Levellers and The Dark o' the Moon

 ‘Time brings changes’: Duchrae Bank Woods and the Roman Camp.


2024 marks 300 years since the peak of the Galloway Levellers Rebellion. For more about this see the links at the end of this blog.

So what is the Crockett Connection?


The Levellers Rebellion of 1724 is the historic setting for Crockett’s 1902 novel The Dark o’ The Moon (the little known sequel to The Raiders). As is usual with Crockett’s work, ‘big’ history is relegated to subplot behind the adventure/romance. In this case the story revolves around Maxwell Heron (son of Patrick Heron and May Maxwell of The Raiders fame) and his love for Joyce Faa (daughter of Hector Faa, the ‘evil’ gypsy brother of John Faa -aka Silver Sand).


One key location for the novel is the meeting of the Levellers at ‘the Roman camp’ at Duchrae Bank Woods.


In Raiderland (1904) Crockett’s final chapter (Thirty Two) is ‘The Diary of an Eighteenth Century Galloway Laird’ (pp327-358 in the Galloway Raiders Digital Edition available free below)

He writes of Duchrae Bank Woods thus:

A son of the richest tenant on the estate is called upon to decide the worth of certain grazing privileges, which will be forfeited if the wood in the Duchrae bank is cut down. The young man takes two days to arrive at a decision. We can see him standing, gravely computing what his father and he will lose by the new arrangement—knit brows, bonnet pulled well down, neither anxious to favour the new powers that- be (who may one day have the letting of a larger farm), nor yet willing to do anything unjust to the interests of his father. He will not ‘blood the laird.’ Neither will he curry favour with him. So after maturest consideration he assesses the damage at two bullocks of the value of five pounds each. And on that basis, without a word the bargain is struck...


"That I might have an Idea of this wood of Duchrae Bank, now fitt age for cutting, I went through the whole on the morning of the 24th, Andrew McMin of Urioch being my conductor. In his house I afterwards breakfasted. I found that the wood consisted but of small bounds, planting irregular, with a deal of brushwood owing to its not being taken good care of in its infancy; but few oaks and ashes – and few even of those, particularly of the oaks, good...


"Having been applyed to by an English company through Mr. Livingston of Airds, whose woods they are presently cutting, to know if I would sell them such woods as I inclined to cutt, I made answer that as my wood of Duchbrae Bank was of a proper age for cutting I inclined to sell it. But as damages must be paid the Tenant, for the liberty of cutting, burning, carrying away and haining the woods afterwards, during the remainder of his Tack (and as I always incline to do all my business with the partie I have to do with, without troubling a third) I aplyed to the Tenant, William McConochie, a young man, son of James (McConochie), who is the richest tenant on the estate, to know what I must allow, desiring him to think of it and to inform me. He accordingly, after two days' consideration, informed me he reckoned the ground was equal to the maintainance of two Bullocks through the year, which he valued at 5 guineas yearly, upon which terms I might proceed to sell, cutt, etc., when I pleased. Less he could not take, as the shelter of the woods through the winter, with the food therein, was of importance to his cattle."...


I should note that a lot of the above very much reads like the plot for Crockett’s novel The Loves of Miss Anne (1904) so that I suppose Crockett is re-using historical research material readily available to him while compilation of Raiderland is underway.


All this aside, it has me wondering, what is the state of Duchrae Bank Woods (and the ‘Roman Camp’) today. I know that the Hensol Estates were sold in 2018 and at that point in time the following was written about the woods:


The forestry element of Hensol covers almost a third of the estate, and is a particular feature. Of the 352 acres of woodland, 182 acres are conifers and 170 acres are mixed broadleaves.
The woods are a key part of the landscape. They provide amenity, shooting coverts, timber production, and livestock shelter.
The vendor has a long term forest plan (prepared by Langholm based consultants, Forest and Land Management Ltd.) which began in 2014 and runs up until 2034. It identifies plantations which can be maintained, thinned and in due course felled.
The objectives of the forest plan incorporate a cash flow for the estate, create a long term positive carbon sequestration sink, protect and improve environmental and archaeological features, and increase the estate’s sporting capability.
There is considerable potential for a large scale afforestation programme.


I feel an (armchair) adventure coming on. If anyone has any ideas please either email [email protected] or get in touch via Facebook 




Links.

To the ‘history’ of Galloway Levellers Rebellion.

Local historian Alasdair Livingstone who died in 2018 did a lot of research on this topic.

https://greengalloway.blogspot.com/2017/10/galloway-levellers-talk-22-october.html

https://theses.gla.ac.uk/874/1/2009livingstonmphil.pdf (2009)

And there are a couple of other history based YouTube videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FA4fuGqfSk
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPiv5v3Ea-M


Links to Crockett’s work (all free PDF Galloway Raiders Digital Complete Crockett Collection)

The Complete Collection
https://www.gallowayraiders.co.uk/read.html

The Dark o’ The Moon (1902)
https://srcrockett.weebly.com/uploads/1/8/4/7/18474692/dom21.pdf

The Loves of Miss Anne (1904)
https://srcrockett.weebly.com/uploads/1/8/4/7/18474692/missanne21.pdf​

Raiderland (1904)
https://srcrockett.weebly.com/uploads/1/8/4/7/18474692/raiderland21.pdf