ON TIIK AGUICULTURK OF 'I'HE (JOUNTY OF SUTIIEKLANL). i'lo 



them an excellent stock of ('licviot sheep. For these gentlemen 

 a very large grazing farm was formed. It extended from the 

 village of Laira' to the lower point of Lochnaver in one direction, 

 and in another from the river Tirry to the sources of the waters 

 which fall into the Brora and Helmsdale rivers. It consisted of 

 the highest districts of the Sutherland estate, and included Ben 

 Clehrich and Ijcn Ormin. Of this extensive farm a lease of 

 nineteen years was granted t(j Messrs Atkinson and IMarshall in 

 1809. A few years thereafter the farm of Achinduich, lower 

 down the Shin, and Letterheg in Strathnaver, were added to it 

 for the purpose of supph'ing wintering for the sheep. These 

 united holdings extended in all to about 100,000 acres, so thai 

 the pioneer sheep-farmers, as these two gentlemen may l)e 

 called, had ample I'oom to develoj) their experience. It is 

 stated by Mr Patrick Sellar, in a letter dated 1820, to Mr Loch, 

 that during the first ten years of their occupancy, Messrs 

 Atkinson and Marshall " hatl embarked not less than £20,000 

 in putting breeding flocks on the mountains of Sutherland." 

 The success which attended the undertaking of these gentlemen 

 speedily spread the popularity of the Cheviots all over the 

 county. It induced those tenants who had stocked their farms 

 a few years previously with blackfaced slieej) to send away 

 these and adopt the newly imported breed. It also encouraged 

 the formation of more sheep-farms, and the removal, for that 

 purpose, of those small tenants who occupied some of the richest 

 straths in the county. In the course of a few years Cheviot 

 sheep became in a manner the watchwords of those interested in 

 the development of Sutherland, and every encouragement was 

 given to sheep-farmers from the south to settle in the county. 

 The farm of Invershin was let to Messrs Culley and Morton, 

 also from Northumberland, soon after Messrs Atkinson and 

 Marshall came north. Along with Invershin, these gentlemen 

 also held extensive sheep-farms from Sir Charles Eoss of Balna- 

 gown, whose predecessor. Sir John Lockhart Eoss, was the first 

 to introduce the modern system of sheep-farming into the north 

 of Scotland. About the same time a Mr Dunloj), from Ayrshire, 

 leased a large slieep-walk from Lord Eeay in Durness, and 

 stocked it with Cheviots, which, even at the outset, throve well. 

 Sir John Sinclair had introduced Cheviot sheep into Caithness 

 about 1700, and, some twenty years afterwards, Mr Innes, a 

 native of that county, took Sandsidc, in the parish of Eeay, and 

 stocked it with Cheviots. Most of his sheep were brought north 

 by Mr John Paterson, whose representatives are now at Arma- 

 dale. Some time previous to 1812 a company of Eoxburgh 

 gentlemen entered on a lease of Armadale, and covered it with 

 a fine stock of Cheviots. Mr (Jabriel Eeed, from Northumber- 

 land, was entrusted with the mana^-ement of the affairs of the 



