3o6 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book VII. 



fmall, paying commonly a rent of lol. or 15 1. and very few of 

 them exceeding 20 1. Now, they are become very large in Scotland 

 as well as in England : There are of them, in the fouth of Scotland, 

 which pay 1000 1. or more of rent ; and there are two in my neigh- 

 bourhood which pay 300 1. each; — a thing unknown in the north of 

 Scotland, where I live, 50 or 60 years ago. The farms, therefore, 

 beino- fo much increaied in their fize, the number of farmers muft, 

 necefllirily, be very much diminifhed ; and there are great tracks of 

 country in Scotland, where there is neither farmer nor cottager to be 

 found, nor any thing but (lieep, with fome few herds to take care 

 of them. Thefe fheep-farms are fo profitable, that feveral gentle- 

 men in the Highlands have defolated their eftates to make room 

 for them, chufing rather to have their lands inhabited by fheep than 

 by men : And I have heard of one landholder in the county of Su- 

 therland, who has turned out of his land ^5 families to make room 

 for fheep ; and I am alfo informed of another landholder in the 

 Highlands, who had, fome years ago, upon his eftate, 200 men fit 

 to bear arms, and now he has only one fhepherd with his dog. 



I come now to fpeak of the third race of men, the cottagers, who, 

 in every country, that is peopled as it fliould be, are very much 

 more numerous than either of the other two, or than both put to- 

 gether ; and indeed it is upon their number that the populoulnefs 

 of a country, as diftinguifhed from the towns, chiefly depends. In 

 this refped Scotland, in former times, was very populous : For the 

 farms, as I have obferved, were very fmall ; and they were cultiva- 

 ted chiefly, I may fay altogether, by cottagers, who Uved upon the 

 firm with their families, having a fmall portion of land afligned to 

 them, which the tenant cultivated for them; and he gave them, at the 

 fame time, grafs for a cow : So that they were enabled to live very 

 comfortably, and to bring up their famiUes. Even fo late as my 

 voun"-er days, there were no farms that had not cottagers, more or 



fewer, 



