FALKIRK TRYST. 299 



certainty to the farmer of finding any market at all. These 

 evils might be remedied, and a change effected, to the great 

 advantage of buyers and sellers, by the adoption of the system 

 of weekly or periodical markets, which prevails throughout 

 England and Scotland. Here are wool fairs, for the sale of 

 wool, of which samples are exhibited ; and corn and grain 

 markets, where wheat, barley, oats, rye, beans, and peas, sam 

 ples of which are exhibited, are sold ; and markets for the sale 

 of fat cattle, and markets for the sale of lean cattle, and markets 

 for the sale of horses, and markets for the sale of sheep and 

 lambs, and markets for the sale of cheese and butter ; these 

 markets sometimes uniting several objects, or otherwise limited 

 to some single object. 



I have attended several of these markets, and some general 

 account of them may have an interest with my readers. 



XLIX. FALKIRK TRYST. 



The largest cattle market in the kingdom, uniting sheep and 

 cattle, takes place three times a year, on the second Tuesday in 

 August, September, and October, at Falkirk in Scotland, about 

 equidistant from Edinburgh and Glasgow. This is called the 

 Falkirk Tryst, and is held on ari extensive plain about three or 

 four miles from the town. Here are congregated a vast number 

 of horses, cattle, and sheep, and of buyers and sellers. It was 

 estimated, when I was there, that the number of cattle then on 

 the ground exceeded fifty thousand head, and of sheep seventy 

 thousand ; and the banker informed me that the money em 

 ployed in the negotiation would exceed 300,000, or one 

 million and a half of dollars. The cattle and sheep exhibited 

 at this tryst are almost altogether of the Scotch breeds, and 

 many come from the remote Highlands. They are purchased 

 to be distributed, in the neighborhood and the southern provinces, 

 for wintering, or for fatting for the winter and spring markets. 

 Besides cattle and sheep, a large number of horses are brought 

 for sale at the same time ; as many as three thousand horses are 



