he has only, with great difficulty, written a few farewell lines to each
of his brothers-in-law. For this melancholy reason, I now hold the pen
for him to thank you for your kind letter, and to assure you, Sir, that
it shall not be my fault if my father's correspondence in the north die
with him. My brother writes to John Caird,[6] and to him I must refer
you for the news of our family.

I shall only trouble you with a few particulars relative to the wretched
state of this country. Our markets are exceedingly high; oatmeal 17d.
and 18d. per peck, and not to be got even at that price. We have indeed
been pretty well supplied with quantities of white peas from England and
elsewhere, but that resource is likely to fail us, and what will become
of us then, particularly the very poorest sort, Heaven only knows. This
country, till of late, was flourishing incredibly in the manufacture of
silk, lawn, and carpet-weaving; and we are still carrying on a good deal
in that way, but much reduced from what it was. We had also a fine trade
in the shoe way, but now entirely ruined, and hundreds driven to a
starving condition on account of it. Farming is also at a very low ebb
with us. Our lands, generally speaking, are mountainous and barren; and
our land-holders, full of ideas of farming gathered from the English and
the Lothians, and other rich soils in Scotland, make no allowance for
the odds of the quality of land, and consequently stretch us much beyond
what in the event we will be found able to pay. We are also much at a
loss for want of proper methods in our improvements of farming.
Necessity compels us to leave our old schemes, and few of us have
opportunities of being well informed in new ones. In short, my dear Sir,
since the unfortunate beginning of this American war, and its as
unfortunate conclusion, this country has been, and still is, decaying
very fast. Even in higher life, a couple of Ayrshire noblemen, and the
major part of our knights and squires, are all insolvent. A miserable