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    RAMBLES NORTHWARD. 183

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    We Will Take At Random Some Fifty People...

    at the map of Scotland will show , runs through the eastern extremity of the county .

    Strath Helmsdale is a lovely , and might be a most fertile , valley . Sheltered from the eastwatered along" its whole length by a brisk

    and beautiful stream , its , verdant gently sloping sides , prized only now as sheeasturemightunder a different state of things , prove

    a very garden p p of agriculture , , . It is mournful to journey mile after mileas one main various other districts in Scotland besides this ,

    meetin , g everywhere y evidences of ejected peasantry ; vast tracts of inhabitants land given : " up but to sinking sheep or the deer humanitarian , at the sacrifice in the practical of the view human of

    these doings , solid , evils present themselves which are beginning to be felt in the depopulated districts of Scotland ; work to be done ,

    and no workers to do it ; no more recruits for Her Majesty ' s service to be raised among what was the hardiest peasantry of Great

    Britain . " The cultivation of a hundred acres , before it puts a profit into the pocket of the farmerputs into circulation a sum of

    , money which is distributed among the poor laboring population . Pasture farming , on the contrary , is only profitable to three

    persons , —the landlord , the breeder , and the herdsman . " So says M . Aboutand the force of this remark is not limited to the

    , country Strath upon Helmsdale which it debouches is made . moorlandwhere the lover open

    upon , of wild scenery , good fishing , and pure bracing air , will find gratification for his tastes , and bodily accommodation of the most

    comfortable kind at the excellent little inn of Achintoul , from which the place Here takes its name . domestic traged : the landlada prett

    delicate we young came creature upon , a just out of her y confinement with y , a post y - _, humous childhaving lostin three short monthsher husband and

    two children ! , Her head man , , too , in a drunken , frolic , had got his leg broken a week or two beforeand the poor young thing seemed

    , bowed down with her misfortunes . Still confined to her room , there was apparently no one to look after her interests but the

    bonny waiting-maid , who , having left her service , had , she said , returned to helher through her trouble ; but in the back -ground ,

    was a tall handsome p young gamekeeper , superintending the out-door affairs , and we could not help fancying and foretelling ( may the

    prophecy fulfil itself ) that there was help and comfort at hand for the bereaved mother and wife !

    Pursuing our course we entered upon the fine Strath of Halladale , or Hallowdale , which , though presenting here and there small

    patches of cultivated land , is , like Strath Helmsdale , devoted chiefly to The sheep river -walks Hallowdale . which ives its name to this strathbecomes

    a river of considerable , size as it g flows into the sea at the , Bay of Melvich , a bay but little known , though presenting striking beauties .

    In fact , as we have said , very few strangers penetrate far north of

    Rambles Northward. 183

    RAMBLES NORTHWARD . 183

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1859, page 183, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111859/page/39/