246 HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



RoUo. Sir William Maxwell, Sir John S. Forbes, &c. The 

 health of the Duke of Buccleuch and the Peerage was 

 proposed by Sir James Graham. Sir James referred to the 

 chantred times on the Borders, when he, a descendant of a 

 mosstrooper, claimed to be a friend of the bold Buccleuch. 

 He spoke of the noble Marquis who presided over the 

 meeting as one who, when in full possession of his 

 hereditary honours and position, preferred not the ease of 

 home, but the perils of the tented field, and the privations 

 of the bivouac ; and whose glory was not in his hereditary 

 possessions, or that he was born a marquis, but that he had 

 been a comrade, an honoured and approved comrade in 

 arms, of the unconquered Wellington. Quoting Scott's 

 lines on Constancy in Rokeby, canto 5 — 



Constant still in danger's hour, 



Princes own'd our fathers' aid ; 

 Lands and honours, wealth and power, 



Well their loyalty repaid. 

 Perish wealth, and power, and pride ! 



Mortal boons by mortals given ; 

 But let constancy abide, — 



Constancy's the gift of Heaven — 



Sir James concluded a speech of great eloquence by adjur- 

 ing the Duke of Buccleuch and his family to be constant, 

 standing firm alike between legal tyranny on the one hand, 

 and popular frenzy on the other, a position which would 

 secure that they would remain unconquered till the 

 latest time. Mr Hope Johnstone proposed the toast of the 

 Tenantry of Scotland, which was replied to in a speech of 

 much eloquence by Mr Aitchison, Menzion, Peeblesshire. 

 The Chairman gave the health of Mr Heathcote, who at 

 the meeting had exhibited his steam plough in operation 

 on Lochar Moss. The machine, as constructed by Mr 

 Heathcote, was only adapted for working in mossy soil. 



