148 Estate Management in the Eighteenth Century. 



burn for 21 years after Whit Sunday, 1721, pays of tack duty 120 

 lb. Scot at Martinmas yearly, as also 120 lb. Scot in name of 

 grassum, viz., 60 lb. at Martinmas and 60 lb. at Whitv, 1723; 

 cess offering to £101 Scot, 4 Kain hens, day service, short 

 carriages as formerly." 



Some years prior to the Earl of Hopetoun's time leases seem 

 to have gone out of use, but the tenants on many of the farms 

 had increased. That is to say, when a tenant found his farm was 

 too large for his capital it seems to have been a custom to take in 

 joint tenants. The result was that some farms had as many as 

 four or five joint tenants, among others noticed being the 

 following : — 



In 1758 " Stobohill," in parish of Corrie, had five tenants, 

 viz. — Francis Johnstone, John Moffat, James Graham, Robert 

 Graham, and George Johnstone. Wynholme, in the same pari.sh 

 — Rachel Little, John and George Blake, John and William 

 Irving. 



The foregoing are sufficient to illustrate a peculiar position 

 of matters then applicable to a number of fanns. In the first 

 place there was no division of the rents, showing what was pay- 

 able by each tenant, and in the second place the old farm plans 

 of same period show only one steading or town on each farm, 

 for the accommodation of all. It also seems apparent that each 

 tenant was liable for the full rent in case of failure of the others. 



To meet this condition of affairs the Earl again introduced 

 the practice of letting on tacks in terms of the following " rule " 

 from his Minute Book : — 



" Resolved that in regard many of the farms, to make it a 

 rule that the whole tenants in any one town, or upon one farm, 

 should bind and be rentalled conjunctly as one possession, so 

 that if at present any are in such low circumstances that the rest 

 will not bind with them, or if during the currency of the tack any 

 of them fail, their part of the possession should fall to the rest, 

 whereby there will be a gradual diminution of the numbers." 



In the foregoing I have given you some details from the old 

 rentals. But to take up the Minute Book again. During the first 

 three months of the Earl's management the following entries in 

 the Minute Book show what progress he had made in arranging 

 the affairs of the Estate : — 



" 1758, Sept. — Small pocket books of the farms of every 



