246 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



grow them at all" an avowal which was received by the audience 

 with evident marks of satisfaction, as well as with actual ap- 

 plause. For my own part, with the exception of the immediate 

 neighbourhood of London, it is my firm conviction, that out of 

 every thousand acres of field-land under peas, nine hundred have 

 not derived the slightest benefit from the culture of them, but 

 have been left fouler than they were previously to being planted 

 with them particularly under the broad- cast system, so often 

 practised in the south. 



Although, as I have before said, I kept no chronological 

 memoranda of my proceedings in this seat of learning, elo- 

 quence, and philosophy, still the recollection of one day is too 

 strongly impressed on my mind to make me at a loss to name 

 it. It was Thursday, the 22nd of January, which I may venture 

 to mark as a day of honour, having been called upon, at my 

 hotel, by the following distinguished individuals, viz., Professors 

 Wilson and Cheape, who came together ; Professor Napier ; 

 Mr. Black, the great publisher ; and Mr. Stephens, the editor 

 of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, who paid me the com- 

 pliment of telling me, that, if I wrote anything on the agriculture 

 of Scotland, he should be happy to have it for the Journal. 



The mention of this Journal reminds me of another very 

 eminent character, whose acquaintance I made in Edinburgh. 

 This was the late Sir John Sinclair, my introduction to whom 

 was this. Soon after my arrival in France, I published a small 

 pamphlet, addressed to the agriculturists of Great Britain, show- 

 ing the effects of what is called " Peel's Bill " on the Agricultural 

 Interest, and that it could never rise again under its grinding 

 operation. This pamphlet having been twice reviewed in the 

 British Farmer's Magazine, attracted the notice of f Sir John, 

 who wrote me a note from Brown's Hotel, Palace Yard, London, 

 dated June 9th, 1831, highly expressive oif his approbation of it 

 But, alas ! the season for seeing this extraordinary character 

 had passed by. The lamp of life was then glimmering faintly ; 

 and although there were no indications of disease, there was a 

 languor in his speech and action that showed his race was 

 nearly run. But what a race has it been ? From a short me- 

 moir of him in Eraser's Magazine, February, 1 836, and other 

 accounts published of him in newspapers, it appears to have 

 been for nothing less than the prize of immortality, having (to 

 use his own words), " with the exception of great conquerors and 

 legislators, made himself more universally celebrated in all quar- 

 ters of the globe, than any other man of modern times," perhaps 

 be might have added of ancient ones. 



After breakfasting with him at his house in George Street, I 



