120 Notes and Sketches. 



in vain. But " men of all ranks here are struck with 

 the enthusiasm of farming," and citizens, who had 

 amassed a little cash otherwise, were prone to bestow 

 it in the pursuit of husbandry for its own sake, or, 

 perhaps, in the desire to have country villas ; and 

 thus they attacked the stubborn glebe regardless of 

 expenditures as high as from 20 to 25 an acre (quite 

 equal to double the amount now), the result, in 1779, 

 being that the reclaimed lands, " to the distance of 

 three or four miles, carry as rich crops as are to be 

 seen anywhere in Britain." Adam Duff, the late 

 Provost, had feued 150 acres, as stony and barren 

 as any in the neighbourhood, at 3s. per acre of feu-duty, 

 and at a cost of 25 an acre, converted it into excellent 

 arable land. Mr. Angus, late bookseller, and Mr. 

 Mossman, advocate, are also mentioned as skilful and 

 successful improvers of the barren, stony waste ; and 

 the estate of " Robslaw," which within not many years 

 had risen in rental from 100 to 600, is referred to 

 in evidence of the growing taste for suburban posses- 

 sions. Generally " Were a traveller in his wander- 

 ings to come upon any farmer in the neigbourhood of 

 Aberdeen commencing his improvements upon this 

 stony barren muir, he would, without the least hesita- 

 tion, pronounce the poor man to be crazy. Anyone 

 would think so with respect to the first improver ; 

 but now the certainty of success makes it a rational 

 system for gain, and spreads the improvement of that 

 muir wider and wider every day. At present, as far 

 as one can cast his eye round Aberdeen, there is not a 

 vestige of the muir remaining." 



Passing out by Grandholm, Mr. Wight finds Mi\ 

 Paton engaged in reclaiming a muir of great extent, 

 and little better than that about Aberdeen, except that 

 the stones upon it are less numerous. He is at work 

 with a strong plough, which makes a furrow from four- 

 teen to eighteen inches deep, and is drawn by " no 

 fewer than ten good oxen. " Mr. Paton's apology for 



