222 A HUNDRED YEARS IN THE HIGHLANDS 



faced wedders. He lived in the south generally. Stock 

 going south from Ross-shire must cross the Caledonian 

 Canal bridges. One day Gillespie, tenant of Ardachy, 

 being at the Fort Augustus bridge, came upon some 

 hundreds of black-faced dinmonts driven by two ordinary 

 shepherds. Sheep have marks on the face or ears made 

 by their owners to prevent theft or the loss of stragglers. 

 Many sharp sheep-farmers know the marks of each farm, 

 and Ardachy at once knew these were Wyvis dinmonts. 

 So he said to the driver, * Where are you going with 

 Mr. Mitchell's dinmonts V and was answered, ' To the 

 south .' Months afterwards, happening to meet Mitchell, 

 he said: 'So you're changing your stock on Wyvis.' 

 * Indeed I am not,' was Mitchell's reply. ' Then go and 

 count your dinmonts,' said Ardachy, ' and you'll be 

 surprised.' And so Mitchell was, for they were nearly 

 all gone ! 



"I had a flock of four hundred to five hundred dinmonts 

 (cheviots) on one part of Wyvis, herded by George Hope. 

 They were always on the same ground, and were all 

 safe one Saturday afternoon, but not a tail was to be seen 

 on the following Monday morning. Hope spent days 

 travelling all round the country looking for them before 

 I heard of the theft. By that time they were * over the 

 hills and far away.' We traced them across the canal 

 bridges and into Morayshire but not a hoof ever returned 

 to Wyvis. The great sheep-farmer, Walter Scott, 

 told me he gave up sheep-farming in the Lews, as he 

 could not count on having less than five hundred or six 

 hundred ' missing ' sheep every year." 



