" A FINE OLD ENGLISH GENTLEMAN " 311 



untiring attention. The following strong sentence from 

 a letter of Lord Liverpool speaks volumes for the reputa- 

 tion which Banks's zeal had shed abroad among people 

 able to gauge its worth : 



(October 25, 1804.) "... I rejoice to find that you are 

 able to attend the business of your county in cases where 

 your advice and influence are of so ^ much importance. 

 The great prices at which the lands brought^into culti- 

 vation by measures which you recommendedjhave sold, 

 are a proof of the value of those lands, of the wealth of the 

 county, and of the wisdom of the means employed for 

 enclosing, draining, and otherwise improving them. . . ."* 



It was about the year 1787 when George III took into 

 consideration the improvement of the breed of sheep. 

 He gave orders for the importation of a small flock of 

 Spanish merinos, and became an attentive observer of 

 breeding operations. With the help of Sir Joseph Banks, 

 his farm near Windsor was managed on the improved 

 principles then coming into vogue. After a dozen years 

 or so the movement took very large proportions. By 

 sale, and by personal gift, the new breed (of Spanish 

 with the best British) was getting represented everywhere 

 in Great Britain. After 1804, an annual sale of the King's 

 flocks was held at Windsor, when prices ruled very high. 



1 An excellent account of the reclamation of the adjacent fen-land is 

 given by Smiles in his Life of John Rennie. Of Sir Joseph and his ener- 

 getic share in the project he writes very warmly. " Farther : he was a 

 popular and well-known man, jolly and good-humoured, full of public 

 spirit ; and, though a philosopher, not above taking part in the sports 

 and festivities of the neighbourhood in which he resided. . . . From an 

 early period Sir Joseph Banks entertained the design of carrying out the 

 drainage of the extensive fen-lands lying spread out beneath his hall 

 window ; and making them if possible a source of profit to the owners, 

 as well as of greater comfort and better subsistence for the population. 

 The reclamation of these unhealthy wastes became quite a hobby with 

 him ; and when he could lay hold of any agricultural improver, he 

 would not let him go until he had dragged him through the Fens, 

 exhibited what they were, and demonstrated what fertile lands they 

 might be made. . . . His county neighbours were very slow to act, but 

 they gradually became infected by his example, and his irresistible 

 energy carried them along with him." 



