incredulity and derision. But he himself laid out the road, assembled some twelve hundred workmen early one summer's morning, set them simultaneously to work, superintending their labours, and stimulating them by his presence and example; and before night, what had been a dangerous sheep track, six miles in length, hardly passable for led horses, was made practicable for wheel-carriages as if by the power of magic. It was an admirable example of energy and well-directed labour, which could not fail to have a most salutary influence upon the surrounding population. He then proceeded to make more roads, to erect mills, to build bridges, and to enclose and cultivate the waste lands. He introduced improved methods of culture, and regular rotation of crops, distributing small premiums to encourage industry; and he thus soon quickened the whole frame of society within reach of his influence, and infused an entirely new spirit into the cultivators of the soil. From being one of the most inaccessible districts of the North—the very ultima Thule of civilization—Caithness became a pattern county for its roads, its agriculture, and its fisheries. In Sinclair's youth, the post was carried by a runner only once a week, and the young baronet then declared that he would never rest till a coach drove daily to Thurso. The people of the neighbourhood could not believe in any such thing, and it became a proverb in the county to say of an utterly impossible scheme, "Ou, ay, that will come to pass when Sir John sees the daily mail at Thurso!" But Sir John lived to see his dream realized, and the daily mail established to Thurso.
The circle of his benevolent operation gradually
