xxvi ORMISTOUN^S LETTERS 



he had seen in Herts, he planted at distances in the hedge- 

 rows hard-wood trees. Of these the ash was the mainstay, as 

 the most generally useful on the farm The larch, the poplar, 

 and the lime he never mentions. 



Letter XXVI. shows what he regarded as the comparative 

 value of forest trees (p. 77). He seems to have found the 

 greatest difficulty in getting oaks and firs. Some fir seedlings 

 he wishes Bell could secure : ' If you can gett such a thing 

 for love or money gett it and soon.' He alludes more than 

 once to a clump of ' old firs ' behind the house, evidently Scots 

 firs of the days before planting round mansions was thought 

 of. Note, as showing the scarcity of timber, that he inquires 

 what was done with a plank he sent from London. 



But John Cockburn was not content with infusing 

 enthusiasm on his own estate. He founded the Ormistoun 

 Society ^ or Agricultural Club, which met in the village inn 

 for discussion and mutual help. Brown gives the minute of 

 the first meeting, 19th July 1736^ (under John Cockburn's 

 presidency), and the sixteen original members. The last 

 minute is dated 4th May 1747. It had at one time one 

 hundred and twenty-two members — landlords, tenant-farmers, 

 and traders. From the list of members a few names may be 

 noted, such as James Burnet, younger, of Monboddo, not yet the 

 eccentric Lord of Session, and Maxwell of Arkland in Galloway, 

 another pioneer improver. Four others — Robert Anderson, 

 younger, of Whiteburgh, Colonel Gardner of Bankton, the 

 Duke of Perth, and the Laird of Macleod — form an interesting 

 historical group. To this chance association of the first two 

 of them Prince Charlie owed his victory at Prestonpans (see 

 General CadelPs Sir John Cope). Among the original members 



^ This was not actually the first movement of the kind. In 1699 there was a 

 Society of Husbandry in Clackmannan, but it was more of a benefit society 

 (Miscellany y Scottish History Society). Maxwell of Arkland gives an account of a 

 Society for the Encouragement of Agriculture which met in Edinburgh (1733). 

 The moving spirit was Hope of Rankeillour, but Cockburn was a member. 



