106 Notes and Sketches. 



on any other part of the estate." To facilitate his 

 operations, Mr. Barclay took a number of the farms 

 into his own hands as he could get them, and " in the 

 course of about thirty years improved most thoroughly 

 900 acres of arable land," 300 of which had been 

 altogether marsh or heath j and he planted from 900 

 to 1000 acres with wood. The cost of these improve- 

 ments must have been very great, as much as 40 an 

 acre being laid out on some fields in trenching, drain- 

 ing, removing stones, and other operations. And it 

 is expressly stated that his outlay for lime-shells alone 

 exceeded 6000. 



Mr. Barclay was an athletic man, and come of an 

 athletic race. His predecessor, David Barclay, of 

 Mathers, who had been an officer under Gustavus 

 Adolphus, afterwards became a convert to Quakerism. 

 On retiring to his estate, he wished to have his land 

 well cultivated a point that gave him some trouble, 

 owing to the prejudices of the peasantry. And it is 

 related of him that, finding a certain ploughman 

 obstinately disobedient to his instructions, on one 

 occasion he addressed him thus : " Thou knowest, 

 friend, that I feed and pay thee to do my work in a 

 proper manner, but thou art wise in thine own eyes, 

 and regardest not the admonitions of thy employer. 

 I have hitherto spoken to thee in a style thou under- 

 standest not; for verily thou art of a perverse spirit. 

 I wish to correct thy errors for my own sake and for 

 thine ; and thereforel/ms tell thee," (coming over his 

 head with a blow which brought him to the ground). 

 " Though the weapon was carnal," adds the narrator 

 of the story, " this was the demonstration of power, 

 and had the desired effect ; the ploughman became 

 tractable and quiet as a lamb." The last century 

 Barclay of whom we have been speaking adhered to 

 the family belief in this respect. Of him Mr. Robert- 

 son says, that while employing " only the people of the 

 country that were bred on his own lands or in the 



