volumes of that work has been recently dedicated to him. Mr. Dempster now resides constantly at Dunnichen-house, in the parish of the same name, which is situate in the county of Forfar. Approaching near to that time of life which will class him among the Octogenarians, he can look back with satisfaction to the space that has already elapsed, and contemplating the mprovement and happiness around, produced by the labours of nearly half a century, be almost exempt from the reproach of the great might say, with more truth, arms must give way to the wool the gown is made of. "At the height of four hundred feet above the level of the sea, and ten miles removed from it, I dare not venture on spring wheat, but I have had one advantage from my elevation, my autumn wheat has been covered with snow most of the winter, through which its green shoots peep very prettily. I have sometimes believed that this hardy grain is better calculated for our cold climate than is generally thought, if sown on well cleaned and dunged land, very early, perhaps by the end of September, so as to be in ear when we get our short scorch of heat from 15 July to 15 August, and to profit by it. I was pleased with your recommending married farm-servants. I don't value mine a rush till they marry the lass they like. On my farm of 120 acres, I can shew such a crop of thriving human stock as delights me. From five to seven years of age, they gather my potatoes at Id. 2d. and 3d. per day, and the sight of such a joyous busy field of industrious happy creatures revives my old age. Our dairy fattens them like pigs; our cupboard is their apothecary's shop; and the old casten clothes of the family, by the industry of their mothers, look like birthday suits on them. Some of them attend the groom to water his horses; some the carpenter's shop, and all go to the parish school in the winter time whenever they can crawl the length." Roman, who was pleased to exclaim, "that he had lost a day!" Within that space of time he has drained the moss of Dunnichen, and besides adding to the cultivated surface of his estate, has been rewarded with an abundance of marl,* situate nearly 400 feet above the level of the sea. The Peat Bog of Resteneth, consisting of about 70 acres, has at a later period been subdued, and marl to the amount of about 14,0001. dug from its bottom in the space of fourteen years. Within a short distance of the family mansion, the village of Letham has risen as if by magic, at his bidding. He has feued out the land to the sons of toil, and there is already to be found a stampoffice and a weekly market, for the sale of yarn and brown linen manufactures, which he has zealously exerted himself to promote. Nor ought it to be forgotten, amidst objects of superior import, that he was the first to teach his countrymen to pack their fresh salmon in ice, both of which commodities find a ready sale in the metropolis of the empire, But it is almost peculiar to this celebrated man, that those schemes in which he has failed, are to the full as beneficent, and but for a rare occurrence of events, equally practicable, and perhaps still *This is produced by the deposition of innumerable shells, with the rich animal substances contained within them. These chiefly consist of the " Helix Animal Limax,” and the "Tellina, Animal Tethys" of Linnæus, more meritorious, than those in which he has succeeded! “Omnibus qui patriam conservaverint, adjuverint, auxerint, certus est in cœlo & definitus locus, ubi beati ævo sempiterno fruantur."-Cicero, Som. Scip. MARQUIS OF LOTHIAN, THERE are a few well-known faces, which become by degrees familiar to individuals, and after a superficial acquaintance of thirty or forty years, are in some measure interesting, if not dear to the public. Let any one, long accustomed to a town life, (if such a person can be supposed to possess any sentiment!) be asked, if he does not in the course of time acquire a habit of contemplating certain persons, with whom, perhaps, he has never interchanged a single word, with a considerable degree of complacency? Does he not behold, with the return of every winter, a few men of fashion, beyond the middle term of life, whom he has been accustomed to meet for a series of years, in St. James'sstreet, Pall-mall, or New Bond-street, and does not their re-appearance, after their summer's excursion, gladden his cheek, and impress his heart with a certain degree of satisfaction? Yes! and if both the parties reciprocally possessed but that degree of good-nature, which the French denominate bonhommie, they would bow to each other at Paris, converse in Philadelphia, and in all probability shake hands at Constantinople, or Canton! The writer of the present article finds himself exactly in this predicament, and when an old dowager, or an aged nobleman or gentleman, whom he has been accustomed, for a series of years, to see either driving or walking about the metropolis, goes off the stage, he feels the same kind of disagreeable sensation, as one of our modern GALILEOS, when, with his glass adjusted to the proper focus, and firmly fixed on its moveable axis, he sweeps the heavens in vain for a last look at a new comet, which has just sunk, perhaps for ever, below the horizon. For many years he had beheld in all fashionable places, a nobleman small in stature, but well made, with a star on his left breast, and the roses still unaccountably blooming on checks that had experienced the rigors of many northern winters. He was accustomed to meet him constantly in the neighbourhood of St. James's, with a smart cocked hat, finely plumed, a wig carefully dressed in the extremity of the fashion, a coat embroidered so as to prove suitable to an officer of cavalry, and a pair of boots which reflected every object around with such precision, that the then adjutant of his own regiment, or one of our modern Adonis's, might have contemplated his own handsome face in it, without the aid of a mirror! At Covent Garden or Drury Lane, this same General was usually to be seen in the King's box; and at every review of the horse guards, the same handsome little man, mounted on a foaming charger, with rich housings, was always present in Hyde Park. After enjoying this sight for many years, a sudden eclipse took place, and he was extremely mortified, on the return of several succeeding winters, as well as on the re-appearance of as many springs, that this gay and gaudy tulip no longer lifted its head in the parterre of fashion. At length, after a variety of fruitless enquiries, while riding through an obscure town in Hampshire, he accidentally beheld the same person, the same star, and the same blooming countenance, at the window of a genteel house, and as he is not always master of his own impulses, he involuntarily stretched out his hand to his beaver, and bowing with a certain degree of respectful diffidence, experienced a very courtly salutation in return; so that the whole scene, although it consisted only of dumb-shew, which, translated into intelligible English, seemed to say, "Good Heavens after so many years absence, we have met once more!" There was neither look nor gesture that seemed to intimate a plain truth-" and, indeed, we are both somewhat worse for wear." The nobleman of whom we are about to treat in the following brief memoir, is descended from a very ancient and illustrious family. The Kerrs, or Kers, are supposed to have come originally from Normandy, and to have settled first in the county of Lancaster. From Kerr, of Kerr-Hall, in that |
