ture, and the enlargement of farms, necessarily occasion,and when new breeds of animals, new instruments of husbandry, and persons skilled in new modes of cultivation, must be introduced from distant parts of the kingdom. It is possible, however, by unceasing attention, and at much expense, successfully to carry on these various objects at the same time. The one, indeed, has a tendency to promote and to encourage the others. The spirit that is excited by the improvement of one article, rouses a similar spirit of energy in regard to others; and a new race of people is gradually formed, who, from a state of torpor, ignorance, idleness, and its concomitant poverty, are animated to exertion and inquiry, and impelled, to obtain by their industry, the acquisition of wealth. The various obstacles to improvement above enumerated, existed, in their full force, in the remote county of Caithness, the most northerly on what may be called the continent of Scotland, being within sight of the Orkney islands. When a spirit of improvement, however, was once introduced there, it was followed up with great energy, in regard to various departments, which may be classed under the following heads: 1. Roads and bridges; 2. The erection of villages and towns; 3. The establishment of manufactures; 4. Improvements in agriculture; and, 5. The extension of the fisheries. In carrying on these improvements, I necessarily took a lead, being the principal proprietor, and the representative of the county in Parliament, but in their progress, had the advantage of being powerfully supported by several respectable proprietors, in particular by the late Earl of Caithness the Lord Lieutenant, and by James Traill, Esq. of Hobbister, the Sheriff of the county, who is much distinguished for his public spirit and intelligence. As it may be of use in other districts, I shall briefly state the different measures which were then taken, for the benefit of Caithness, under these several heads. 1. Roads.-These are essential for the improvement of any country; but it was not easy to introduce them into a district where the climate was wet, and the soil unfavourable. The making of them was first attempted by enforcing statute labour, every individual being obliged by law, to work at the roads for six days in the year; but this system was found to be inefficient *. An act was therefore procured, for converting the statute labour into money; and afterwards, even turnpikes have been introduced. To assist in making the principal roads and bridges, some public aid was procured; and with such zeal has this great means of improvement been entered into, that an act has been procured this year, (an. 1830), by which Caithness, considering its extent, will be better accommodated with roads than any county in Scotland. 2. Erection of Villages and Towns.-No district can thrive, unless villages and towns are established in it. A scattered rural population, must have a market for the sale of their commodities, and a place where they may be supplied with the articles they require. In this respect, the county of Caithness, prior to the year 1770, was extremely deficient. Thurso was merely a small fishing village; and Wick had only a few hundred inhabitants; and these were the only two collections of houses in the whole country. To remedy this great disadvantage, I have commenced a new town at Thurso on an improved plan, which though it has not made much progress from the want of a harbour, is nevertheless a great ornament to its neighbourhood. Villages were founded at Halkirk and Sarclett, and at Castleton and Louisburgh, by two respectable proprietors on whose estates they are situated. But a settlement, made by "The British Fishing Society," at Pul • There was a hill called the Benechiel, situated in the centre of the county, the carrying a road through which was considered to be impracticable. In order to give the country people an idea, of what might be effected by exertion in making communications easy, a road was lined out, above twelve hundred people were collected early in a morning in July, supplied with tools and provisions, and the whole extent was made in one day. This convinced the people of what might be effected, in regard to road making, by unanimity and exertion, and was the first circumstance, that gave me an idea of the practicability of effecting objects on a great scale. A road, however, made so rapidly, could not be dura ble. teney-town, near Wick, has thriven to a degree, which has excited the admiration of all who have seen it *. 3. Manufactures.-Some branches of manufactures, on a small scale, were likewise established in Caithness. The linen trade was promoted by the erection of a bleachfield; and a woollen manufacture was set on foot, with a view of promoting the new village of Halkirk. A tannery, a brewery, and a manufacture for agricultural implements, were established at Thurso; and, in September 1800, the magistrates of that town, and the gentlemen in its neighbourhood, unanimously voted an address to their representative, " acknowledging with gratitude, that amidst other pursuits of a more extensive tendency, the improvement of his native county had been the peculiar object of his care and attention." 