2 1 6 Notes on Sport and Travel i 



an easy day's march ; and when you reach them, 

 can you not take your ease in them, most com- 

 fortable of hostelries ? 



It is hardly fair to blame the proprietor for not 

 building more, or enlarging those already built. 

 Those already existing are absolutely empty two- 

 thirds of the year, and are let at the magnificent 

 rent of ten pounds a year. As every one of them 

 has been built at the expense of the present Duke 

 and his father, the tourist owes, I think, a consider- 

 able debt of gratitude to the family ; had their 

 erection depended on private speculation, they would 

 never have existed at all. They would doubtless 

 hold more tourists if they were larger, but whether 

 if they were larger they would have more people in 

 them is another matter. One great comfort is, that 

 express care is taken to prevent their being occupied 

 exclusively by resident sportsmen, a common nuisance 

 in the Highlands, but often the only means by which 

 the host can make money. If the Sutherland inn is 

 full, — and, with the exception of the one at Lairg, I 

 never found one so — you can always get a bed 

 somewhere, often at the manse, as you do in the 

 Tyrol. Anybody who wishes to speculate in the 

 innkeeping line would be received with open arms 

 by the Duke's agents, I am pretty sure ; but unless 

 he is actuated by the purest philanthropy, and is 

 prepared to wait till the *Anti- condensation of 

 Atlantic Mist' Company is in full play, he must not 

 expect a quick return for his outlay. The Reay 



