368 HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of Parliament for the northern counties. In dealing with 

 the principal toast of the evening, the Duke adverted to 

 certain opinions recently vended by Professor Leoni Levi, 

 who sought to draw from some elaborate statistics the 

 conclusion that the Highland counties of Scotland were in 

 a verj' stagnant and backward condition. The Duke was 

 able to show that the Professor's opinions were altogether 

 erroneous, and, from quotations made from authorities such 

 as Mr Cosmo Innes in describing the Highlands in the 

 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, illustrated the great 

 progress which had been made by the northern counties. 

 Sheep-farming was introduced into the Highlands about 

 1764, and had proved as real an addition to the food- 

 producing capabilities of the country as if the tops of the 

 mountains had been for the first time reclaimed from the 

 ocean. One of the best proofs was the extraordinary 

 and almost incredible rise in the value of land during 

 the last hundred years. His Grace cited the case of one 

 estate, of which he had the complete rent roll of a hundred 

 years ago. This estate, at the conclusion of the civil war, 

 had a rental of only iJ"5ooo. It is no longer in possession 

 of one person, having fallen into separate hands ; but 

 the land, which from 1756 to 1760 represented only be- 

 tween iJ"5ooo and £6000 a year, now represents a rental of 

 nearly ;^70,ooo. Mr Gumming" Bruce having proposed the 

 health of the Chairman, the Duke, in returning thanks, 

 referred to his predecessor in the office of President, the 

 Duke of Athole, whose loss they still mourned. He trusted 

 that he would one day be succeeded in the chair by his 

 son, the present Duke of Athole. Sir George Macpherson 

 Grant gave the toast of the Judges, to which Mr Aitchison, 

 Linhope, responded. Sir Kenneth Mackenzie having given 

 the Successful Competitors, Mr Geddes, Orbliston, replied. 



The show at Inverness was the last conducted by Mr 

 Hall Maxwell. At the dinner, the President proposed the 

 health of Mr Maxwell, paying a high compliment to him 

 for his energy and ability. He said there may not be many 

 here present who have been in the position of being at the 



