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Rh enough to awaken the attention of the whole country. One specimen of this was afforded in the estate of Langwell, which he purchased for £8000, and improved so greatly, that he afterwards sold it for £40,000. But far beyond the benefit of a doubled or trebled rental, was that of active industry, and honourable enterprise, and intellectual and moral improvement, which were introduced among his numerous tenantry, who, though at first they went doggedly to work, were gradually animated with the conviction that work is the greatest of pleasure when something worth working for is to be gained. Produce being thus created, roads were needed for its conveyance as an article of traffic; but to make these in Caithness was a task of peculiar difficulty, as the soil chiefly consisted of peat or clay, while the materials for road-making were of too soft a quality. As no private fortune could have sustained the necessary outlay, and as the undertaking was a public benefit, Sir John invoked the aid of government, which was readily granted, and to such an extent, that in one day six miles of road were laid down along the side of Ben-nichiel hill. In this manner highways were constructed for the heaviest waggons, in places where hitherto every article, down to manure itself, had been conveyed upon the backs of horses.

It was not enough, however, that agriculture alone should be encouraged. Even the most active and industrious, if they find no outlet for their surplus produce, will labour for nothing more than the mere necessaries of life, and thus speedily relapse into laziness. This Sir John knew well, and therefore the commercial as well as the agricultural prosperity of Caithness was the subject of his solicitude. The seas that begirt two-thirds of the promontory which is formed by the county, had hitherto hemmed in the people, and made the adjacent land rocky and sterile ; but they abounded in fish for home or foreign consumption, and thus the water might be made as profitable as the land. Here, then, was another standing-place for his philanthropy. He obtained the re-establishment of the cod-fishery, which for many years had been almost abandoned. He supplied capital for the commencement of a herring-fishery upon the east coast of Caithness. He applied to government for aid in harbour extension, through which the harbour of Wick was completed, and that of Thurso commenced. In this way the commerce of Caithness, hitherto unnoticed, now rose into distinction, and sent the produce of its agriculture and fisheries to the shores of the Baltic and the West Indies. A nucleus was needed for all this enterprise—a strong heart to concentrate and send forth this new circulation of vitality—and therefore a town adequate to such a task was forthwith in demand. For this purpose Sir John Sinclair selected the old town of Thurso as the germ of a new. In point of population it was little better than a third-rate English village, while its wretched houses were so irregular, and so huddled together, as to be too often mere receptacles for filth, discomfort, and sickness. But the locality was not only excellent for the fisheries, but for commerce, being within a few hours' sail of the German and Atlantic Oceans, with the communication of an excellent river. Sir John drew out the plan of the new town of Thurso. And there it stands, with its churches and schools, its market-places and warehouses, its shops and houses, and throngs of living beings—a something better far as a monument of departed worth, than the silent mausoleum, however stately its construction, or however flattering its epitaph.

In the agricultural improvements which Sir John Sinclair commenced in