THE COUNTIES OF FORFAR AND KINCARDINE. 149 



farsliire a large number of polled herds, valuable, and in several 

 cases very distinguished herds. Chief among these were the 

 herds of the late Mr Hugh Watson, Keillor ; the late Mr E. 

 Scott, Balwyllo; Mr Bowie, Mains of Kelly; the late Mr 

 Fullerton, Mains of Ardestie ; Lord Southesk ; Mr W. Whyte, 

 Spott; Mr J. Lyell, Shielhill; Mr W. Euxton, Farnell; the late 

 Mr James Mustard, Leuchland ; and Mr Goodlet, Beauchamp ; 

 while just across the border into Perthshire were the herds of 

 Mr T, Ferguson, Kinnochtry, and Mr James Leslie, Thorn. By 

 that time a few herds that in their day had done much good, 

 had ceased to exist. Among these must be specially noted the 

 herd of the late Lord Panmure, whose name, through the 

 famous bull Panmure (51), will for ever be associated with the 

 glossy blacks. Kinderpest almost annihilated the Forfarshire 

 polled stocks, and the majority of those herds named have 

 become things of the past. The only ones now remaining are 

 those at Mains of Kelly, Spott, Kinnochtry, and Thorn; but within 

 the last fifteen years, the ranks of breeders have been recruited by 

 the Earl of Airlie, the Earl of Strathmore, Mr Thomas Smith, 

 Powrie; Mr William Smith, Stone o' Morphie ; and Mr Ferguson 

 Balunie. Lord Southesk, after a long interval, has also just pro- 

 cured materials with which to found a fresh herd. It may 

 safely be said that the rinderpest scare, great as it was, has 

 completely died out. Forfarshire is fast returning to its old 

 love, and numerous as were its polled herds in Hugh Watson's 

 time, there is every prospect of their being still more numerous 

 at no distant day. 



Xo one will denv that the credit of beinj^ the first to com- 

 mence the systematic improvement of the polled breed belongs 

 to the late Mr Hugh Watson. The intimate friend and occasional 

 host of Sir Walter Scott, — the associate of the late Mr John 

 Booth, ]\Ir AVetlierell, and other noted agriculturists, most of 

 whom are now no more, — one of the most extensive, enterprisinij:, 

 and skilful farmers that have ever held land in Forfarshire, Mr 

 AVatson was a strikingly intelligent and accomplished man. He 

 lived in advance of his time ; and, like man}^ other pioneers who 

 would seem to have made their earthly pilgrimage prematurely, 

 did not a little to facilitate the onward march of his fellow-men. 

 In 1808 he commenced a herd of polled cattle. The foundation 

 consisted partly of six cows and a bull left to him on the farm 

 of Keillor by liis father, and ])artly of ten of the best polled 

 heifers and the best polled bull he could find in the great fair at 

 Trinity Muir, Brechin. Unfortunately, there is no very com- 

 plete record of Hugh Watson's ])ractice in the breeding and 

 rearing of his favourite blacks. The most we know of his method 

 of breeding is, that he " put the best to the best, regardless of 



