CHAPTEE XVI. 



AN AGRICULTURAL TOUR SURVEY OF ANNEXED ESTATES 



BY ANDREW WIGHT THE SURVEYOR'S OPINION OF 



IMPROVEMENTS IN ABERDEENSHIRE DR. JAS. ANDER- 

 SON A LADY IMPROVER POVERTY OF TENANTS 



INNS OF THE PERIOD. 



IN the year 1773 the Commissioners on the Annexed 

 Estates in Scotland gave a commission to Mr. Andrew 

 Wight, farmer at Ormiston, in East Lothian, to visit 

 and report upon the condition of the estates put under 

 their management. The Commissioners regarded the 

 chief motive of their appointment as being " to civilise 

 the people of those estates, and, by kind treatment, 

 to make them good subjects." Having, as they 

 believed, fully accomplished that object, they were 

 disposed to attempt a " farther reformation, viz., to 

 lead on gradually the tenants to improve their hus- 

 bandry, which has hitherto been at a very low ebb." 

 Hence the determination to send out a competent Sur- 

 veyor, with detailed instructions concerning the points 

 on which he was to report. East Lothian was then 

 the headquarters of advanced agriculture, and in their 

 choice of Mr. Wight, the Commissioners seem to have 

 been fortunate in securing the services of a man of a 

 naturally shrewd and observant cast of mind, and who 

 was fully abreast of the agricultural intelligence of his 

 time. So well were the Commissioners pleased with his 

 two first surveys, which were confined to the annexed 

 estates, that, in the interest of agricultural improve- 

 ment generally, they gave him a wider commission, 



