THE ORKNEYS TO THXJRSO. 35 



fire- heat ; but this Arab -like feeling has worn itself 

 out. Mongrels from Caithness have ruined the 

 stamp, and the farmers now cross up their small 

 mares with Clydesdales or whatever comes first to 

 hand. The grey Sunbeam brought in some blood, 

 and made matters better for a time ; but, as an old 

 farmer said to us in the Vanguard, " All this wild 

 crossing doesn't do ; we'll never build up our garrons 

 again. We attend far too little to it. The mares are 

 not the biggest of the two, and we're quite wrong 

 there." Hence the game Orkney garron, pure and 

 simple, with his strong fore-end, straight hind-legs, 

 and good couplings, lives pretty nearly in memory. 

 Prices for horses are wretched, and fully 120 per 

 cent, less than they were during the Russian war. 



Still those Orcadian sportsmen "who followed 

 Jehu/ 5 as Mr. Fortescue was termed when he first 

 introduced them to the " merry harriers," are gene- 

 rally very fairly mounted. Some of them ride 

 furiously, and others are found consistently on 

 eminences, f< enjoying the sport and the scenery." 

 The cottars had never seen a leap taken before this 

 new era set in, and were nearly as excited thereat as 

 an old woman in one of the Border counties, who 

 rushed forth and clasped her hands frantically, when 

 a scarlet went in and out of her potato-garden 

 " Niver let me see that bonny young man kill hissel. }> 



The hunting does not begin until Mr. Fortescue's 

 return from Aberdeenshire, late in January ; but the 

 pack are generally equal to forty or fifty brace, hunt 



D 2 