4. Agricultural improvements.-A considerable portion of Caithness being naturally fertile, rural improvements became, of course, the principal objects of my attention. Their introduction, however, was an herculean labour. It was necessary to change the whole system of cultivation; to bring the fields into a regular shape, and inclose them; to promote draining; to introduce the culture of turnips, and of sown grasses; and to improve the quality of the grain. All this has been done so effectually, in the neighbourhood of Thurso, that there is not a finer, or better cultivated tract of country, in any part of Scotland. Nothing, however, has contributed more to the improvement of the hilly parts of Caithness, and of the neighbouring districts of Sutherland and Strathnaver, than the introduction of the Cheviot breed of sheep, and of south country shepherds and farmers into the north. In the course of these important undertakings, for improving both the live stock, and the husbandry of Caithness, I was under the necessity of enlarging a number of farms, and of removing a number of ignorant and useless occupiers, which oc A plan of Pulteney-town was drawn up by Mr Telford, on a scale which it was supposed would have taken generations to fill up. But it has been already completely built upon; and an extended plan has been found requisite, the demand for ground to erect additional houses being so great. casioned an invidious attack in the English newspapers. This produced a public declaration from the Lord Lieutenant, and the other gentlemen of the county, stating, in strong terms, the high sense they entertained of the agricultural services I had performed to my native county. 5. Fisheries.—This branch of industry has reached a degree of prosperity in Caithness, beyond all expectation, principally owing to the harbour at Wick, for the erection of which, I procured a grant of £.7000 from the forfeited estates in Scotland. There never was a sum so well bestowed. The herring fishery carried on in the town of Wick and its neighbourhood, exceeds any thing hitherto known in Scotland. A scene of industry is here displayed, no where to be surpassed. Along the eastern coast of Caithness alone, not less than fifteen hundred boats go out in an evening to carry on the fishery, and above a hundred decked vessels have been seen in the harbour at once, besides twenty or thirty at anchor in the bay. Above 200,000 barrels are caught in the season, the very refuse of which will manure several hundred acres of land. A new harbour is nearly completed, the old one being too small to accommodate the number of vessels that flock to it from various parts of Scotland, England, and Ireland. Indeed some vessels have come from Cornwall, and even from France, and the Hanseatic Towns, to prosecute the fisheries here. Nothing is wanting, but the erection of a breakwater at the entrance into the Bay of Wick, to render this remote district, the greatest scene of improvement perhaps in Europe *. The result of these endeavours was in the highest degree satisfactory, and was attended with this extraordinary circumstance, that on an accurate comparison between the two last national enumerations in 1821, and the preceding one in 1810, the remote county of Caithness surpassed all the other eighty The labour of the convicts could not be so advantageously employed, as in the erection of this breakwater, for the advantage not only of the fisheries, but of the general commerce of the country; for the Baltic trade might find shelter there in the stormy seasons of the year; or, in time of war, could be protected from the risk of capture, till they could receive a convoy. five districts of the kingdom, in regard to that great criterion of national prosperity, (where it is properly regulated and employed), increased population *. 4.-IMPROVEMENTS IN SCOTLAND. It would be tedious to enter into the various measures adopted for promoting the improvement of Scotland in general, by completing a statistical survey of that country,-by publishing reports of the agricultural state of every district in it, by the establishment of a society for the improvement of British wool, and by being the means of procuring parliamentary grants for constructing roads, and erecting harbours, in various parts of the country, under commissioners specially appointed for that purpose. A sense of the advantages derived from these exertions, appears to have been so generally felt, that, at different public meetings, the thanks of the following twenty, out of the thirtythree counties in Scotland, were voted to me: List of the several Counties in Scotland, where the Freeholders and Landowners, at their Michaelmas Head Courts, an. 1814, returned their thanks to the Right Honourable Sir John Sinclair, Bart. for his public services. DENCIES, AND ON THE CONTINENT. Having succeeded in obtaining the establishment of a Board of Agriculture, and being nominated its President, I was thence enabled to promote the improvement, not only of Eng • The increase in some of the counties was at the rate of 1 and 2 per cent., but Caithness was the only district in the kingdom, where it amounted to 29 per The West Riding of Yorkshire, the highest in England, was only 21 per cent. cent. |