CATTLE AND SHEEP. 17 



have been purchased, without being seen, at the Inverness 

 wool fair, by dealers who are perfectly acquainted with the 

 qualities of every large flock. Soon after the groups have 

 been collected in the manner which we have described, a 

 large number of agricultural-looking gentlemen on horse- 

 back and on foot begin to move among them ; these are 

 partly southern dealers, but more generally the large 

 turnip-growers from the east coast of Scotland, and from 

 the northern and eastern counties of England. The 

 merits of each flock are so accurately known by those who 

 have an interest in frequenting Falkirk, that a cursory 

 inspection suffices. No stranger accustomed to the bustle 

 and the crowd, the handling and the haggling, of an English 

 fair, would suspect that transactions of a magnitude to 

 which Barnet, St. Faith's, and Wey Hill, afford no parallel, 

 were on the eve of taking place. The owners are seldom 

 with their flocks, but their whereabouts is easily ascertained 

 by those who want them. " What are ye seeking for the 

 Gordon Bush ewes ? or for the Invercashley wethers the 

 year?" says the purchaser; and if the parties are well 

 known to each other, a price is named within Is. or per- 

 haps within 6d. a-head of what the vendor means to accept. 

 A few words pass about the abatement of the odd shilling 

 or sixpence, and with a half-jocose complaint that the 

 vendor was shabby with his lucky penny last year, several 

 thousand sheep have changed hands. The news of the price 

 at which the best lots are sold spreads through the fair, and, 

 within a very trifling percentage, the value of every other 

 lot is at once ascertained. A large proportion of the lots 

 pass from year to year into the same hands. No purchaser 

 of a smaller number than 500 must expect to get sheep at 

 first hand from any of the standard flocks ; indeed, these 

 magnates generally decline to divide their lots at all. On 

 the outskirts of the fair will be found small, mixed, and 

 inferior lots, where the buyer may have haggling for Id. 

 a-head to his heart's content. The settling at Falkirk is 

 as peculiar as the dealing. No man brings money, i. e. 



