NORTHERN LIGHTS 117 



of the Aberdeenshire herds that afterwards met 

 with world -wide recognition. But he was no 

 common mortal, this lion-heart of Scotland. He 

 once walked one thousand miles in one thousand 

 hours upon a wager! He once drove the "Defiance" 

 through from London all the way to the city of 

 Aberdeen a distance of fully five hundred miles, 

 without leaving the box to win a bet of 1,000! 

 At the end of the journey, upon a friend remarking, 

 "Captain, you must be tired," he rejoined: "I have 

 1,000 that says I can drive back to London again, 

 starting in the morn;" but there were no takers. 

 He was an officer in the local regiment. He loved 

 boxing, and trained several noted professionals for 

 important bouts. He had a famous breed of game 

 fowls, and would always back his birds to win in 

 the pit. But above and over all was his steadfast 

 devotion to Ury itself. Big himself, he did every- 

 thing on a scale that seemed huge to most of his 

 countrymen. Speaking of this "The Druid" says in 

 "Field and Fern": 



"Everything he had to do with, down to his glass 

 tumblers, was always on a gigantic scale. His cattle 

 must be up to their knees in grass, and his wheat- 

 wagons with four or six horses and the drag on 

 seemed like an earthquake to the Aberdonians when 

 they rumbled down Marischal Street to the harbor. 



