" Grey of Dilston" 123 



Grey was made the Commissioner of the Greenwich 

 Hospital, and his management of the estates, in 

 which he was followed by his son Charles, will 

 always mark an era in Northumberland. No man's 

 mind ever ran less in ruts. " Grey of Dilston" was 

 henceforth a great name in Northern Agriculture, 

 and continued to be so to the last. He was a ripe, 

 good farmer, always among the first to adopt every 

 agricultural improvement, and a thoroughly safe one 

 for tenants to follow. There could not have been a 

 more felicitous choice on the part of the council than 

 when they entrusted him with " The Labouring 

 Classes of the Land n at the Royal Agricultural So- 

 ciety's dinner at Newcastle in '46. He was loudly 

 cheered throughout, and more especially when he 

 argued in favour of leases v. tenancies at will. " We 

 have been told," he said in conclusion, " that there 

 is a limit to agricultural improvement. It will not be 

 reached in our day. So long as we have unimproved 

 land and tenants at will we shall never reach it." 



He began the Tweedside Society, which was ulti- 

 mately blended with the Border as " The Border 

 Union ;" and when he was in his zenith as a shorthorn 

 breeder, he once took the first and second prizes for 

 bulls, or nearly 5<D/. in one day. His herd was prin- 

 cipally built up from General Simpson's North Star 

 (full brother to Comet), and he also bred direct to the 

 Collings through Mr. Donkin of Sandhoe's blood. 

 The General journeyed from Fifeshire to Buxton 

 every summer, and always stopped at Millfield, by 

 Glendale on Tweedside, by the way ; and he died at 

 Ferrybridge on his return. Young Star was the best 

 bull he ever sent to Millfield, and Mr. Curwen and Mr. 

 Blamire could not resist riding over to see him. Some 

 of the Fifeshire farmers pleasantly assured Mr. Grey 

 when he bought him, "Aye ! man, what a price for 

 nowt ! but he's a bonny beast 'an he had been black!' 

 " If he had been black!' said Mr. Grey, to their speech- 



