'Mr. Hope-Scott lost no time in trying to improve matters. It was a fundamental maxim with him that, in a neglected estate like this, no improvement was more sensible, or paid better, than the construction of good roads. These occupied his attention for several years, and gave most beneficial employment to the tenants. The cost in some instances was very great; for, in constructing the present beautiful carriage drive from Sheil Brude to Dorlin House, hundreds of yards of solid rock had to be blasted; part of the river Sheil had to be embanked; huge boulders between the cliffs and the sea-shore had to be cleared away, while a considerable line of breastwork had to be erected as a protection against the waves of the Atlantic, which, in a southwest gale, beat with great fury against the coast. The other roads were carried to those parts of the estate where the tenants were principally clustered, and were a great boon.
[These road-making operations in the Highlands were evidently in Mr. Hope- Scott's mind in one of his last letters to his dear friend Dr. Newman. The great Oratorian, then busy with the 'Grammar of Assent,' writes to him on January 2, 1870: 'My dear Hope-Scott,--A happy new year to you and all yours--and to Bellasis and all his.... I am engaged, as Bellasis knows, in cutting across the Isthmus of Suez; and though I have got so far as to let the water into the canal, there is an awkward rock in mid-channel near the mouth which takes a great deal of picking and blasting, and no man-of-war will be able to pass through till I get rid of it. Thus I can't name a day for the opening. Ever yours affectionately,--JOHN H. NEWMAN.'
Mr. Hope-Scott's reply is--'Hôtel d'Orient, Hyères (Var), France, January 12, 1870.--Dear F. Newman,--(After giving an account of Serjeant Bellasis's health, then seriously ill, and anxiously asking for masses and prayers for him,) That rocky point in your enterprise is a nuisance--more especially as rocks lie in beds, and this may be but the "crop" of some large stratum. As a road-maker, I know what it is to have to come back upon my work, and to strike a new level to get rid of some seemingly small but hard obstacle.... Yours ever affectionately,--JAMES E. HOPE-SCOTT.']