20 LIFE OF 



I shall esteem myself favoured by any application to me upon 

 the subject, and will immediately upon receiving it lay it before 

 his imperial majesty. 



" I have the honour to be, 



" Your obedient humble servant, 



"N. NOVOSSILZOFF." 



Mr. Knight had, in 1799, received a gift from George III. of a 

 Merino ram, some of which had been imported for the purpose of 

 improving the wool of the native breeds of sheep ; and he had 

 obtained a mixed breed, between the Merino and the Ryeland, 

 to which he for some years paid much attention, and had regu- 

 larly reported the result of these experiments to Sir JosephBanks. 

 Not many years before his death, he imported some Norwegian 

 ponies, which, though neither particularly handsome nor active, 

 he thought, from their great strength and hardy habits, were 

 likely to effect an improvement in the breed of horses adapted to 

 agricultural and other uses, where strength and hardihood are 

 more valuable qualities than spirit or beauty. A cross with the 

 London dray-horse produced some animals combining many of 

 the good qualities of both parents. 



It was during his annual visit to the metropolis, in the 

 spring of 1803, that he was introduced, by their mutual 

 friend Sir Joseph Banks, to Sir Humphrey (then Mr.) Davy, 

 who was about to deliver a course of lectures on " the Chemistry 

 of Agriculture," before the Board of Agriculture, and who was 

 anxious to avail himself of Mr. Knight's experience and en- 

 lightened views on some of the points on which he had to treat. 



The acquaintance thus begun soon ripened into a warm 

 friendship, and a correspondence commenced which was con- 

 tinued, with few interruptions, till the lamented death of Sir 

 Humphrey in 1829. 



Mr. Davy visited Mr. Knight at Elton in the summer of 

 1803, in company with Mr. Greenough, with whom he was 

 proceeding to make a tour in Wales and Ireland ; and for many 

 years afterwards he rarely failed to spend some days either 



