Complex sentence: In 1797 he took a farm at Saughton, near Edinburgh; but after four or five years he gave up farming, and set up a boarding-house for students in Drummond Street, Edinburgh.
Split into simpler sentences: In 1797 he took a farm at Saughton, near Edinburgh. After four or five years he gave up farming, and set up a boarding-house for students in Drummond Street, Edinburgh.