London to John G 1 Groat's. 



203 



disinterested person of good judgment, perhaps from an 

 adjoining town, who knows none of the competitors. 

 To prevent any possible favoriteism, the allotments are 

 all numbered, and he awards prizes to numbers only, 

 not knowing to whom they belong. Another feature, 

 illustrating the generous disposition of the proprietor, 

 characterises this good work. On the evening appointed 

 for paying the rents, he gets up a regular, old-fashioned 

 English supper of roast beef and plum-pudding for 

 them, giving each fourpence instead of beer, so that 

 they may all go home sober as well as cheerful. To 

 see him preside at that table, with his large, round, 

 rosy face beaming upon them with the quiet benevo- 

 lence of a good heart, and to hear the fatherly and 

 neighborly talks he makes to them, would be a picture 

 and preaching which might be commended to the 

 farmers of all countries. 



I saw also a curious phenomenon in the natural 

 world on this farm, which perhaps will be regarded as 

 a fiction of fancy by many a reader. It was a large 

 field of barley grown from oats ! We have recently 

 dwelt upon some of the co-workings of Nature and Art 

 in the development of flowers and of several useful 

 plants But here is something stranger still, that seems 

 to diverge from the line of any law hitherto known in 

 the vegetable world. Still, for aught one can know ;it 



