114 Notes and Sketches. 



had been feeding for half the day, or, it might be, 

 nearer the whole of it. Hacket flared up at the idea 

 of such a trespass on his " bounds, " and, in the parley 

 that ensued, lifted his stick, with the exclamation, 

 "I'll hazel ye, sir!" uttered in his fiercest tones. " An r 

 ye hazel me the nicht, ye maybe winna hazel anither 

 the morn !" answered Saunders, coolly jogging on with 

 his ewes, and leaving the laird, who, no doubt wisely, 

 deemed discretion the better part of valour, to digest 

 his wrath at leisure. 



Such was this improving Garioch laird, and such 

 the relations in which he stood toward those amongst 

 whom he lived. But with all his oddities, Hacket, as 

 an improver, achieved good results himself, and gave 

 a distinct impetus to agriculture in his locality. The 

 writer of the Old Statistical Account of the Parish of 

 Chapel of Garioch, in which Inveramsay is situated, 

 while crediting him with having first introduced " the 

 culture of turnips and sown grass " in that parish, adds, 

 that his example in farming had been followed by many 

 in the neighbourhood. " The crop of one field upon 

 the Mains of Inveramsay, which before Mr. Hacket's 

 improvements was sold for 30s., is now," he says, 

 " reckoned worth 60 sterling ; and the rest of the 

 farm is improved in the same proportion." He retained 

 his reputation as a capable business man throughout, 

 and one of the records we find of him is in the famine 

 year 1783.* The kirk-session had met to consider the 

 necessities of the parish on account of the dearth, and 

 having resolved to purchase a quantity of peasemeal, 



* There are one or two later entries. In 1790 the mortcloth is 

 required for Mrs. Hacket. In 1792 a certain female appears before 

 the session, and a letter is read from Charles Hacket acknowledg- 

 ing himself the father of her illegitimate child. He offers to pay 

 what fine they thought right to inflict, if they would allow the case 

 to be dismissed " sessionary " that is, without any public appear- 

 ance before the congregation. 3 being paid " to the poor, the 

 case is dismissed accordingly. "We must not forget that Hacket, 

 who thus negotiated with the Presbyterian Kirk-session, was him- 

 self a staunch Episcopalian. 



