HELMSDALE TO MEIKLE FERRY. 57 



sturdy fibre up Kildonan. One of them, when past 

 eighty, was begged to keep warm in his cabin during 

 his last sickness; and yet he would argue, " It's 

 keeping fra the wet that males me ill." " The Sheeperd 

 Swingle over the remains of his beloved son" raises 

 a simple stone ; and his own name is not found on it 

 till he is 107. Nettles and foxgloves were growing 

 over the threshold of that deserted church. The 

 door was off its hinges, and the hole in the floor of 

 the pulpit told how the portly minister used to em- 

 phasise Sunday after Sunday with- his right foot. 

 Earth lays in turn its heavy load on him, and he sleeps 

 among his shepherd worshippers with "Mistress 

 Isabel and Jean, late deceased spouses, both judi- 

 cious, worthy, and amiable characters, and atten- 

 tive to the interests and comfort of himself and his 

 children." 



The flocks are larger on the west coast than the 

 east, and some of them muster nine thousand or more. 

 No patriarchal pride seems to be felt respecting 

 their extent; and the owners are wonderfully taci- 

 turn and costive on the point, though the salesmen 

 form a pretty accurate notion from the annual ewe 

 drafts. We should as soon presume to reveal these 

 crook mysteries as to report the general wedder criti- 

 cisms of the Cumberland and Yorkshire feeders how 

 some are becoming rather fine-bred ; how others are 

 grand in size, but not such good travellers ; how a 

 third are good grazers, but going off in size, and so 

 on through all the Cheviot chronicle. Still the 



