyllshire Drover" & Other West Highland Chronicles Eric Cregeen's groundbreaking research into the Argyll Estate Papers and into the oral tradition of the Scottish West Highlands are at the heart of this collection. During his appointment at the University of Edinburgh's School of Scottish Studies, Cregeen tape-recorded tradition bearers in both Gaelic and English, gathering information that is today priceless, such as the descriptions of the last Argyll drover. He was a founding member of the Scottish Oral History movement, but his tragically early death in 1983 robbed Scotland of a great scholar, social historian and folklorist and of other proposed books. This collection, selected and edited by Dr Margaret Bennett, will be welcomed by a wide range of readers, especially those who share Cregeen's enthusiasm for 'approaching the history of the Highlands with a mind alert to the claims of oral tradition.' The book begins with a masterful introductory essay by the editor and also includes a comprehensive bibliography of Cregeen's work. This edition brings invaluable and beautifully written material to a new generation keen to reconnect with Scotland's Highland history and tradition.

The House of Argyll acquired its Kintyre lands in 1607 and sold them in 1956. During that period, the Campbells exerted a powerful influence in Kintyre, through politics, religion, and agrarian reform. The core of this book is the 5th Duke of Argyll's estate instructions to his Kintyre chamberlain, or manager, from 1785 to 1805. Through these annual directions, and the chamberlain's responses, emerge the complex workings of a West Highland estate. Kintyre historian Angus Martin has taken the late Eric R. Cregeen's hitherto unpublished transcript of the instructions and illuminated them with a lengthy series of commentaries, explaining agricultural practices, social customs and cultural nuances, and providing biographical sketches of the chief personalities of the time. The study is informatively introduced by both Cregeen and Martin, enhanced by 72 illustrations, ranging from eighteenth century portraits to present-day photographs, contains a reproduction of George Langlands' celebrated 1801 map of Kintyre, and is fully furnished with references, notes and index.