72 Notes and Sketches. 



of the price of black cattle towards the end of 1767, 

 again damped the spirits of the farmers and ruined all 

 the cattle dealers." Prices declined till 1770, when 

 they had reached the low level that prevailed before the 

 influence of the southern market had been felt. From 

 that date, with occasional fluctuations and aided by 

 the demands of the Navy, pretty generally on a war 

 footing in those days prices kept higher till the short- 

 lived peace of October, 1801, brought " a temporary fall 

 of 25 per cent, in the price of cattle;" and thus, " for the 

 third time" in the reign of His Majesty King George III., 

 most of the unhappy cattle-dealers were " ruined." * By 

 that time the price of a well-grown ox of three to four 

 years old had risen to as high as <20, which was much 

 more than double the price when droving southward 

 began ; though it must not be forgot that the cattle had 

 much improved in quality and size. In the report to 

 the Board of Agriculture for the county of Kincardine, 

 we read that, " about the year 1740, the largest ox in 

 the county at that time, weighing from 25 to 30 stones, 

 could have been bought for twenty shillings, or at most 

 a guinea;" which is less than a shilling a stone the 

 stone of that period being equal to about 17*4 of the 

 present imperial Ibs. They rose gradually in price till 

 about the year 1764, when " cattle of that size, and as 

 full-fed as the country could make them, brought from 

 3 to <4, or from 2s. to 2s. 8d. the stone. From this 

 period, cattle, being somewhat better fed, not only in- 

 creased in size, but were improved in condition. And 

 from the increased demand for butcher meat, combined 



* In his interesting book on "Cattle and Cattle Breeders," in 

 which the process of dealing, as practised in the earlier part of the 

 present century, is graphically described, Mr. M'Combie, M. P., tells 

 a story of George Williamson, the senior member of a well-known 

 family of local cattle dealers, known as the "Stately" Williamsons, 

 and the peace of 1815 : "He was passing through Perth with a 

 large drove of cattle. The Bells were ringing a merry peal for the 

 peace. St. John's Wells said it was a sorrowful peal to him, for 

 it cost him 4000." 





