[45] In the 40th volume of the "Annals of Agriculture," an account is given of the Holkham Sheep-shearing for 1803, and in the list of the company is the name of "Mr. Professor Davy."--At the meeting of 1808, he was also present, and is mentioned as the great chemist, whose discoveries will immortalize his name. Mr. Coke, in the course of his speech after dinner, alluding to the question of long and short dung, said, "It is the opinion of a friend of mine, who sits near me, Professor Davy, and upon whose judgment, on account of his extensive chemical as well as other scientific knowledge, I place the highest reliance, that the manure carried immediately on the field, without being disturbed, will have a greater effect in exciting rapid vegetation, and in encouraging the growth of the turnip plant, than when applied in the ordinary manner; for, under such circumstances, it will not only be more moist and alkaline, but it will be protected from a loss of substance, amounting very nearly to one-third of its original bulk." Davy afterwards, in company with the Duke of Bedford, Lord William Russell, Lord Thanet, Sir Joseph Banks, and other agriculturists, inspected several farms.--In 1812, his health was drunk at the Woburn Sheep-shearing by the Duke of Bedford; and in the following festival it was proposed by Lord Hardwicke. In the print of the "Woburn Sheep-shearing," published by Garrard, in 1811, No. 75 represents Davy; he is standing, in a listening attitude, behind Mr. Coke, who is conversing with Sir Joseph Banks, Sir John Sinclair, and Mr. Arthur Young. In a letter to Mr. Gilbert, dated October 1803, he says: "I have just quitted the coast of Sussex, where I have spent the last three weeks with Lord Sheffield, the worthy biographer of Gibbon." In fact, there was not a nobleman, distinguished for intellectual superiority, who did not feel a pride in receiving him as a guest; and he passed his vacations in the society of those exalted persons who, in possessing rank, fortune, and talents, felt that they only held such gifts from Providence, in trust for the welfare of their fellow-countrymen.