Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/269

Rh tate so early as 1725, and Alexander Wight, one of his tenants, was probably the first man in the island who sowed them in drills, and cultivated them with the plough. The culture of this valuable root was brought by him to such perfection, that, in 1735, a turnip of his raising, weighing 34¾ lbs, was carried to Edinburgh, and hung up in John's Coffee-house as a show.

Even while engaged in his public duties in England, Mr Cockburn was constantly reverting in thought to the improvements he had set on foot in East Lothian, and he carried on a constant correspondence with his tenants respecting the progress of their mutual plans. In some of these letters he breathes the strongest sentiments of benevolence and patriotism. "No person," says he to Mr Alexander Wight in 1725, " can have more satisfaction in the prosperity of his children, than I have in the welfare of persons situated on my estate. I hate tyranny in every shape; and shall always show greater pleasure in seeing my tenants making something under me, they can call their own, than in getting a little more money myself, by squeezing a hundred poor families, till their necessities make them my slaves."

His proceedings were at first the subject of ridicule among the more narrow-minded of his neighbours; but the results in time overpowered every mean feeling, and gradually inspired a principle of imitation. In 1726, he encouraged his tenant Alexander Wight, in setting up a malting brewery, and distillery, which soon got into repute, and promoted the raising of grain in the neighbourhood. As a preliminary step to further improvements, he reformed the village of Ormiston, changing it from the original mean and squalid hamlet into a neat and \yell built street. He then commenced a series of operations for setting up a linen manufactory. This he considered as one of the staple trades of Scotland, and as the best support of the general interest. He viewed it as intimately connected with husbandry ; the land affording an opportunity of producing the raw article to the manufacturers; while they in return furnished hands for carrying on agricultural works, especially in harvest, and for the consumption of its various produce. To attain these objects, an eminent undertake from Ireland, both in the manufacturing and whitening of linen, was induced to take up his residence at Ormiston; and a favourable lease of a piece of ground for a bleachfield and some lands in the neighbourhood was granted to him. This was the first bleachfield in East Lothian, probably the second in Scotland for, before 1730, fine linens were sent to Haarlem in Holland to be whitened and dressed. It is said that this Irish colony was the means of introducing the potato in Scotland, at least as an object of field culture; and that valuable root was raised in the grounds on this estate so early as 1734. Mr Cockburn also introduced some workmen from Holland, to give instructions in the art of bleaching. He obtained, for his rising manufactory, the patronage of the Board of Trustees, and likewise some pecuniary aid.

About the year 1736, the progress of agricultural improvement at Ormiston had excited so much notice all over Scotland, that Mr Cockburn, always awake to every circumstance which could forward his darling object, seized upon such a notable opportunity of disseminating useful knowledge among his brother proprietors and their tenantry. He instituted what was called the Ormiston Society, composed of noblemen, gentlemen, and farmers, who met monthly for the discussion of some appropriate question in rural economy, settled upon at their former meeting, on which question all the members present delivered their opinion. This club lasted for about eleven years, and was of great service in promoting the views of its founder. It consisted at last of one hundred and six members, comprising almost all the best intellects of Scotland at that time.

Mr Cockburn was married, first, in 1700, to the Hon. Miss Beatrix Car-