272 Notes on Sport a^id Travel i 



Shall I go on ? No ; you will fancy that I am 

 talking of America instead of Scotland, though that 

 would be unfair, for no part of America can show a 

 greater advance than Sutherland has made within 

 the last fifty years, and that at the expense of one 

 private family. I do not happen to have any hard 

 figures to throw at you of a later date than 1845, 

 but there is no question whatever that the country 

 has improved immensely in all respects since that 

 time. I am sure that I hope it will continue to do 

 so, as sincerely as I believe it will, for I never met 

 a peasantry in any part of Europe who were more 

 deserving of prosperity than the kind-hearted, warm- 

 hearted, intelligent Sutherland Highlanders. Not 

 only have we not lost soldiers, but we have gained 

 sailors, by the great Sutherland changes, from the 

 enormous increase of the fisheries, now of the highest 

 importance. It is true that the people are much 

 too well off to take the sergeant's shilling readily ; 

 but that there is plenty of military spirit in the 

 country will be pretty evident to him who watches 

 the Golspie Volunteers in their steady determination 

 to master the difficult problem of knowing their 

 * east legs ' from their ' wast legs.' No reason to 

 cry out against Sutherland sheep - farming for 

 destroying the source from which the defenders 

 of the country may have to be drawn. There they 

 are, soldiers and sailors, ready and willing when 

 wanted, not only in greater numbers than ever they 

 were, but every one of them intrinsically worth three 



