of 1715. This earl, who took the name of Sutherland instead of that of Gordon, was succeeded by his grandson William (c. 1708–1750), a representative peer, who helped to suppress the rebellion of 1745. William, the next earl, died without male issue in 1766. This earl’s daughter Elizabeth (1765–1839) claimed the peerage, and although her title thereto was contested by Sir Robert Gordon, Bart., a descendant of the first Gordon earl, it was confirmed by the House of Lords in 1771.
Established in the possession of the title and the vast estates of the earldom, the countess of Sutherland was married in 1785 to George Granville Leveson-Gower (1758–1833), who succeeded his father as second marquess of Stafford in 1803. In addition to the estates of the marquessate of Stafford, Leveson-Gower inherited the Bridgewater Canal and estates from his maternal uncle, Francis Egerton, 2nd duke of Bridgewater, and these properties, together with his wife’s estates, which included almost the whole of the county of Sutherland, made him a “leviathan of wealth,” as he is called by Charles Greville. In 1833 he was created duke of Sutherland. Leveson-Gower was a member of parliament from 1778 to 1784 and again from 1787 to 1798 and was British ambassador in Paris from 1790 to 1792. From 1799 to 1810 he was joint postmaster-general. He was a collector of paintings, and purchased Stafford House, still the London residence of the dukes of Sutherland. As a landlord he greatly improved his estates in Staffordshire and Shropshire and then turned his attention to those of his wife in Sutherlandshire. He was responsible for the construction of about 450 m. of road and of many bridges, but his policy of removing a large number of his tenants from the interior to the coast aroused bitterness and criticism. However, he reduced rents and brought thousands of acres into cultivation. He died at Dunrobin Castle on the 5th of July 1833.
His elder son, George Granville (1786–1861), became the 2nd duke, but the valuable Bridgewater estates passed to his younger son, Lord Francis Leveson-Gower, who was created earl of Ellesmere in 1846. The 2nd duke’s wife, Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana (1806–1868), a daughter of George Howard, 6th earl of Carlisle, was one of Queen Victoria’s most intimate friends. She was mistress of the robes to the queen, whose refusal to part with her in 1839 led to a ministerial crisis. Some of her letters are published in Stafford House Letters, edited by her son Lord Ronald Gower (1891).
George Granville William, the 3rd duke (1828–1892), spent large sums in improving his estates. His wife Anne (1829–1888), daughter of John Hay Mackenzie, was created countess of Cromartie in 1861, and the earldom descended to her second son Francis (1852–1893). When he died without sons the earldom fell into abeyance, but this was terminated in 1895 in favour of his daughter Sibell Lilian (b. 1878), the author of The Days of Fire and other books.
In 1892 Cromartie Leveson-Gower (b. 1851), who had been M.P. for Sutherlandshire, became 4th duke of Sutherland. His wife, Millicent Fanny, daughter of the 4th earl of Rosslyn, became well known in literary as well as in social and philanthropic circles.
See Sir Robert Gordon and George Gordon, Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland (Edinburgh, 1813); and also the article Stafford, Earls and Marquesses of.
