142 A GRIC UL rURA L WRITERS. 



J. DONALDSON. 



1670-1720 {about). 



Husbandry Anatomised : or an enquiry into the presentmanner of 

 Tilling and Manuring the Ground in Scotland, is a rare little book 

 written bv James Donaldson, and published in Edinburgh in 1697. A 

 hio-h estimation has always been placed upon this work, as a valuable 

 production of that early time, and it is considered fully equal to anything 

 of the kind that had appeared to date. Copies are exceedingly scarce ; 

 a very good one realised £\ at Sotheby's sale rooms recently. 



It is addressed to "the Right Honourable Patrick Earl Marchmount, 

 Viscount of Polwart, Lord High Chancellor of Scotland and the whole 

 Remnant Lords of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council." In 

 case any questions should be raised concerning his experience in 

 husbandrv, Donaldson gives the following brief account of his life : 



I was bred in the country till I was upwards of twenty years of age ; and my fatiier 

 keeping servants and cattle for labouring a part of lands which heritably belonged to 

 him, I had occasion to acquire as much knowledge in husband affairs as was practised 

 in that place of the country. Some few years before the Revolution I applied my.self 

 to the study of traflfick and merchandising. But as soon as it pleased God to call his 

 Majestie (then Prince of Orange) to relieve these kingdoms from the imminent danger 

 they then stood in, I judged it my honour and duty to concur with such a laudible and 

 glorious undertaking, accordin<,r to my ability testified my affection to the cause, 

 several ways needless here to repeat, and especially in leavying a company of men for 

 his Majesties service, and served in the Earl ot Angus his regimen: until 1690, wlien it 

 was reduced from twenty to thirteen companies. 



He complains of having received nothing in return for his disburse- 

 ments, consequently his credit became broken and his estate exhausted. 

 He began to reason, and this book was the result of his deliberations. 

 His precepts may have been of value in his day, but they are adorned 

 too frequently with Biblical sayings and references to the proverbs of 

 Roman writers on agriculture to be considered as representing the 

 actions of a practical husbandman ; still, it has been well said that no 

 book was ever published from which some useful information could not 

 be o-ained, and it is at least equally true that no man ever lived from 

 whose biography no serviceable lesson could be deduced. In one form 

 or other every writer we have discussed has tendered some examples of 

 excellence worthy of imitation, or of methods in culture to be avoided, 

 and Donaldson must be given his place in this category. 



