96 ORMISTOUN'S LETTERS 



as a good one, or for some other nonsensical reason, keeping a 

 poor ugly Cock and Hens, defeats all the design of carrying 

 down good for mending the Breed of the Country, which never 

 can be improved in any thing from the cross disposition of our 

 people who are obstinate against improvements of all kinds 

 great or small. It is easy to bring all to be good if Robertson 

 and you please to dispose of all not of the very finest kind and 

 to keep none but of the best. I have wrote this of ^ different 

 days and at many different times. The air has been thick and 

 it looked as if full of snow. At last it begins to fall a little 

 j ust now (Tuesday morning) the first we have seen here this 

 year. It has been much wished for in the Country to cover 

 corn etc. and also to give moisture to the ground and raise the 

 Springs. It has been a very dry Winter as was the end of 

 Summer. 



3 Jany. 174f . 



To Ch: Bell and John Dods. 



XXXIII 



No date. Charles, — Begin with your own Men and Robertson with 



taking up and planting the English Elms in old Church Yard 

 Match them as near a size as you can. Be very careful to take 

 them up with large roots and in planting them right. We 

 have not to supply any shall go back so they '1 require the 

 more care now. Plant next the trees at back of the Haining 

 as marked, and the two Hornbeams upon the face of the Brae 

 over against Runchie hall. The Hornbeams must be the 

 tallest and best bodied you can find in the Wood as they '1 be 

 exposed to the Cattle. If it is such a morning as you think I 

 can come up ^ in, bring two of the Laborers from the Wood 



^ Cf. ' My custom of an afternoon.' — Hamlet. This idiom is of frequent 

 occurrence in the Letters. 



2 This is apparently a note sent to Bell from Ormistoun. Probably it was 

 written shortly before the departure for the south. Cf. p. 78, 'supplying 

 Elms in the Old Church Yard' (Sept. 1742). 'Runchie Hall' was some 

 distance westwards. Nos. XXXV. and XXXVI. are undated letters written 

 under similar circumstances. 



