The Husbandman's Assistant;

£2,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Very Rare. Edinburgh University and National Library of Scotland only in the UK; University of Kansas and Toronto only in the USA. OCLC adds a copy at the BL and University of Reading and New York Public Library. A second volume is mentioned throughout the book (and was clearly written) but it was never published as the author was transported to Australia in 1794 A wide-ranging practical husbandry manual specifically addressed to younger farm labourers (“this most useful class of men”) who were not from the land-owning classes and with a view to revolutionising Scottish agricultural practices. The author became embroiled in the widespread fears of uprising in the United Kingdom after the Revolution in France and the publication of Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man and was found guilty of distributing a radical pamphlet and transported to Australia where he died of dysentery in 1796. This book shows the strong influence of Skirving’s father, also William, and argues that it is essential for young people to learn practical agricultural skills, “to guide and determine the tender shoot of reason in the opening breast” (ix). Skirving’s book is particularly targeted at the sons of poorer farmers rather than, “young farmers, who,se parents are opulent” (xi). Skirving had studied at the University of Edinburgh before leasing a farm at Damhead in Haddingtonshire, this failed but he later inherited his father-in-law’s property including a farm at Strathruddie. Skirving notes: “I have observ

• Year: 1792

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