The subsequent legislation, enshrined in the Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886, differed in some key respects from the Commission’s recommendations, but it too represented a decisive break with the past and began a new era of landlord–crofter relations in the Highlands. Security of tenure for crofters was guaranteed as long as rent was paid; fair rents would be fixed by a land court; compensation for improvements was allowed to a crofter who gave up his croft or was removed from it; crofts could not be sold but might be bequeathed to a relative and, with certain restrictions, the
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