CATTLE AND SHEEP. 19 



and attract every one's attention; every individual of them 

 is a delight to the eye of a connoisseur. Aberdeen and 

 Forfar send in droves of large and bony, but useful, 

 bullocks. A few Ayrshire cows and heifers for the dairy, 

 some miscellaneous lots, and a few Irish, make up the 

 account. We do not know the numbers ; we have heard 

 of 30,000, and again of 60,000. The October show is 

 the most imposing. The almost universal colour is black ; 

 the moor is in appearance one black mass. You may 

 be accommodated with every size, from that of a New- 

 foundland dog to a bullock of 100 stones. The cattle 

 are mostly in the hands of dealers, having been bought 

 up at the Northern and Western markets ; many, how- 

 ever, of the best West Highlanders are brought to the 

 tryst by their breeders, and you may see a kilted laird 

 from the Hebrides standing, like Rob Roy, at the tails of 

 his own bonny stots and queys. Every dealer in small 

 cattle offers you Skye beasts, and you would be inclined to 

 attribute almost miraculous productive powers to that cele- 

 brated island, till you were informed that (as a merchant 

 would say) " that is the favourite brand," and that large 

 numbers of these beasts are brought from the other Hebri- 

 dean isles to the Skye markets. To speak generally, every 

 one of these animals has his predestined course ; the 

 smallest, called six quarters, from being only eighteen 

 months old, will clean up the rough pastures and eat a 

 little straw in Clydesdale, Dumfriesshire, Cumberland, and 

 the neighbouring districts. The older of the small cattle 

 will proceed to Brough Hill, a very favourite fair with 

 dealers, because it is said to be attended by more gentle- 

 men's bailiffs than any other in the United Kingdom. The 

 finest West Highland heifers are for Yorkshire, and the 

 bullocks for the counties of Leicester, Northampton, and 

 Buckingham. The heavy north-eastern bullocks will supply 

 the Lothians with stall-feeders, and will go in large numbers 

 for the same purpose to Northumberland, Lincolnshire, 

 Norfolk, and the south eastern counties of England. These 



