118 Notes and Sketches. 



he visited the county of Kincardine, of which he says 

 " I am sorry to observe that agriculture in this 

 county makes little figure, except among a few 

 patriotic gentlemen." Various of the more prominent 

 of these he had visited, but time did not admit of his 

 coming on to Aberdeen. And a considerable while 

 after he records, at second-hand, a particular impres- 

 sion concerning the husbandry of three local counties, 

 viz., the observation that had been made by a gentle- 

 man, when travelling through Angus, Mearns, and 

 Aberdeenshire " Many enclosures he saw fenced 

 with dry stones, some new, some decayed, and some 

 tumbling down ; but not a gap made up, nor the 

 slightest reparation on any of them. This surprised 

 him. To be at the expense of building fences, and 

 yet never to think of keeping them in repair, appeared 

 unaccountable. But at last he discovered the cause 

 for, upon looking back he remembered that in every 

 one of these enclosures there was corn as well as 

 grass." In point of fact, "inclosing," as known to 

 the farmers of the time, was simply a delusion and a 

 snare. It did not partition off the pastures from the 

 cereal and other crops, and consequently herding was 

 just as much needed as if no enclosures existed. 



Aberdeenshire was visited in the autumn of 1779 ; 

 and the natural advantages in respect of recently-made 

 roads and harbours for export and import of com- 

 modities are remarked upon, together with the recent 

 "amazing" increase of manufactures, trade, and popula- 

 tion. In the towns of New and Old Aberdeen, and 

 various suburbs 'twixt the bridges over the rivers Dee 

 and Don, there was good warrant for saying there 

 were at least twenty-five thousand people, old and 

 young. A few particulars concerning the trade of 

 the town are given, and the Surveyor, who elsewhere 

 indicates his lack of confidence in the villainous raw 

 whisky of the time, takes delight in mentioning " a 

 considerable brewery for making porter, erected chiefly 



