126 SoME LETTERS OF Patrick MILLER. 
letters are full of exhortations and indignant recriminations 
between father and son relating to the latter’s extravagance, 
nor is there need to dwell on this aspect save in so far as it 
illustrates the father’s character. But what is of most in- 
terest are the references to Miller’s successful efforts to 
improve agriculture, and his estate of Dalswinton, a very 
notable performance, eclipsed, however, by his steamboat. 
Only echoes of his inventions are to be heard. 
‘* Your father went for Carron on Wednesday evening. 
I had a line from him since he got the length of Linlithgow, 
and was to breakfast at Carron! next morning. I wish 
from the bottom of my heart the experiment may answer 
his expectation. ’’2 
But the perfecting of the steam engine dragged. In 1790 
Miller writes : 
‘“ T have had little time to attend to the business of the 
steam engine. By a letter from Mr Taylor’ after trying 
the wheels which I ordered to be made, I found the vessel 
was made to go seven miles an hour. ‘This is a great deal 
on the first tryals considering the vessel was not built for 
the purpose.’’ 
Miller was a deputy governor of the Bank of Scotland, and 
seems to have used that Bank to finance his experiments. 
“Your father went to Edinburgh on Sunday to be pre- 
sent at the election of the Bank of Scotland, when the 
Treasurer of the Navy was chosen governor and himself 
deputy.° Here their interests clash again. This same 
Treasurer had lent your father as sincere a hand in the 
business of his ships, as he has [asked?] him to clear some 
thousands in this Bank. I wish from my heart he had been 
content with steering the helm in his own line. It would 
have saved him much money and much uneasiness which 
he now feels by not knowing how to dispose of them.’’é 
Two months later, Miller was again in Edinburgh, “‘ finally 
to settle and send off the experiment.’’? 
Two of these letters give an account of the founding of the 
County Club ‘‘ to cultivate good neighbourhood and to obtain, 
twice a month for gentlemen when they go to Dumfries, the 
