166 APPENDIX. 



but few remaining who recollect him, and still fewer who 

 witnessed his exertions. In the year 1761, he succeeded 

 to the estate of Ury by the death of my grandfather. At 

 that period agriculture was at a very low ebb. My 

 grandfather, although a most respectable man, had no 

 turn for improvement, nor had any of his predecessors. 

 Indeed, the pursuit of agriculture was generally despised 

 through the country. But my father seems to have been 

 a heaven-born improver ; for such was his enthusiasm, 

 that a year before his father's death, he carried on his 

 back, all the way from Aberdeen, a bundle of young 

 trees, which he planted in the den of Ury with his own 

 hand, sorely to the vexation of the old gentleman, who 

 complained that the protecting of the plants annoyed the 

 people's sheep. (Cheers and laughter.) Soon after this 

 my father went to Norfolk, then the great agricultural 

 school of the kingdom, where he served a regular ap- 

 prenticeship to the business, and brought home -with him 

 not only the most improved implements of husbandry, 

 but also a number of Norfolk ploughmen. (Cheers.) 

 At that time the tenantry were little better than the boors 

 of Germany and Russia, and the lairds were more inclined 

 to break each other's heads than to break up the treasures 

 of the earth. (Laughter.) Seeing, then, that preaching 

 doctrines was of no avail without putting them into prac- 

 tical operation, he took into his own hands a large sur- 

 face of about 2000 acres. At that time the estate of 

 Ury was a complete waste, consisting of bogs, baulks, 



