east or from the mountains on the west; the lawns, the trees, the old house, picturesque in itself, and interesting in its associations, render Monboddo a most pleasant abode. In the time of the old judge it was no doubt bare enough. Where there are now lawns and flower-beds there most likely corn and turnips grew, for he was almost as fond of farming as he was of the ancients. When he received our travellers, "he was dressed," says Boswell, "in a rustic
Monboddo.
suit, and wore a little round hat. He told us we now saw him as Farmer Burnett, and we should have his family dinner—a farmer's dinner. He produced a very long stalk of corn as a specimen of his crop, and said, 'You see here the lætas segetes.'" An instance of his "agricultural enthusiasm" used to be recounted by Sir Walter Scott: "Returning home one night after an absence (I think) on circuit, he went out with a candle to look at a field of turnips, then a novelty in Scotland."[1] He had a glimpse, it should seem, of some
- ↑ Croker's Boswell, p. 288.
