ay, 1748, to be their
minister, in which, 'hoping that' he would find their 'call, carried
on with great sincerity, unanimity, and order, to be a clear call from
the Lord,' they faithfully promise to 'yield him, in their several
stations and relations, all dutiful respect and encouragement.'
William Earl of Sutherland was patron of the parish, but we find him
on this occasion exercising no patronate powers: at the head of
parishioners and elders he merely adhibits his name. He merely
_invites_ with the others. The state of morals in the county was
remarkably exemplified at a later period by the regiment of Sutherland
Highlanders, embodied originally in 1793, under the name of the
Sutherlandshire Fencibles, and subsequently in 1800 as the 93d
Regiment. Most other troops are drawn from among the unsettled and
reckless part of the population; not so the Sutherland Highlanders. On
the breaking out of the revolutionary war, the mother of the present
Duke summoned them from their hills, and five hundred fighting men
marched down to Dunrobin Castle, to make a tender of their swords to
their country, at the command of their chieftainess. The regiment,
therefore, must be regarded as a fair specimen of the character of the
district; and from the description of General Stewart of Garth, and
one or two sources besides, we may learn what that character was.

'In the words of a general officer by whom they were once reviewed,'
says General Stewart, 'they exhibited a perfect pattern of military
discipline and moral rectitude.'

'When stationed at the Cape of Good Hope, anxious to enjoy the
advantages of religious instruction agreeably to the tenets of their
national Church, and there being no religious service in the garrison
except the customary one of reading prayers to the soldiers on parade,
the Sutherland men formed themselves into a congregation, appointed
elders of their own number, engaged and paid a stipend (collected
among themselves) to a clergyman of the Church of Scotland (who had
gone out with an intention of teaching and preaching to the Caffres),
and had divine service performed agreeably to the ritual of the
Established Church.... In addition to these expenses, the soldiers
regularly remitted money to their relatives in Sutherland. When they
disembarked at Plymouth in August 1814, the inhabitants were both
surprised and gratified. On such occasions it had been no uncommon
thing for soldiers to spend in taverns and g