MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. 



xix 



tlie interest of his brotlier-in-law Sir James Steuart, a 

 younger son of the Steuarts of Ooltness, then secretary of 

 state in the reign of James II., and, on his declining it, it 

 was given to his cousin Sir Robert Steuart of AUanbank. 



We come now, after passing over an interval of several 

 years, during which Sir Henry was occupied with his ex- 

 periments in arboriculture, and the creation, as we may 

 term it, of the Park at AUanton, to the publication of the 

 first edition of the "Planter's Guide," in 1828. It is 

 foreign to the object of this memoir to enter upon any of 

 the details of Sir Henry's new system of Transplanting, 

 especially as this has been sufficiently done in the work 

 itself, in the report of the Highland Agricultural Society, 

 (a deputation from which waited upon Sir Henry at 

 AUanton,) and in the several leading periodicals, namely, 

 the Quarterly, Edinburgh, and Westminster Reviews, and 

 also in Blackwood's Magazine, in all of which the author 

 received the highest commendations.*" The Report of the 

 Highland Society (among the members of whose deputa- 

 tion we find the names of Lord Belhaven, Lord Core- 

 house, and Sir Walter Scott) is appended to both the 

 former and the present editions of the " Planter's Guide," 

 and contains a full though succinct statement of the 

 improvements in the Park at AUanton, towards the close 

 of the year 1823. After a careful inspection of Sir 

 Henry's whole plan of operations, and the result of his 

 repeated experiments since nearly the commencement of 

 the century, the committee closed their Report with the 

 foUowing remarks, expressive of their high approval of the 

 new system and its results : — " Upon the whole, it is 



* Sir Walter Scott contributed the admirable article which appeared in the 

 Quarterly Review, March 1828; and the equally able review of the "Planter's 

 Gviide " in BlackicoocV s Magazine, during the same year, was from the pen of 

 Professor Wilson. Dr Southwood Smith was the author of the article in the 

 Westminster Review about the same period. 



