XII 



MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. 



shall presently advert to the success which ultimately 

 followed his repeated experiments in transplanting, to 

 which object of rural improvement he latterly more parti- 

 cularly confined his attention, after his property in general 

 had been improved to as great an extent at least as was 

 usual at that time, when a practical knowledge of agri- 

 culture was neither so common, nor had attained the per- 

 fection which at present it has reached. Accordingly Sir 

 Henry devoted his attention, for the greater part of his 

 life to the discovery of those principles of arboriculture, 

 which could only be deduced from a long and careful 

 practice of experiments, whose results are detailed in the 

 following work. 



While employed, however, in making experiments in the 

 park at AUanton , with a view of discovering the best 

 system of transplanting, Sir Henry began to indulge his 

 literary tastes, and one of his first publications was con- 

 nected with a subject of great public interest — the most 

 available means, namely, of supplying the Scottish metro- 

 polis with coal — which was then beginning to be worked 

 on an extensive scale in many parts of Lanarkshire. 

 Considerable difference of opinion, about the commence- 

 ment of the present century, prevailed respecting the best 

 line for forming a junction canal for the conveyance of 

 coal to Edinburgh and elsewhere ; and, "at the urgent 

 request of many persons who were interested in this 

 undertaking, Sir Henry published a pamphlet on this 

 subject, in opposition to one which had previously ap- 

 peared, and which advocated the adoption of a line which 

 was not generally approved of by most of the coal pro- 

 prietors in the county. Nor was this a question of mere 

 local interest, but one of much practical importance to the 

 country in general. Edinburgh, and many parts of Scot- 

 land, particularly during the rigorous winters about the 



