Da Happie Laand by Robert Alan Jamieson sampler

attached them. As to the sources for the Reverend’s version of Gabrielsen’s
history, this script appears to be a palimpsest of different writings. It is
possible to detect an original nineteenth-century style which I presume to
be Gabrielsen’s in much of the reportage, even in those passages where
Nicol does not acknowledge him, while other sections seem to suggest a
more twentieth-century mindset, in style and vocabulary – we presume
Nicol’s own interventions. It is clear one or both of the authors made
free use of the records of both the Truck Commission and the Crofters
Commission, in addition to the journals of Sir Walter Scott and the young
Robert Louis Stevenson. I also found reference in the marginalia to The
Zetland Book by AT Kuliness, published in 1954, and therefore a source
of Nicol’s and not Gabrielsen’s.
RA Jamieson
Note: The observant reader will detect considerable variation in some of
the names, apparent elisions in the text, as well as inconsistencies in some
of the dates and details. These are issues that cannot be resolved. The
recorded past is essentially unstable. All versions suffer from partiality,
presumption and occasional error. There is no ‘gospel truth’ here, no
authority to refer to, for true and final judgement. I present the mysteries
as I have found them.