KsTATE Management in the Eighteenth Century. 153 



" 1761, Sept. — Ordered Mr Blair, the factor, to advertise 

 the house and whole estate of Graitney to be let, and to take in 

 offers for the same and report, and as it was judged that botli 

 the house and estate would set to better advantage if the house 

 were put in proper repair, Mr Blair was directed to provide 

 materials and to contract with tradesmen for that purpose." 



Mr Blair died in January, 1762, so Mr Hoggan, wlio suc- 

 ceeded him, made the following report: — 



" This estate was purchased in 1725 from the creditors of 

 Colonel Johnstone, Ruthven, for behoof of James, Marquis of 

 Annandale. 



" The rental of the estate has been, with some small varia- 

 tions, about =£124 sterling, but this includes £12 10s of tolls 

 that are now disputed, and of which little has been paid for some 

 years, so that the rental could not be reckoned about £110, and 

 that includes some house rents. 



" The tenants are ver\- numerous, and mostly in bad circum- 

 stances, .some of them being in great arrear. 



" The land itself, even the best of it, is of a very light, dry 

 kind, and a great part of it muirish and some mossy. 



" By Tait's Survey the whole estate contains 634 acres 

 (Scotch), besides the right in the common. 



" The mansion-house was fallen into very great disrepair, 

 so that it must soon be quite ruinous. Therefore it was ordered 

 to be repaired by getting a (juite new roof, in 1761, in the view 

 that it might answer for an inn, being well situated for that 

 purpose, or for some good tenant that might take the whole or a 

 great part of the estate, as it would be very desirable to have it 

 in [ewer hands than at present. Several attempts were made for 

 this purpose, and proposals got from different people both from 

 England and in Scotland, but, besides the difificulty of finding 

 people of good circumstances who will remove to any distance, 

 there was another almost unsurmountable one, viz., the riotous 

 and lawless disposition of the inhabitants, not onlv on this estate, 

 but all the neighbourhood, arising from their situation upon the 

 Border, and the constant practice of smuggling they are engaged 

 in, in so much that they threatened to mob all strangers who came 

 to look at the lands, and even proceeded to great rudeness and 

 wrote threatening letters to some of them, by which they were 

 deterred from venturing among such a crew, and not without 

 good reason. 



