In Memoriam.— Tlie late Sir IV. Miles, Bart, M.P. 323 
manure, refuse from the glue manufactories, guano, several 
reports on different species of wheat selected bj the Council, 
cultivation of mangolds as compared with swedes, &c. Nor did 
he confine himself only to the results obtained in the field ; he 
sends analyses by Liebig, Davy, and Herepath — quotes a quaint 
old book on agriculture written by C. Venlo, and published at 
Winchester in 1773, describing experiments on wheat culture 
at that period. Again, he is Chairman of the Local Com- 
mittee at Bristol in 1842, down at Pusey watching trials of 
ploughs, lending his own steam engines at Leigh Court in 
order that some experiments may be made in consequence of 
a protest in 1847, and in every way showing the most lively 
interest in the welfare of the Society. And all this time he 
was Member for East Somerset, for which division of the county 
he sat from 1834 until his voluntary retirement in 1865, and 
at the same period was for thirty-five years Chairman of 
Quarter Sessions. He was no idle politician ; he took a very 
decided line as a partizan, and threw into this pursuit his 
characteristic warmth and ardour. Indeed he appears to me to 
have well represented the class of English country gentlemen — 
a keen sportsman, a hard rider with Sir R. Sutton at Lincoln 
in his youth, an earnest politician, an able magistrate, an en- 
lightened agriculturist, and a warm-hearted friend. It is to men 
like him who sat on the early Council of the Society, that we 
owe much of the large spirit which has guided its discussions. 
Its founders, of whom Sir W. Miles was one, were generally men 
who combined a love of agriculture with keen political instincts ; 
but both in the Council and the Showyard party feelings were 
forgotten ; and, whether Whig or Tory, Protectionist or Free 
Trader, they worked harmoniously for the interests of the agri- 
culture which they loved, and, by their example, handed down a 
traditional good feeling to their successors in the Council, which 
I am happy to think exists at this day as strong as ever. 
I am, truly yours, 
John Dent Dent. 
Bibston Hall, 31st December, 1878. 
In Memokiam. By Sir B. T. Brandreth Gibbs, Vice- 
President of the Society. 
By the death of Sir William Miles, Bart, (late M.P. for 
Somersetshire), the Society has lost one of its original Members 
of Council, and one who served the offices of Steward of Imple- 
ments, of Vice-President, and of President. 
To fully trace his connection with the Society would almost 
involve writing its early history, or, at least, an account of the 
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