ANGLING DISTRICTS. 135 



Such, also, as are connected with the sea by means of 

 rivers, are well stocked with salmon. Lochs Craggie 

 and Beannached, or the loch of blessing, in the parish 

 of Rogart, are remarkable for the superior angling they 

 afford. Almost the sole proprietor in this shire is the 

 present Duke of Sutherland, who holds the soil in right 

 of marriage. A strange and unconstitutional, not to 

 talk of illiberal system of policy, seems to be gaining root 

 in Sutherland, countenanced no doubt by his present 

 Grace, but proceeding in a great measure from the im- 

 perious underlings to whose advice he is subject. Will 

 it be believed, that one of the most extensive counties 

 in Scotland, situated almost on the extreme north of 

 Great Britain, as wild in part as when it came out of 

 the Creator's hands, with all its boasted improvements 

 at this very moment a natural desert, and likely to con- 

 tinue so for centuries will it be believed that the whole 

 of this territory is virtually excluded from his Majesty's 

 dominions ; that the subjects of this free realm, at the 

 beck of its influential proprietor and his haughty repre- 

 sentatives, are denied access to its remotest corner; that 

 without special permission (a thing not to be obtained 

 by mere application, but granted, if granted at all, to 

 suit the personal interests of certain hangers-on of his 

 Grace) no one may throw a feather across the most 

 insignificant of its countless pools, or finger a blade of 

 mountain grass, or lift a single stone from its dragon- 

 guarded soil? There are pretty comfortable inns at 

 Dornoch and Clashmore; at Golspie, not far from 

 Brora; at Bonar Bridge, and Culrain Inn, command- 

 ing the Carron, Shin, and Oikel rivers ; also at Oikel 

 Bridge ; Lairg, near the foot of Loch Shin ; Altnaharra, 

 head of Loch Naver ; Bettyhill of Farr on the Naver ; 

 Kirkabole Inn, near Loch Layghal ; Innisindamff, 

 at Loch Assynt ; and at Lochs Eribole and Inver ; 



