74 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
tions, and being withal a man of strong sense, and of a frank and social humour-
an easy landlord-a reasonable master1-a skilful farmer-and very
intelligent in country affairs, he was much liked and respected in his rural circle ;
and was often resorted to by his neighbours of all ranks, as a safe and a fair
referee, for the settlement of such controversies as occasionally arose among
them. He was, moreover, a correct and careful man of business-understood
figures well-and seemed indeed to find a pleasure in arithmetical operations ;
insomuch, that he never engaged in any material undertaking, of which he had
not. previously calculated, as far as possible, the utmost cost of the ultimate
result.
In allusion to this habit of his, his brother the historian expresses himself
thus, in a letter (19th March 1751) written to his relation, Mrs. Sandilands
Dysert, on the eve of John’s marriage-“ Dear Madam,-Our friend, at last,
plucked up a resolution, and has ventured on that dangerous encounter. He
went off on Monday morning ; and this is the first action in his life, wherein
he has engaged himself, without being able to compute exactly the consequences.
But what arithmetic can serve to fix the proportion between good and bad
wives, and rate the different classes of each? Sir Isaac Newton himself, who
could measure the courses of the planets, and weigh the earth as in a pair of
scales, even he had not algebra enough to reduce that amiable part of our species
to a just equation ; and they are the only heavenly bodies whose orbits are as
yet uncertain.”
Though not to be termed a scholar (in the English sense of the word), John
Home was, however, not without a fair tincture of literature, classic as well as
modern, especially history and belles lettres ; and ordinarily enjoyed the evening
over a book, Latin or French, as ofte,n as English. He was about the middle
stature-not much under six feet-and of a: stout and muscular, but not a
fleshy frame. To this he did not spare to give ample exercise on all occasions j
by which means, joined to the most temperate habits, he maintained uniform
good health till towards the close of a life of seventy-seven years,* He was of a
keen and animated countenance, with a florid complexion, a clear grey eye, and
well formed features, which were set off to some advantage in his old age, by his
grey locks, which fell in full curls (though these are not given in the Print) on
,
1 “Add Patie Johnston,” tenant of Ninewells’ mill, used to allege that he and his forefathers
had held the mill as tenants for at least as many generations as the Homes had held the property.
They certainly had possessed the mill for a very long period of time.
Joseph
Watson, the gardener, had never been in any other service ; and he died at the age of ninety, in the
gardener’s house at Ninewells. He had long been relieved of the labours of the garden by a worthy
and ingenious young man, his son Thomas.
a He never followed the hounds, or used the fowling-piece ; but he was a keen and a deadly hand
with the leister or salmon spear. The Whitadder runs along the lands of Ninewells ; and the clear
waters of that pleasant stream were often stained with the bloody tokens of his prowm in that
joyous and manly sport Occasionally, on an emergency, in the cloae of 8 wet and broken harvest,
the old gentleman did not think it unsuitable to join his servants for some hours in their exertions
to save the crop, and was seen to follow the loading wain along the ridge, and deliver the sheaves
(which he did with much euergy and rapidity) from the pitch-fork in his own hand into the wain.
David Waite, John Home’s house-servant, held that station for sixty yean or thereby.
