Sepia Saturday - One Lost Sheep

Sepia Saturday give bloggers an opportunity to share their family history and memories  through photographs.

I live in the Scottish Borders. a rural area of rolling hills and  where there are said to be 14 sheep for every person. 

Here is a mixture  of thoughts and memories  about this week's prompt.  

One lost sheep - photographed on holiday on the Isle of Mull

Mull,  like many parts of the Scottish Highlands.  suffered in the 18th and 19th centuries under the major movement known as  The Highland Clearances, when families were forcibly evicted from their tenant property to make way for sheep rearing - acts largely carried out by  aristocratic, often absentee,  landowners. 

The Clearances were a complex series of events and remain an emotive and controversial subject still today. They resulted in significant emigration.  On Mull the population was reduced by two thirds , with  the collapse of the island economy.   

 A romantic view of a Highland sheep farmer, painted by Rosa Bonheur c.1860

Back to the south of Scotland, and (below) The Ram Statue in the High Street of  Moffat in Dumfries and Galloway.   It was presented to the town in 1875  by local businessman  William Colvin,  as a symbol of  the town's links with  sheep farming.

 

This sign is a familiar one in rural Scotland, especially on single track roads, where sheep graze by the roadside  and wander at will.  

Finally,  sheep remind me of an anthem I first sang in the  school choir:  "All in the April Evening".  The words were written by Katherine Tynan (1861-1931)  and set to music by Sir Hugh Roberton (1874-1952), a Scottish composer and leading choral director, who founded  the Glasgow Orpheus Choir. The choir's  recording of the work remained popular for many years and was frequently played on the radio.  Perhaps the words do not echo today's sentiments, but the music  is beautiful and moving to sing. 

All in the April evening,

April airs were abroad;

The sheep with their little lambs

Passed me by on the road.

The sheep with their little lambs

Passed me by on the road;

All in the April evening

I thought on the Lamb of God.

The lambs were weary and crying

With a weak, human cry.

I thought on the Lamb of God

Going meekly to die.

Up in the blue, blue mountains

Dewy pastures are sweet;

Rest for the little bodies,

Rest for the little feet. 

Below another musical  link with "Sheep May Safely Graze" by J. S. Bach and happy memories of  a weekend break at this hotel on the banks of Loch Awe  near Oban in the west  of Scotland, where sheep roamed in the grounds   

 

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Click HERE to discover more sheep stories from fellow Sepia Saturday bloggers.