TO HIS GARDENER 21 



I think you should contrive a pond for keeping Water in 

 Summer for watering. You may enlarge it afterwards by 

 degrees. If you let the Water from your Well into it, you''l 

 have a constant supply and a little fresh running into it will 

 keep it full and sweet in the dryest Seasons. 



VII 



Chahles, — InclosM I send you some Memd"^^ I had taken ^5 Feby. 173^. 

 before I received yours of 7^^. I have only to add that from 

 what firrs you gett from Biel ^ and Pencaitland,^ supply and fill 

 up all shall be wanted in Wester Wood and Nursery the rest, 

 in case more dye of what have been planted or of what are to 

 be planted. I think you have thinM the Seed beds of Oaks 

 too much, if you have only left 1000 in them all. When all 

 planting is over lett me have ane exact List of Nurseries with 

 the time of their being transplanted and their height. Continue 

 to write to me, for my Brother, Alex"^ Wight and John Christie ^ 

 have given it over. Write fully of every thing of your own 

 business and also what you hear or observe, for I expect to 

 hear no more from any about what passes at Orm: The reason 

 I don't know. You may go on upon my last letter and this, 

 without taking notice or showing this or the Memd™^ Inclos'd 

 to any, or Showing of them or this, so lett my last letter be 

 shown as I desir'd in it, but don't show this or any I shall 

 write unless I order it. 



Hampstead, 15*^ ffeby. 17S4. 



^ A mansion famous for its woods and terraced garden, overhanging Biel 

 Water, a stream which gives its name to Belhaven Bay, near Dunbar. In the 

 rich flat beside the stream, and in front of the house, is a cedar of Lebanon with 

 a history, for tradition says it was planted (1707) by the Earl of Belhaven who 

 opposed the Union, and gained for himself the reputation of being the only great 

 orator the old Scottish Parliament ever produced. This tree is reputed the finest 

 of its kind in Scotland. 



^ Pencaitland adjoins Ormistoun parish on the east. 



^ John Christie, on the list of club members (not original) as linen-draper in 

 Ormistoun. Coming (1730) from the north of Ireland, on the motion of Wight, 

 he introduced the linen industry in the village. The tradition is that the potato 

 came to Ormistoun from Ireland, also through Christie ; but Wight was growing 



in 1726. See Introduction. 



E 



