TJie late Charles liandcll. 
G81 
for Mr. Randell seems to me one of the best farmers of liis 
country." This French gentleman enters into every detail of 
the farm, the clay-burning, the cropping with vetches and other 
green food, the feeding sheep in pens on burnt clay, the in- 
genious hurdles for summer folding ; the cross-breeding of sheep 
and of pigs. He specially notices the greyhounds, with which 
at that time ]\lr. Randell was so successful ; ' and concludes his 
remarks by saying that in all these experiments Mr. Randell, 
who had been blamed at first by his neighbours, now found his 
example very generally followed. 
M. de Gourcy's description of the man seems to me to afford 
some insight into Mr. RandelFs conduct with regard to what I 
may call the scientific work of the Council. He had a mind 
capable of planning experiments, and exhibited patience and 
skill in practically carrying out the same. He had himself 
succeeded, and he believed there were many more amongst 
English agriculturists who possessed an equal originality of con- 
ception and fertility of resource. He did not, therefore, think 
it necessary for the Royal Agricultural Society to concern itself 
with general education, but rather to aim at encouragement of 
special agricultural education, and of enforcing that teaching by 
experiments carried out by what he called practical men. I fear 
his estimate of his fellow-agriculturists was too exalted in this 
respect. 
I have alluded at some length to this portion of Mr, Randell's 
work on the Council because the subjects referred to are still 
full of unsolved problems, and we have yet much to learn in 
them. Technical education in agriculture, differing opinions as 
to the efficacy of certain elements of manures, and other ques- 
tions in relation to agricultural chemistrj^, are still matters for 
discussion ; and when discussed we shall miss the powerful 
criticism he could bring to bear upon them. 
His labours in the Showyard Contracts Committee, of which 
for some years he was chairman, were marked with most satis- 
factory results, not merely in economy to the Society, but in the 
improvement of every detail of the yard. He strenuously advo- 
cated a restriction of our then costly trials of field implements, 
and to a great extent his views were adopted — viz. that the 
Society should only offer prizes for new implements, or impor- 
' Mr. Ravvlencc writes to me : " I first became acquainted with Mr. Eandell 
from meeting him at the coursing meetings on the Wiltshire Downs. I saw a 
great deal of him from 1845 to 1855, as he used to attend the Wiltshire 
coursing meetings and stay with my brother. He was as good a judge of a 
greyhound as he was of sheep, cattle, and horses ; he bred some very good dogs, 
and won some big stakes," 
