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None Dare Oppose, J. MacLeod: Hardback: 1st Edition: Scots History
None Dare Oppose, J. MacLeod: Hardback: 1st Edition: Scots History
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None Dare Oppose: The Laird, The Beast, and The People of Lewis
By John MacLeod.
Published by Berlinn Limited, Edinburgh, 2010. First edition. Hardback cover with dust jacket (unclipped), 294 pages.
CONDITION
Overall excellent condition, see photos. No names or writing.
In 1844 Sir James Matheson, retired drug baron and determined social climber, bought the lsle of Lewis from the little old lady who was the last of the Seaforths.
By decade's end, a vicious solicitor was already prominent in Matheson's increasingly ruthless programme for Lewis, and in 1853 Donald Munro was finally put in sole charge of the estate, Within months the 'Chamberlain of the Lews' had seized practically every office of civic, legal and industrial power in the community and for the next two decades held the entire island under an absolute, capricious and odious regime.
This is a study of Highland landlordism at its most self-indulgent, fatuous and dangerous: Sir James built a mock-Tudor castle, imported soil and trees and constructed a personal Arcadian fantasy; squandered thousands on crazy schemes while wilfully refusing to invest in fishing; and entrusted a whole island to the whims of a man so monstrous he is still remembered with blazing hatred on Lewis.
And then, pushed at last too far, the people marched. From the fall of the MacLeods, a prince on the run, a curse on a dynasty and a serial-killer loose in the hills, the lairds and the emigrant- ships, an audacious plot to steal Stornoway
harbour and a spectacular court-room finale. John MacLeod brings alive the character, endurance - and at last the triumph - of the people of Lewis, in what is at once an enthralling portrait of their community and a spine-chilling study in human evil.
(bindery A1)
