270 Notes on Sport arid Travel i 



feeding. Without the small straths the sheep would 

 fail, as the cattle used to fail ; your whole hill-side 

 would be absolutely unproductive, and the land- 

 owner would have to keep the people. Moreover, 

 let me whisper in your ear. The sheep used to go^ 

 — goodness knows where, — and it was impossible to 

 make the shepherds responsible for the flocks under 

 their care. I believe that there does not exist a 

 more thoroughly honest man than the Sutherland 

 Highlander ; but his every tradition pointed to cattle- 

 lifting as an honourable pursuit, and the difference 

 between sheep and cattle is not so very great to a 

 starving man ; and so they went. Now I believe 

 that sheep-stealing is an unknown crime in the 

 country. 



The consequence of the * depopulation ' of Suther- 

 land, as it is called, is that there are more people 

 in it at this present than there ever were at any 

 previous period of its history ; and of the turning 

 of arable land into sheep-pastures, that there is now 

 a far greater breadth of land under cultivation than 

 there ever was before, and that not only in the form 

 of large farms, but of cotters' croftings. And the 

 improvement in the art is, I have no hesitation in 

 saying, the most marked that has taken place in any 

 part of Great Britain within the same period. 



Previously to 1 8 1 i the rents of the estate of 

 Sutherland came into the pocket of the landlord ; 

 from 181 1 to 1833 all the rents were expended 

 on improvements in the country, and in addition 



