The Bad Harvest of 1782. 49 



home till December, when two weeks of dry " open" 

 weather occurred. Of the crop generally, the state- 

 ment is made that while " the fields yielded not one- 

 third of an ordinary crop," the oatmeal, " dark in colour, 

 was acid and disagreeable to the taste." Neither pota- 

 toes nor turnips had yet come so prominently into use 

 as they were destined to do : but potatoes where grown 

 were damaged by the frost, and turnips were a very poor 

 crop. Even the produce of the garden was, we are told, 

 " destitute of its usual nourishment." 



And the famine was not local in the narrow sense. 

 Owing to the high price to which grain had risen in the 

 month of November, the Scotch ports, generally, were 

 by that time opened for importation of corn upon pay- 

 ing the low duties. Sir William Forbes and his fellow- 

 bankers offered the Lord Provost of Edinburgh to ad- 

 vance .2000 free of interest for six months, his lord- 

 ship and the Town Council having it in view " to pro- 

 cure a supply of corn for the advantage of the poorer 

 sort of the community," and they having it " much at 

 heart" " to facilitate so very useful a plan." The Lord 

 Advocate, in whose mind " very serious apprehensions 

 had arose relative to the supply of provisions for the 

 lower class of the inhabitants of Scotland for the ensu- 

 ing year," had previously written to the Provost sug- 

 gesting the propriety of people contributing according 

 to their means in order to keep the markets " from ris- 

 ing to any immoderate height." The Lord Advocate is 

 persuaded the Lord Provost and his brethren will take 

 the requisite steps in the matter ; and as his excuse for 

 troubling him, requests that in case he should be absent 

 from Scotland when any plan is in agitation, his lord- 

 ship " would dispose of him to the extent of 100 " 

 for promoting the same. 



At the meeting of Aberdeen Town Council held 

 on 8th November, the Provost represented that " the 

 state and condition of the country was universally al- 

 lowed to be alarming ; and that, notwithstanding the 

 5 



