62 ORMISTOUN^S LETTERS 



a good many side shoots. Do so even by what came up last 

 year and are in Seed bed, Mapples, Crabs, and every thing — 

 for hedges will be the better for being so used just before they 

 begin to shoot or bud out. Let me know what Seeds for 

 Nursery you sow of all kinds with a particular ace* of the 

 Nurserys — their height, age, and how long they have stood 

 where they are. I hope you 'I have room for dunging more 

 of it against next Winter that at last all may be once got 

 over, and mended by ridging whenever crops come off and 

 dunging. All evergreens are less or more hurt as I hear here 

 about. 



13 March 17M. 



40"- 



XIX 



6 May 1740. Charles, — Had I kuowu of your having Vines i I would have 



sent none. I expect no fruit, it was only the leaves I wanted. 

 Where do your^s stand for I don't remember having seen them ? 

 I wrote last Post to J. Dods about putting my Horses into the 

 Haining rather than Swine Ward, as I believe Water may be 

 got for them in Haining. They won't get safe over to north 

 side if a good Bridge and broad is not made. I wish they 

 don't tumble in to some of the holes that are covered over with 

 Brambles or other Bushes or not to be known till j ust upon 

 them. Care must be taken in what is above. I wrote fully 

 to J. Dods about care to prevent Infectious distempered horses 

 getting in and how to do if any in shall be taken ill. Also 

 about keeping to the Advertisements and not Blundering as 

 last year about L^ Oxford's Stirks.^ Making no particular 

 promises about taking care of one man's Horse or the like for 



1 This should be read with ' White Sweet Water Grapes ' in undated letter 

 (p. 56), as having been sent. A healthy vine, bearing a small grape, is still 

 shown, on a cosy nook of the garden wall, as John Cockburn's. Its position 

 corresponds to that indicated at the close of No. XVI. 



^ Oxfurd, now called Oxenfoord, is an estate higher up the Tyne and to the 

 west of Prestonhall. The scenery of both is lovingly described in Sir Thoma 

 Dick-Lauder's Scottish Rivers. ' Oxfurd gave the title of Viscount to the Macgill 

 family. The Lord Oxfurd referred to in this letter was Robert Maitland Macgill, 

 whose mother, the eldest granddaughter of the second Viscount Oxfurd, had 

 married the Hon. William Maitland, younger son of the third Earl of Lauder- 

 dale. He had used the title from the time of his mother's death in i707> and had 



