London to John O 'Groat's. 105 



leaned closest to him in the testing-moments of his 

 higher nature. He was one of the great benefactors, 

 whose lives and labors become the common inheritance 

 of mankind, and whose names go down through long 

 generations with a pleasant memory. To a certain 

 extent, he was to the great primeval industry of the 

 world what Arkwright, Watts, Stephenson, Fulton and 

 Morse were each to the mechanical and scientific 

 activities of the age. He did as much, perhaps, as 

 any man that ever preceded him, to honor that 

 industry, and lift it up to the level of the first 

 occupations of modern times, which had claimed 

 higher qualities of intelligence, genius and enterprize. 

 He was a farmer, and his ancestors had been farmers 

 from time immemorial. He did not bound into the 

 occupation as an enthusiastic amateur, who had 

 acquired a large fortune by manufacturing or com- 

 mercial enterprize, which he was eager to lavish upon 

 bold and uncertain experiments. He attained his 

 highest eminence by the careful gradations of a con- 

 tinuous experience, reaching back far into the labors 

 of his ancestors. The science, skill and judgment he 

 brought to bear upon his operations, came from his 

 reading, thinking, observations and experiments as a 

 practical and hereditary farmer. The capital he 

 employed in expanding these operations to their cul- 



