l866. cf the County of Fife. 2S7 



tion, to enfnare the honeft tradefinan, v/lio inay not be apprifed of 

 the terms npon which his employer holds his cftate. 



" Entaild have often the unhappy effect, likewife, of rcftraiuing, 

 within too narrow limits, the operations of natural affection, and 

 natural juftice, by putting it out of the parent's power to make a 

 fuitable provifi-on for the younger branches of the family. 



" Nay, in many inftances, they prove a great bar to the pro- 

 grefs of agricultural improvement. If the proprietor has a large 

 family, when he finds that he can neither burden his eftate, nor alie- 

 nate any part of it, inflead of devoting a liberal portion of his in- 

 come to the amelioration of his lands, t!ic advantages of which 

 mull be ultimately reaped by the heirs of entail, he will be led to 

 fave every fliiUing in his power for the education and fettlement of 

 his younger children. Or, if he has no heirs of his own body, 

 and his cltate, agreeably to the nature of the entail, mull: pafs into 

 the hands of a dillant relation, or of one with whom he has little 

 connexion, and for whom he has little friendfliip, he will be e- 

 qually indifpofed to proje^ and execute fchemei of expcniive Im- 

 provement. ' 



A very ample and favourable character of the Fifefliire 

 farmers is given ia the fifth chapter, wliich conveys to us a 

 high idea of the author's liberality and candour. Some fur- 

 veyors have not confidered the Farmer in the point of vievir 

 taken up by Dr Thomfon, but defcribed him as a perfon fe- 

 cluded from fociety, and dellitute of information. The fol- 

 lowing pafTages we extracl as a fpecimen. 



*' From tbe progrefllvc improvements in the fcicnce and praftice 

 of agriculture, which have been going forward during the laft twen- 

 ty or thirty years, the condition and circumllances of the farmers 

 have experienced gradual alteration for the better. And their 

 growing affluence, co-operating with the general progrefs of lur.ury 

 and refinement through the nation, have had a very vifible efteft up- 

 on their manners and habits of life. Formerly, It was cuftomarv 

 for the farmers to fubjeft themfelves to every kind of drudgery'and 

 hard labour, undergoing the fame toil, and often eating at the fame 

 table, with their fervants. And, in feme 'inftances, th.is may be 

 the cafe flill, efpeclally where their farms are fmall, their circum- 

 ilances narrow, their rents high, and confequently cannot afford to 

 exempt the mafter from perfonal labour. But many of the farmer*< 

 now occupy a more refpeftable and important ftation. Their chief 

 bufinefs is to fuperintend. The operative and fervile part Is corn;- 

 mittcd to others 5 but the mailer's prefence and dlreftion are every- 



wht re 



