Tarbert - Past And Present

Tarbert – Past and Present (1886) – Dugald Mitchell
Bennett & Thomson • ISBN: none (older than catalogues, younger than the rocks) • Condition: Good
Small Scottish town, huge sense of importance, from Crappy Old Books

Some places get glossy coffee-table books with drone photography and lifestyle shots of lattes.
Tarbert, in 1886, got Dugald Mitchell instead – and frankly, it did rather well out of the deal.

Tarbert – Past and Present is a gloriously earnest Victorian love letter to a Scottish harbour town that is absolutely convinced its history is not only interesting but essential to anyone with a pulse, a map, or a vague sense of ancestry. Mitchell is here to tell you:

• Who lived there

• Who invaded there

• Who feuded there

• Who built things, fished things, preached at people, left for America, or stayed put and had Opinions

It’s local history in full Victorian mode: dates, names, anecdotes, legends, topography, church affairs, and a healthy sprinkling of “as all older inhabitants will remember.”

Condition: Good (like a weathered harbour wall)

When Crappy Old Books says Good, especially about a book from 1886, we mean:

• The cover is intact and still doing its late-19th-century best to look respectable on a shelf.

• The spine is sound – maybe a little softened, maybe a touch rubbed, but not split, broken, or crying out for emergency rebinding.

• All pages present and properly attached – no missing genealogical revelations, no vanished bit where someone’s great-uncle disgraced himself at a market, no tidal loss of “important historical notes.”

• Pages gently aged to that warm, readable tone: foxing here and there, edges mellowed, corners rounded in that “I’ve been here a while, actually” fashion.

No catastrophic damp, no coal-scuttle scorch marks, no pages welded together by Victorian jam. Just an honestly Good example of a 19th-century local history that’s survived more winters than anyone now living in it.

What’s actually inside?

Mitchell’s approach is basically:

“Since Tarbert exists, and has done so for some time, it is my duty to record absolutely everything about it.”

So you get:

• Early history & legends – who built what, who burned what, and which kings, lairds or Vikings decided Tarbert was the ideal place to either arrive in triumph or cause chaos.

• Ecclesiastical drama – ministers, churches, chapels, revivals, schisms, and the occasional politely-worded theological knife fight.

• Fishing, trade, and everyday life – boats, herring, merchants, markets, and the slow, weather-dependent grind of actually surviving in a coastal place.

• Local families and notables – the people who built, funded, preached, argued, donated, or otherwise made themselves impossible to ignore.

• Plenty of “Past and Present” comparisons – the classic Victorian favourite:

  • “In former times it was rough and simple.”

  • “Now, thanks to civilisation and proper stonework, things are thoroughly improved (mostly).”

The tone is part village chronicle, part sermon, part civic fan letter. If Tarbert had a PR department in 1886, it was absolutely this book.

Why this is fun to read now

From the 21st century, Tarbert – Past and Present works on several levels:

• As local history – full of detail you won’t find in any modern “48 Hours in Scotland” guide.

• As Victorian mindset exhibit – the confidence, the moral commentary, the gentle assumption that progress is real and visible in the number of slate roofs.

• As genealogical candy – if you’ve even the faintest connection to the area, you will almost certainly find surnames you recognise, alongside someone doing something mildly scandalous in 1830.

• As time travel – a way to wander Tarbert’s streets when gas lamps, not phone screens, were the main source of light.

It’s also unashamedly biased in that lovable local-history way:

• If Tarbert can be linked to anything important, it will be.

• If something notable happened nearby, Mitchell will make sure you know Tarbert was morally or geographically involved.

Why a Good, old copy is exactly right

A brand new reprint simply wouldn’t feel the same. From Crappy Old Books, this Good 1886 copy:

• Has physically existed for well over a century in the very kind of world it describes (give or take a few electricity cables).

• Carries that lovely sense of continuity: someone in the 19th century leafed through this for “the old stories,” just as you will now.

• Is worn enough to be authentic, but not so battered that you need a conservation degree to turn the pages.

It’s not a delicate relic you’re forbidden to touch. It’s a working volume of memory, still doing its job.

Signed? Annotated? No – but gloriously opinionated

Mitchell doesn’t need margin notes. He builds the commentary straight into the prose:

• Approving of industry, thrift, and godliness

• Not entirely impressed by drunkenness, idleness, or neglect of churchgoing

• Keen that Tarbert be seen as both respectable and pleasingly storied

If you like history with voice – not a bland, neutral narrator, but someone who has clearly walked the streets and thought things – this is absolutely your sort of book.

Ideal for readers who:

• Love Scottish local history, especially the kind where harbours and hills are treated as character witnesses.

• Have family roots in Tarbert (or nearby) and want the kind of detail you can’t get from a genealogical website.

• Collect 19th-century regional histories, gazetteers, and slightly over-earnest town portraits.

• Enjoy books where you can practically smell the peat, the pipe smoke, and the mild resentment toward neighbouring places.

Also lovely for:

• Writers building historical settings and wanting authentic detail and texture

• Local museums, reference libraries, and heritage nerds

• Anyone who sees a small Scottish place on a map and thinks, “I wonder what really went on there.”

The tartan-flavoured facts

• Title: Tarbert – Past and Present

• Author: Dugald Mitchell

• Publisher: Bennett & Thomson (1886)

• ISBN: None – from an era when numbers on books were more likely to be page counts than identifiers

• Condition: Good – well-aged, complete, structurally sound, charmingly timeworn

Tarbert – Past and Present: for when you want to stroll the streets of a 19th-century Scottish harbour town without leaving your chair – guided by a man who absolutely refuses to let any detail of its story go unrecorded. Supplied in honestly Good condition by Crappy Old Books, proud exporters of small-town history with very big feelings.

Includes a free flyer for Timothy Shaw and and rare books in Telegraph Street, London.

Keep browsing: See more History books Other books by Dugald Mitchell