INTRODUCTORY [Chap. 



was so perfectly ignorant with regard to matters 

 connected with the cultivation of the land^ that 

 he once^ upon seeing a field of lavender, thought 

 it was a field of wheat. To descend a step lower. 

 Sir Walter Scott, well worthy of the first 

 baronetcy bestowed by the present King ; this 

 Baronet, of book-making and book-selling noto- 

 riety, as the affairs of Constable and Co. can 

 bear witness; this worthy Baronet, in a letter 

 to Lord SoMERViLLE, published by his Lordship 

 in a book about oxen and sheep, took occasion, 

 very unnecessarily, and even ostentatiously, to ob- 

 serve, that, as to the business of agriculture, he 

 hardly knew more than the pen with which he 

 was writing. To descend lower still ("where will 

 you stop, then ?'^ the reader will exclaim), Mr. 

 Adolphus of the George-the-Third-history- 

 fame, or rather obscurity, in pleading against me 

 for one Farlar, before the Secondary of London, 

 took occasion, while he displayed his white hand- 

 kerchief and his genteely-pale hand, to tell the 

 Jury, that, as to brewing, or the sort of ma- 

 terials made use of in that process ; or, as to 

 any rural affair, of whatever description, he him- 

 self had no knowledge ; and that, in fact, if taken 

 into the fields or the gardens, he knew not any 

 one plant from any other ; which declaration, if 

 made before people in the country, before a set 

 of farmers' men and maids, would convince them 



