From the mid-nineteenth century until the end of World War I, the Sutherland Estate was the largest landed estate in western Europe; at 1.1 million acres, the ducal family owned almost the entire county of Sutherland as well as a further 30,000 acres in England. The estate was owned by the dukes of Sutherland, who were among the richest patrician landowners of the period; from the early nineteenth century, however, the family were shadowed by their reputation as great clearance landlords, something that would come back to haunt them throughout the coming decades

The third duke of Buccleuch (17461812) presided over the management of one of Britain's largest landed estates during a period of profound agrarian, social and political change. Tutored by the philosopher Adam Smith, the duke was also a leading patron of the Scottish Enlightenment, lauded by the Edinburgh literati as an exemplar of patriotic nobility and civic virtue, while his alliance with Henry Dundas dominated Scottish politics for almost 40 years.
Combining the approaches of intellectual, economic and agrarian history, this book examines the life and career of the third duke,...