"THE HERDSMAN OF ABERDEENSHIRE " 141 



rival breeds in the early eighties. The silent sage 

 of Sittyton deserves his place upon SADDLE AND 

 SIRLOIN walls. 



It was in a little back room in ANTHONY GRUIGK- 

 SHANK'S place of business in the Aberdonian capital 

 that BARCLAY of Ury, GRANT DUFF and a few others 

 of that stamp met to found the Royal Northern 

 Agricultural Society. ANTHONY took to banking and 

 merchandising in the city, but AMOS remained out 

 on the hills. He began in 1837 with bulls from 

 Ury, and until the month of May, 1889, a span of 

 more than fifty years, he was wedded only to his 

 cattle. Antedating TORR, he also outlived the Wizard 

 of Aylesby, reaping in his own lifetime the reward 

 of the good and faithful servant that he was. "The 

 herdsman of Aberdeenshire," the phrase often ap- 

 plied in loving compliment by his contemporaries, 

 meant as much to him in a region that became 

 world-famed for its cattle wisdom, as TORR'S title 

 of "the first farmer of England" did to the great 

 tenant farmer of a land more highly favored by 

 nature. 



Like the elder BOOTH, the GRUICKSHANKS were 

 omniverous in their quest for foundation stock. They 

 did not think that the future of the breed in their 

 country hinged upon the purchase of any particular 



