The Gentlemen's Stall in the West of Scotland are now in a more deserted state than they have been in for many years. Very few of the proprietors reside at them, chiefly, as we were informed, from not having the means (owing to the diminution of their rents, and other causes) of keeping up the requisite establishments, and paying the interest of the mortgages or other encumbrances on their estates. In consequence of this, it will not excite wonder that we found very few gardens kept up in a suitable style. Before this evil can be remedied, material changes must take place in the laws relating to real property, and more especially in the laws of entail and of primogeniture, the evils of which were pointed out by Lord Gardenstone to his countrymen more than fifty years ago. It is proper to mention that the changes which have taken place in the money rent of the land, and in the price of territorial productions, have not been the sole cause of the present neglected state of gentlemen's seats in the line of country through which we passed. A few have overbuilt themselves; and a few also have curtailed their means by gambling or electioneering expenses. The prevailing cause, however, of the sufferings of the Scotch landed proprietors we believe to be the great extent of their mortgages; and as it is clear to us that the means of paying off these, or at least the interest of them, will, in the great majority of cases, rather diminish than increase, the sooner the mortgagors are authorised by the legislature to sell part of their estates, the better it will be both for themselves and the public. It has been shown in a late number of the Edinburgh Review that more than half the landed property in Scotland is very strictly entailed.
