FARMING A FASHION 173 



\ 

 cally preached by the Society of Improvers in the Knowledge of 

 Agriculture in Scotland (founded 1723, dissolved 1745), by Lord 

 Cathcart, and by Mr. Hope of Rankeillor. In the Heart of Mid- 

 lothian, Scott is true to the spirit, if not to the details, of history 

 when he credits the Duke of Argyll with a keen interest in all 

 branches of farming and the introduction into Inverness-shire of a 

 herd of Devonshire cattle. Agriculture had for the moment become 

 a fashion in society, a part, perhaps, of the artificial movement Avhich 

 in gafdening created the Landscape School. Tull's system was 

 discussed at Court. It was explained to George II., and therefore 

 interested Lady Suffolk. The practical Queen Carohne subscribed 

 to the pubHcation of the Horse-Hoeing Husbandry. Pope loved to 

 " play the philosopher among cabbages and turnips." Sir Robert 

 Walpole, it is said, opened the letters of his farm steward before he 

 broke the seals of correspondence on State affairs ; Bohngbroke 

 caused Dawley Farm to be painted with trophies of ricks, spades, 

 and prongs, and, propped between two haycocks, read Swift's 

 letters, uplifting his eyes to heaven, not in admiration of the author 

 but in fear of rain. " Dawley," said his pohtical opponents, " has 

 long been famous for a Great Cry and Httle Wool. Tup Harry 

 become Mutton master." ^ 



Other landowners threw themselves energetically into the practical 

 work of agricultural improvement. Charles, second Viscount 

 Townshend, may be taken as a tjrpe of the reforming landlords who 

 took the lead in farming their estates. Born in 1674, he died in 

 1738, having succeeded to the title and estates of his father when 

 a child of thirteen years old. In his early hfe, he had played a 

 prominent part in the political history of the country at a critical 

 period. Lord Privy Seal under WiUiam III., he served as a Com- 

 missioner to treat for the Union of England and Scotland, and, as 

 a joint plenipotentiary with Marlborough, signed the Peace of 

 Gertruydenberg in 1709. In the same year, as Ambassador at the 

 Hague, he negotiated the famous Barrier Treaty. Under George I. 

 and George II., he acted as Secretary of State, was appointed Lord 

 Lieutenant of Ireland, and, as joint Secretary of State with Walpole, 

 directed the foreign pohcy of Great Britain. 



In 1730 Lord Townshend retired from pohtical hfe to Raynham 

 in Norfolk. There he devoted himself to the care of his estates, 

 experimenting in the farming practices which he had observed 

 1 The Hyp Doctor, No. 32, July 20, 1731. 



