INTRODUCTION xliii 



omission and of commission. The Letters of course take no 

 notice of the wider interests of the day except the phenomenal 

 winter of 1739-40. But there are curious references to seed 

 shops like Switser's in Westminster Hall and that of the dilatory 

 Lowther ; to the enterprising market gardeners and the higlers 

 or costermongers ; to the wheat-fields of Herefordshire and the 

 well-planted lanes of Herts ; to the clannish interests in the 

 comings and goings of canny Scots ; to the primitive arrange- 

 ment of a foot-post that waited till a letter was ready ; and 

 of Craig, the waterman, letting Cockburn know when the 

 'Glasgow Packett ' found the river open for the adventurous 

 voyage to Leith ; and to a commercial intercourse that could 

 boast of Bills of Lading and Bills of Exchange. 



A melancholy interest attaches to the following extract 

 from The House of Cochhurn : ' On the 10th Dec. 1747 was 

 signed the disposition "by George Cockburn of Ormiston, 

 whereby for the sum of c£*12,000 sterling he sells to John, 

 Earl of Hopetoun, heritably and irredeemably, All and Whole 

 the parts of the barony of Ormiston on the north side of the 

 Tyne, comprehending the town of Ormiston, with right of 

 weekly market, as granted to the late John Cockburn, his 

 grand-uncle'' (1649), "and an infeftment upon the whole 

 barony — granted by John Cockburn, father of said George, 

 to the late Charles, Earl of Hopetoun, for =£10,000, of date 

 14th May 1739.'' By a second disposition, dated 8th 

 September 1749, " the said George Cockburn sold to the said 

 Earl All and Whole " the remaining portions of the barony, 

 with the manor-place of Ormiston, for 0^^10,200. George 

 Cockburn, made a Comptroller of the Navy in 1750, was 

 survived by two daughters, who both died childless. This 

 document shows that, while John Cockburn was at the 

 height of his improving zeal, the estate was carrying a debt 

 of ten thousand pounds. 



