Series 4 > Papers on Sutherland Estate Management 1802-1816 > Volume 9

206 SUTHERLAND ESTATE MANAGEMENT: CORRESPONDENCE
Patrick Sellar to Marchioness of Stafford
Culmaily, 10 January 1814
This morning, just as the people were collecting with their rents,
Mr Nash brought me an information against Mr McKid for poaching,
and I took the liberty to write your Ladyship a hurried note with it.
1 have had no return from McKid to my note, and I fain hope that the
information may have been in some degree, incorrect; for nothing
could be more mean than for a Gentleman to kill a proprietor’s Game
in the Snow, and without being Qualified by License or leave of the
Landlord. However, the informant, who is one of our police, has been
here tonight offering his affidavit, and Claiming his Guinea; and I
suspect Mr McKid has been so very foolish as to run his head into
this Scrape.
I shall do nothing untill I have the honour to know your Ladyship’s
commands on the Subject. I have received your Ladyship’s letter of
the 4th Current this evening. I shall keep Nash and our other people
on the alert as to Young Mr Ross,1 whose father I am convinced, has
too much pride to have permitted any trespass of the Sort, had he
been aware of it. From one of the most biting frosts this morning I
ever felt, the weather has turned to Thaw from the South East and 1
trust the Game may in 48 hours be beyond the Reach of those who
dont use dogs.
Mr Young had the honour to receive your Ladyship’s letter accept¬
ing Gunn’s2 offer before he went South, and he furthwith advised the
Seller of the Circumstance. His having touched the premium by re¬
taining his rent was an interventus rei, as Lawyers express it, which
must, I presume, make the bargain quite Secure; and the evidence
of Mr Reid and me, both of whom can swear to his expressing his
bargain of the farm to be a losing one, must shew every person that the
bargain with us was advantageous to him. That he did not discern
how much his Lease was an annoyance to Your Ladyship’s arrange¬
ments, and how much more he might, on this account have Squeezed
from us, is nothing to the purpose. If the north Side of the Ellig be
1 Son of the minister of Clyne.
2 Lieut. William Gunn, tenant of Achnahow, Achneakin, Shunachy and Kinbrace, had
offered to resign his farms, but had subsequently changed his mind. He is entered as
having resigned in the Rental for 1815-16 (see above, i, pp. xlvi, 103-4).