A SCOTTISH INVASION 27 



It was at this time that some of the canny Scots 

 already settled in the South sent word to their friends 

 in Ayrshire that there was land in Essex which could 

 be had for the asking ; and it was thought that, with 

 such a market as London near at hand for the sale of 

 milk, there ought to be the chance for a Scottish dairy 

 farmer to get a living off the said land, even if an 

 English wheat-grower could not. So a few adventurous 

 spirits went as an advance-guard to look into the situa- 

 tion for themselves, and the reports they made to their 

 friends at home were so favourable that more and still 

 more followed. Before long there was a regular migra- 

 tion from Ayrshire to Essex, until the county began to 

 be almost overrun with Scotsmen. Special trains were 

 provided by the railway companies, in which the 

 flitting Scots took, not only their families and their 

 household effects, but all their cattle some of them 

 had 50 or 100 cows each their implements, and their 

 helpers. In this way they thought they could settle 

 down right off in that Land of Promise which the 

 Englishmen were deserting as though it were only a 

 Slough of Despond. They turned out no English 

 farmers, however, for they took only such land as had 

 been abandoned or was being feebly cultivated by the 

 landlords themselves. They had no difficulty in making 

 satisfactory terms in regard to rent, and the way they 

 set to work would have assured success under the most 

 unfavourable of circumstances. 



The task, however, they had before them was no easy 

 one, willing enough as they were to adopt changes of 

 method. Such are the conditions of soil and climate 

 in Essex that the Scottish immigrants found they could 

 depend on good pasture for only about two months 

 in the year, and it was necessary they should grow 

 or otherwise provide supplies for the cattle for the 



