CHAPTER LII. 



CHAIR OF AGRICULTURE. 



In 1789, a course of lectures on agriculture and other 

 agrestic subjects was proposed to be delivered by the Rev. 

 Dr John Walker, Professor of Natural History in the 

 University of Edinburgh (who was elected an honorary 

 member of the Society in 1789), under the countenance 

 and encouragement of the Highland Society ; and at the 

 General Meeting on 12th January 1790, it was resolved to 

 recommend to the members to attend the Professor's 

 lectures.* 



Soon thereafter, the Chair of Agriculture in the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh was instituted, and was endowed, by 

 the gift of a private individual — the late Sir William 

 Pulteney, Bart, M.P.-f — with ^50 a year ; since which 

 period a class of agriculture has been regularly taught. 



In 1829, Mr Sinclair, yr. of Ulbster, suggested to the 

 Society the expediency of patronising a series of lectures 

 on subjects connected with agriculture and rural economy, 

 such as used to be given occasionally at the Board of 

 Agriculture in London, by Sir Humphrey Davy, Mr Arthur 

 Young, and others. The intention was to endeavour to 

 induce Dr Coventry to give a course of lectures beyond the 

 walls of the College, the feeling being entertained by many 



* Evidence that lectures had been delivered about 1 790 is furnished by a 

 letter in the Farmers' Magazine, vol. ix., published in 1808, where a writer 

 says, 'The late Dr Walker, Professor of Natural History, read lectures on 

 Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh, which I attended more than 

 twenty years ago.' The date in the Society's records is, as above, 1790. 



t Sir William Pulteney (then Mr Johnstone) was admitted a member of 

 the Faculty of Advocates in 1751, and practised at the Edinburgh bar, but 

 afterwards went to England, where he married Miss Pulteney, niece of the 

 Earl of Bath, by whom he acquired a princely fortune, and changed his name 

 from Johnstone to Pulteney. He had a seat in seven successive Parliaments, 

 and died member for Shrewsbury on 30th May 1805, aged seventy-six. 



2 F 



