IN THE HIGHLANDS 177 



" My father had a poor opinion of those landed pro- 

 prietors who, though quite aware that their heirs' bread 

 depended on their managing land and tenants success- 

 fully, gave them no chance of acquiring much information 

 on the land that was to be their own some day. So, 

 instead of giving his eldest son Frank an allowance of, 

 say, £500 a year, which he could draw from the bank 

 and use in capering about the world idle and useless 

 until his father died, or in going into the Army to learn 

 how easily life is wasted, he gave him a slice of the estate 

 to manage for himself under his father's eye. This 

 portion, if properly cared for, would produce £500 a 

 year, and the son could stay at home with his father and 

 mother and help in many ways where needed. Part of 

 Frank's farms were Bogdoin and Tenahaun of Conon 

 and the Isle of Ewe in Gairloch. There was plenty to do 

 in these then wildernesses, and Frank put them into 

 a very different condition from what he found them in, 

 before his father's death. He managed his property 

 wisely and profitably, and my father's expectations 

 were entirely fulfilled. No young northern proprietor 

 that I ever heard of gave his mind so entirely to agricul- 

 ture as Frank did all his life. 



" My memory shows me my father after breakfast 

 standing on the edge of a drain he had lined out in a 

 field of the home farm, directing the men carefully, with 

 ' Joe Manton ' in his left hand. Many a small crofter 

 would come and ask advice on rural matters, and my 

 father would answer as carefully as if the £5 croft was 

 a £200 farm. He would then move from the drain to 

 some other improvement in progress, stopping a partridge 



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