SUTHERLANDSHIRE, a northern county of Scotland, bounded N. and W. by the Atlantic, E. by Caithness, S.E. by the North Sea and S. by the shire of Ross and Cromarty. It has an area of 1,297, 846 acres or 2,028 sq. m., being the fifth largest shire in Scotland. The western and northern shores are much indented and terminate at many points in precipices and rugged headlands. The mountains are distinguished by
grandeur of outline. Ben More (3273 ft.) in Assynt is the highest in the shire, and next to it in height is Ben Clibreck (3154). Ben Hope (Icelandic h6p, haven, 3040), in the north, is noted as the only place in Great Britain where the Alpine Alsine rubella is found, and also for its fauna, ptarmigan being common, and even the wild cat and golden eagle occurring at rare intervals. Other lofty hills include Foinaven (wart mountain, 2980) in the north-west; Ben Hee (2864), the highest point in Reay Forest; the serrated ridge of Quinag (2653) and Glasven (2541) north, and the cone of Canisp (2779) south of Loch Assynt; the precipitous Cam Stackie (2630) in Durness; Ben Arkle (2580) and Ben Stack (2364), frowning above Loch Stack; the fantastic peaks of Ben Loyal (the hill of the young calves, or deer, 2504) in Tongue; and Suilven (2399). The greater part of the mountainous region consists of wild and desolate moorlands. The chief river is the Oykell, which, rising in Coniveall (3234), a peak of Ben More, flows south and then south-east for 33 m. to Dornoch Firth, forming the major part of the southern boundary of the shire. Its principal left-hand tributaries are the Shin and Cassley. Other rivers flowing to Dornoch Firth are the Helmsdale (22 m.), issuing from Loch an Ruathair; the Brora (28 m.), rising in Mt Uaran and preserving in its name (bridge river) the fact that its bridge was cnce the only important one in the county; and the Fleet (17), the head of the estuary of which was embanked for 1000 yds. in 1813 by Thomas Telford, whereby a considerable tract of rich lluvial land was reclaimed from the sea. The longest rivers flowing to the north coast are the Dionard (14) to Kyle of Durness, the Naver (17) to Torrisdale Bay, and the Halladale (22), rising in Knockfin on the borders of Caithness and entering the sea to the east of Portskerry. Much of the surface in the district of Assynt is honeycombed with lakes and tams, but the only large lake is Loch Assynt, which is 6f m. long, lies 215 ft. above the sea, has a drainage area of 43 sq. m.,and a greatest depth of 282 ft., and empties into the sea by the Inver. Other lakes are Loch Crocach, little more than 1 m. long by 1 m. wide, in which the ratio of the area of islands to the total area of the loch is greater than in any other British lake; Loch Shin (17 m. long); Loch Loyal (4 m.) Loch Hope (6 m.); Loch Naver (6 m.); and Loch More (4 m.). The principal inlets of the sea are, on the north coast, Kyle of Tongue — on the east shore of which stands Tongue House, once the property of the Reay family, now a seat of the duke of Sutherland—Loch Eriboll and Kyle of Durness; on the west, Lochs Inchard, Laxford (salmon fjord), Cairnbawn, Glendhu, Glencoul, Eddrachilis Bay and Loch Inver; and, on the south-east, Loch Fleet. There are many waterfalls in the county. Those of Escuallin, near the head of Glencoul, are among the finest in Great Britain. There are three principal capes—Strathy Point on the north; Cape Wrath at the extreme north-west; and Ru Stoer, near which is the Old Man of Stoer, a detached pillar of rock about 250 ft. high. On its seaward face Cape Wrath (a corruption of the Icelandic hvarf, turning-point) rises in precipitous cliffs to a height of 300 ft. The gneiss rocks are scored with pink granite. Sunken reefs keep the sea almost always in tumult. Of the larger islands Handa, usually visited from Scourie on the west coast, has magnificent cliff scenery, distinguished for its beautiful coloration, its caverns and the richness and variety of the bird life, especially on the north-west, where the Torridonian sandstone rocks are 406 ft. high. The cave of Smoo (Icelandic smuga, hole: same root as smuggle) on the north coast, 1 m. east of Durness, is the most famous cavern in the shire; it consists of three chambers hollowed out of the limestone; the entrance hall, 33 ft. high and 203 ft. long, is separated from the inner chamber, 70 ft. long by 30 ft. wide, by a ledge of rock beneath which pours a stream that descends as a cataract from a hole in the roof, 80 ft. above. Behind the waterfall is the third chamber, 120 ft. long by 8 ft. wide, which can only be seen by artificial light.
Geology.—A very irregular line from Loch Eriboll on the north coast to the neighbourhood of Cromalt near the southern boundary separates the two rock groups that form the foundation of the major portion of the county. On the western side of this line are the ancient gneisses and schists (the Lewisian gneiss); these are penetrated by innumerable basic and acid dikes which generally have a north-west to south-east trend. On the eastern side of the line, occupying the whole of the remaining area except the eastern fringe of the county, is a younger series of metamorphic rocks, the Moine schists. Resting with marked unconformability upon the old gneiss near Cape Wrath, at Ru Stoer, Quinag, Canisp and Suilven are the dark red conglomerates, breccias and sandstones of Torridonian
