36 EARLY SOCIETIES. 



(daughter of the great military commander, the Earl of Peter- 

 borough, the friend of Pope and Swift), offered a prize of 

 five guineas for ' the greatest number of useful experiments 

 in agriculture ;' but ' nothing of sufficient merit ' was pro- 

 duced. A prize was offered by the Society for the best 

 dissertation on soils and their different natures ; but noth- 

 ing of merit was obtained. A silver medal by the Society 

 for the best dissertation on manures was, after an interval, 

 adjudged to Mr Alex. Ainslie, surgeon in Haddington. A 

 prize for the best dissertation on tillage failed to produce an 

 essay ; and for a gold medal for the best model of a plough, 

 nothing of sufficient merit was brought forward. For a 

 prize to the farmer who shall save and dress the greatest 

 quantity of well ripened red clover seed, there was ' nothing 

 produced.' A prize of two guineas offered to the farmer 

 who should save and dress the greatest quantity of rye grass 

 seed not under 20 bolls, was awarded to Alexander Reid at 

 Hatton Mains. So far as we are aware, this is the first 

 prize adjudged in Scotland for seed. Silver cups were 

 offered in 1756 for ale and porter, and were won as in the 

 previous year, the former by Bartholomew Bell, and the 

 latter by Archibald Campbell, both in Edinburgh. Silver 

 medals for the best sealing Avax and the best wafers were 

 both won by Mr Waterston, Edinburgh.* 



In 1757 considerable changes were made in the mana- 

 gers of the Edinburgh Society. The Duke of Queensberry 

 and the Earls of Lauderdale and Hopetoun are extra- 

 ordinary directors; Lord Deskford from being an ordinary 



by her counsels, during the first twenty years of her residence in Scot- 

 land, two Morayland proprietors, Sir Robert Gordon of Gordonstown, and a 

 gentleman named Dunbar, and one Ross-shire laird, Sir William Gordon of 

 invergordon, set about the draining and planting of their estates and 

 the introduction of improved modes of culture, including the sowing of 

 French grasses.' This lady's early efforts are even anterior to the operations 

 of the Society of Improvers ; and, as Dr Chambers observes, ' it is remarkable 

 that Scotland should have received her first impulse towards agricultural 

 improvements from England, which we have in recent times seen, as it were, 

 sitting at her feet, as a pupil in all the various particulars of superior economy.' 



* The firms of Mr Waterston, stationer, and Mr Campbell, brewer, are still 

 in existence. 



