4 Notes and Sketches. 



ordinarily regarded, and described as a pestilent fanatic 

 simply ; the " Missionary who in his turn was held in 

 similar repute, did not come on the scene till a later 

 date. It is not very easy, and might not be altogether 

 wise, to pronounce an explicit judgment on the social 

 morality of the period, comparatively viewed. In the 

 north-eastern part of Scotland the great religious move- 

 ments that accompanied and followed the Reformation, 

 down to the Revolution of 1688, did not pervade the 

 commonalty to the same extent, nor stir their feelings to a 

 like depth, as in districts further southward. How far 

 this may have been significant of, or have tended to 

 promote, obtuseness of moral feeling in a comparatively 

 rude state of society, we do not profess to say. But in 

 so far as local records lead us, there does not at any rate 

 appear to be much ground to believe that the social 

 morality of the eighteenth century was in many of its 

 phases of a higher or purer type than that of the 

 century that has followed it. 



By the middle of the eighteenth century, and even a 

 little before it, the subject of improvement in agricul- 

 ture had engaged the attention of men of intelligence ; 

 chiefly men of some position, who, while they had a 

 direct interest in the subject as landed proprietors, were 

 in several cases also actively engaged in professional life 

 or in commerce. Some of these to advanced theorising 

 added successful practice in such matters as turnip 

 cultivation and the establishment of a rotation of crops ; 

 and notably also in the planting of timber trees. But 

 it took long time till their example, in the matter of 

 improved husbandry, was generally followed by the 

 tenants, who were, as a rule, equally devoid of means 

 and of the spirit of enterprise. Prejudice in favour of 

 the old system and against the new was strong, too ; 

 and in some cases manifested itself in direct attempts to 

 obstruct or defeat efforts toward improvement. Nor 

 need we be altogether surprised at this. The time had 

 not long gone by, when the highest agricultural wisdom 



