138 Some LETTERS OF PaTRICK MILLER. 
I could sell the ground for double the price of what it costs 
me. ’’55 
No wonder the ex-banker prosecuted his improvements with 
vigour, and one cannot but draw a comparison with the recent 
agricultural boom of the present day. Miller was not the only 
impoverished laird who took over and worked his own 
farms :— 
‘* Col. Maxwell, Sir William’s eldest son,® is become 
a farmer, but I am told he works with and as hard as any 
of his servants. Mr Wm. Grierson, Sir Robert’s 2nd son, 
farms in the same way. He sows out his own green 
[crop], directs his servants as to the best methods of 
drilling, dibbling, ploughing, etc., and in the season of 
early labour is never in his bed after 5 in the morning.’’*” 
Whatever financial returns he may have obtained, at least 
one of his forecasts seems somewhat too roseate :— 
‘* When I bought Dalswinton I gave for the farm of 
Pennylands £1200, and when the lease expired a few years 
since I wished to let it. I had different offers—the highest 
was £85 (where the former rent was £,45), which I would 
not accept, and determined to improve it myself. Now, 
in consequence of my labour and attention to this object, I 
expect in 2 years, if I can go on, to bring back all the 
money I have expended or may yet expend, to within 
1100 or £1500, and then to let the farm at £900 or 
#1000 a year. This I consider the greatest thing done in 
the agricultural way to the same extent in Scotland. 
Price of Pennyland ... oer = te) r200 
Expense of improvement not got back ... 1500 
£2700 
If let at 41000 a year and sold at 27 years’ purchase— 
£:27,000—gained £4 24,300.’ 
The last letter of the series shows Mr Miller in a different 
light, reminiscent and bellicose. For once he had inverted the 
usual trend of the correspondence and asked his son to help 
bim to borrow money. The son seems to have replied with 
