Preface to the First Edition. xi. 



was present at the attack on the Spanish Armada 

 in the year 1588. The family suffered much in 

 the civil wars, and one of them was knighted at 

 the Restoration for his loyalty to the Royal cause. 

 My late friend was born in 1843, succeeded his 

 father in 1861, and died in 1891 from an illness 

 contracted when travelling in India. He was a 

 man of many accomplishments and varied interests, 

 much travel in various parts of the world, and was 

 always a most agreeable companion. He was fond 

 of sport, a good man across country, and possessed 

 of all those physical and mental energies which are 

 indispensable to success in most branches of life. 

 Though he wrote and spoke on other subjects, 

 he was chiefly known for the great interest he 

 took in agriculture and fruit-growing, and also 

 for his experiments as regards the cultivation of 

 home-grown tobacco. But, as we have seen, the 

 work of greatest value to the agricultural world 

 was that connected with laying down land to 

 grass. This I followed up in Scotland, both by 

 writing, lecturing, and experimenting on a large 

 scale ; and if I have in any degree been the 

 means of improving the mixtures now being used, 

 and diminishing the weeds which the farmers 

 once sowed with their grass seeds, it is entirely 

 owing to the initiative of my late friend, the 

 consequential value of whose work it would, 



