66 A HOSPITABLE DUMFRIESSHIRE -MAN. 



by the excessive drought of the season. The same land 

 which in 1847 had yielded Mr Rubichoud 20 tons, and 

 in 1848 10 tons, had this year yielded him only 2 tons; 

 and though he had a larger crop of marsh-hay than 

 usual, he would have some of his cattle to kill when 

 winter came on. A better system of husbandry ought 

 to enable this fine land to produce far more abundant 

 winter food for stock, and with more certainty, than it 

 has ever hitherto done. 



From Rubichoud s we drove amid thunder and heavy 

 rain to Shemogue, where, at Tingley s, we stopped and 

 dined on tea, eggs, beef, potatoes, and new bread, seasoned 

 by a good appetite. The latter enabled us to overcome 

 the disrelish which a little absence of cleanliness would, 

 in other circumstances, have awakened. Departing again 

 in the rain, we proceeded only eight miles farther ; and 

 were then glad to house ourselves for the night in the 

 farm-house of a hospitable Dumfriesshire-man, of the 

 name of David Murray. This man had been in the 

 country twenty-nine years ; had married a kindly Blue- 

 nose wife ; had prospered meanwhile, very much to his 

 own satisfaction, and received us u drookit craws,&quot; as he 

 called us, very much to ours. A huge fire was speedily 

 built up in the kitchen ; in the adjoining parlour another 

 soon blazed ; our wet coats were hung up to dry ; the 

 kettle, and the potato pot, and the frying-pan, and the 

 girdle for new bread, were all soon in requisition ; and 

 after a plentiful supper and a long talk, we found beds 

 enough and clean, in which to spend a comfortable night. 



Oct. 25. Mr Murray s farm, on which his house 

 stands, contains one hundred acres, of which about forty 

 are cleared. Last year he bought another of two hun 

 dred acres, with thirty cleared, for 260 currency about 

 1 sterling an acre. His two reasons for making this 

 purchase confirmed what I have stated above, as the 

 result of my own observation of the general character 



