I A Gossip on a Stitherland Hill-side 267 



them to exist in all their beloved laziness and 

 squalor ; and every patch of ground that could 

 possibly be cultivated was eagerly seized upon to 

 grow oats and potatoes enough to live on if they 

 did well ; if not, the Morfear-chatt would not let 

 them starve. Another cause of the steady demoral- 

 isation of the country was the enormous quantity 

 of illicit distillation carried on, — almost the only 

 means by which money could be obtained. 



At length even the purse of the Sutherland 

 family began to show symptoms of exhaustion, and 

 it was very clear that not only must the proprietor 

 be ruined, but that two-thirds of the population 

 must starve, unless some change was made ; and 

 had it not been made, there is not the slightest 

 doubt that Sutherland would long ere this have 

 suffered the fate of Skibbereen, and from precisely 

 the same causes. Then, though tardily, Sutherland 

 followed the rest of Scotland, and the great Suther- 

 land shifting took place, concerning which such wild 

 and ridiculous statements have been made. One 

 really hardly knows whether to laugh or swear, 

 when one reads how this old matter has been raked 

 up with new and original embellishments, and used 

 as a means of annoyance to the present Duke, who 

 had as much to do with it as the great Cham of 

 Tartary, the whole affair having been carried out in 

 his father's time, and indeed before there was a 

 Duke of Sutherland in existence. The measure 

 simply consisted in moving the people from the 



