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 Kintyre historian Angus Martin has taken the late Eric R. Cregeen's hitherto unpublished transcript of the instructions and illuminated them with a lengthy series of commentaries, explaining agricultural practices, social customs and cultural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.
