EDINKUllGH TO THE ROMAN CAMP. 79 



pressed upon them, they were fain to admit that they 

 were not just in their line. Mr. Elackie, the 

 " Armourer to the Lanarkshire Militia/^ seems to 

 have read the meaning of the Society better, when he 

 entered their temple of industrious peace^ rot Avith 

 a new buckler or a helmet, but with a model of a 

 reaping machine ; and in 1825, two young Flemish 

 farmers were brought over, with an amateur inter- 

 preter, to instruct the districts in the use of the 

 Hainault scythe. 



Still, the Society never lost sight of their earliest 

 mission, and the newspapers were specially requested 

 to take notes of the probable ripening time of the Low- 

 land harvest, so as to prevent miscalculations on the 

 part of the Highland shearers and the public begging 

 which followed. The social questions which it grap- 

 pled with were not always strictly agricultural, as 

 the state of the Friendly Societies was looked into, 

 and the average was struck of health and- sickness 

 specially dividing bedfast and walking sickness. In- 

 door labour was not passed over; and spinning 

 hemp, making herring-nets, knitting worsted stock- 

 ings not less than twenty-four pairs, and worsted, not 

 less than twenty -four spindles and spun in the Hio-h- 

 lands, all formed subjects of competition. Eaising 

 the pile of wool on cloths, and spinning the greatest 

 quantity of Merino v/ool into broad-clotli not less 

 than 600 lbs. weight, originated with Sir John Sin- 

 clair, who had a flock of them within five miles of John 

 o^ Groat's, and once held quite a shepherd and shep- 



