Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/332

360 could not be collected to set the design on foot at that time, a foundation was laid, on which, under the auspices of his son, the late Sir William, and other benevolent and public spirited individuals, the present excellent structure at Morningside was ultimately reared.

The late benevolent Dr Johnston of Leith having formed, in 1792, a plan for the establishment of a Blind Asylum in Edinburgh, Sir William Forbes, both by liberal subscription and active exertion, greatly contributed to the success of the undertaking. He was the chairman of the committee appointed by the subscribers to draw up regulations for the establishment, and when the committee of management was appointed, he was nominated vice president, which situation he continued to hold with the most unwearied activity till the time of his death. Without descending farther into detail, it is sufficient to observe that, for the last thirty years of his life, Sir William was either at the head, or actively engaged in the management of all the charitable establishments of Edinburgh, and that many of the most valuable of them owed their existence or success to his exertions.

Nor was it only to his native city that his beneficent exertions were confined. The family estate of Pitsligo, having been forfeited to the crown in 1746, was brought to sale in 1758, and bought by Mr Forbes, lord Pitsligo's only son. His embarrassments, however, soon compelled him to bring the lower barony of Pitsligo to sale, and it was bought by Mr Garden of Troup: Sir William Forbes being the nearest heir of the family, soon after purchased 70 acres of the upper barony, including the old mansion of Pitsligo, now roofless and deserted. By the death of Mr Forbes in 1781, Sir William succeeded to the upper barony, with which he had now connected the old mansion house, and thus saw realized his early and favourite wish of restoring to his ancient family, their paternal inheritance.

The acquisition of this property, which, though extensive, was, from the embarrassments of the family, in a most neglected state, opened a boundless field for Sir William's active benevolence of disposition. In his character of landlord, he was most anxious for the improvement and happiness of the people on his estates, and spared neither time nor expense to effect it. He early commenced their improvement on a most liberal scale, and bent his attention in an especial manner to the cultivation of a large tract of moss which still remained in a state of nature. With this view he laid out in 1783, the village of New Pitsligo, and gave every assistance, by lending money, and forbearance in the exaction of rent, to the incipient exertions of the feuars. Numbers of poor cottars were established by his care on the most uncultivated parts of the estate, most of whom not only paid no rent for the land they occupied, but were pensioners on his bounty : a mode of proceeding which, although it brought only burdens on the estate at first, has since been productive of the greatest benefit by the continual application of that greatest of all improvements to a barren soil, the labour of the human hand. The value of this property, and the means of improvement to the tenantry, were further increased by the judicious purchase, in 1787, of the contiguous estates of Pittullie and Pittendrum, which by their situation on the sea-hore, afforded the means of obtaining in great abundance sea-ware for the lands. The liberal encouragement which he afforded soon brought settlers from all quarters: the great improvements which he made himself served both as a model and an incitement to his tenantry : the formation of the great road from Peterhead to Banff which passed through the village of New Pitsligo, and to which he largely contributed, connected the new feuars with those thriving sea ports; and before his death he had the satisfaction of seeing assembled on a spot which at his acquisition of the estate was a bar*