notable a witness to the triumph of moral rectitude as to the success which attends intellectual intrepidity and astuteness. Immersed in the affairs of the world, they have never shut their ears to the demands of religion. Their giving has been princely; and no better examples could be found of those who have scattered and yet have

increased. If they have come to have the privileges of wealth, they have certainly realised in the fullest measure its grave responsibilities.

The Bairds are the largest employers of labour in Scotland, and it is somewhat difficult to realise the full extent of their operations and engagements. Their

business not only extends throughout the west of Scotland, they have also extensive mining interests in England and Spain. They both lease and own extensive coalfields. They have 36 blast furnaces, capable of producing 1200 tons of iron per day. They are also extensive manufacturers of chemicals, of briquettes, and of coke. Altogether they employ about 10,000 men and boys; and, from the beginning of the firm until now, so perfect is the book-keeping system which they have instituted, that every workman can have his wages at call, and every transaction in the most remote departments be immediately brought into view. It is at once apparent that the growth of such a firm, so extensive in its ramifications, and so perfect in its management, is a credit to Scotland, and may well claim the attention both of the philosopher and political economist.

With the parish of Kilsyth the Bairds are very closely identified. Coal had been known to exist from Reformation times, but until they entered the field its enormous and valuable resources lay to a large extent dormant. Their capital and energy have made Kilsyth largely what it is. If it had been possible for them to have spoiled the natural beauty of its configuration they must have done so long ago. Wherever one turns one's eyes one sees those vast hills, than which there could be no more potent witness of the enormous activity of the armies of coal and ironstone miners far down in the dark bowels of the earth. They have covered the parish with a network of railways. All the day their locomotives are seen scudding along the lines; all the livelong night is heard the sobbing of their engines at the numerous pits. There are no paths so sequestered where you do not meet groups of men, for the work goes on night and day

all the year round without intermission. At night the deep oranges and reds and blues of the hearths, where the ironstone is calcined, lend to the landscape a lurid and somewhat fearful appearance. The Kilsyth coal is largely used for the manufacture of coke. It is first broken by concentric wheels; then, in a form resembling rough quarry powder, it is poured into fire-brick ovens, where it undergoes the process of conversion. The grinding mill and ovens at Kilsyth cover several acres of ground, and the coke-works themselves form a very valuable local industry. Everything to which the Bairds set their hands bears the stamp of progress and enlightenment. In every department they stand in line with the scientific discoveries of the day. In the past year they have utilised the enormous waste of heat which formerly took place in the coke ovens. With the generated gas they now heat the boilers of one of their most important pits closely adjoining. But, notwithstanding all this mining activity, the country is neither black nor bleak. The rainfall is more than usually abundant, and the parish preserves all the year round an appearance singularly fresh and green.

The Bairds first got a footing in Kilsyth in 1860, when they took a thirty years' lease of Currymire. The firm then consisted of the following members-William Baird, Esq., of Elie; James Baird, Esq., of Cambusdoon and Auchmedden; George Baird, Esq., of Strichen; Alexander Whitelaw, Gartsherrie House; and David Wallace, residing at Glasgow, all ironmasters, and carrying on business at Gartsherrie, in the parish of Old Monkland. In 1869 the firm entered on the lease of the Haugh, and the members were the same, with the exception that William Baird of Elie having died, William Weir, Crookedholm, was now assumed into partnership. The history of the Bairds is to be found in the estate

offices of Lanarkshire, in which county they had been known as respectable farmers for generations. The shield of the Auchmedden family bears a wild boar passant; but there is a tradition that it was originally a bear. The story is, that, as William the Lion was hunting in one of the counties of the west of Scotland, and happening to straggle from his attendants, he was alarmed by the approach of a wild bear. Crying for help, a gentleman of the name of Baird, who had followed the King from England, ran up, and had the good fortune to kill the bear. For this service, the King made a considerable addition to the lands he had already given him, and assigned him for his coat-of-arms a bear passant, with the motto, Dominus fecit. A reputed foot of the slain bear is still in the possession of a member of the family.

The ancestors of the Gartsherrie Bairds were tenants of the farms of High Cross and Kirkwood. In the national religious struggle they took the side of the Covenanters, and one of them, in 1683, was fined one hundred pounds for refusing to recognise the curate settled in Cathcart. Wodrow names, as one who participated in the sufferings of the time, "a worthy, judicious man, James Baird, in or near Strathaven." The first in the family line who rises before us, possessing a distinct individuality, is Alexander Baird of Kirkwood, who was so famous for his physical strength that he got the name of "double-ribbed Sandy." He was the greatgreat-grandfather of James Baird of Cambusdoon.

The father of the Bairds who first constituted the firm of "W. Baird & Co." was Alexander Baird, born at Woodhead on the 12th May, 1765. He was a most enterprising farmer, and after a number of years of successful agricultural industry, he rose to a position of con

siderable influence in Lanarkshire. In his day the agriculture of the county was still in a very backward state. The only instruments used were the plough and the harrow, and they were both of wood. The work of the field labourer was excessively hard. He was, however, exceedingly willing, and with plough and flail and sickle and clod-hammer, he performed incredible feats of endurance and activity. The farm houses were of the most primitive kind. At a meeting of the heritors of Old Monkland, when the schoolmaster appeared and complained of the state of his house, and particularly that "the wind blew in under the door," Mr. Baird, who was present, replied-"Oh, that's nothing; the dog comes in under mine." The house was covered with tiles. The sons slept in the garret, and they frequently awoke in winter with the coverlet of their bed sprinkled with the snow blown in through the chinks.

A man of energy and foresight, in addition to his farms, he began in April, 1809, the working of coal on his own account, having acquired from the tenants the lease of the Woodside coal-work, near Dalserf. In 1816, he further acquired from Miss Alexander, of Airdrie House, a lease of the coal-field of Rochsolloch. William, the eldest son, who had been bred as a farmer, but who disliked the occupation, being a good book-keeper, was placed in charge of the new acquisition. The adventure so prospered under his management that his brother Alexander was installed in Glasgow as salesman. Being now thoroughly satisfied of the ability of his sons, in 1823 he took from Mr. Buchanan of Drumpellier the coal pit of Merryston. The former tenants had failed, but, chiefly owing to the energy of James, the colliery now became a first-rate concern. After having done his best and spent a large sum, the proprietors, taking