18 AGEICULTURE. 



currency, with him to Falkirk. Ou a portion of the moor 

 adjoining the sheep-ground, and adjoining also to long 

 lines of booths, a wooden penthouse about 5 feet square 

 announces itself by exterior placard to be " The Royal 

 Bank of Scotland;" the British Linen Company, the Com- 

 mercial Bank, and every other banking company north of 

 Tweed appear there also by similar wooden representatives. 

 The purchasers come to the fair provided with letters of 

 credit, and, stepping into the tabernacle to which they are 

 accredited, bring out in large notes the amount required ; 

 these are handed to the vendor in an adjoining booth, and 

 are probably, within a very few minutes, at his credit with 

 the issuer or with one of his rivals ; for a Scotchman, deal- 

 ing with a banker who is very reasonable in his charges, 

 and who is to be found in every village in the land, always 

 throws on him the responsibility of keeping his money. 

 The bankers in the aggregate carry from the ground the 

 same notes which they brought in the morning, a few 

 scratches of the pen in their books having sufficed to 

 balance all these large transactions. The clearing of the 

 ground is as orderly as the other proceedings of the day, and, 

 tinder the superintendence of the best herds and the best 

 dogs in existence, the immense fleecy mass moves off, with 

 almost military precision, on its southern and eastern 

 journey. 



What shall we say of the gathering of the morrow? 

 Every isle and holm which opposes its rugged crags to the 

 fury of the Western Ocean between Islay and the Orkneys; 

 every mainland glen from the Mull of Cantyre to Cape 

 Wrath, pours in its pigmy droves, shaggy and black, or 

 relieved only, as to colour, by a sprinkling of reds, and of 

 duns, graduating from mouse to cream-colour. From 

 Northern and Eastern Sutherland, Caithness, Ross, and 

 Inverness they come in, longer on the leg, smooth, and 

 vulgar. From central Argyle, Perth, and from some of 

 the islands, come the carefully-bred West Highlanders; 

 these are the flower of the show, engage every one's talk, 



