HELMSDALE TO MEIKLE PERRY. 59 



previous competition. The Sutherland men care 

 very little for showing out of their county ; and at 

 the Highland Society's annual meetings, the Low- 

 landers with Aitchison, and then Brydon, as their 

 champion have had the Cheviot classes pretty 

 nearly to themselves. 



The late Mr. Reed, of Gordon Bush, was the first 

 Sassenach who brought the Cheviot into Sutherland. 

 His flock came with him from Reed Water, on the 

 South side of the Cheviot Hills; and when the Rob- 

 sons followed him, the knell of the black-faces in 

 Sutherlandshire was rung, and there was no farm- 

 ing against the Borderers. Although in the shep- 

 herd's mind the Sutherland sheep live on heather, 

 and the Border ones on grass, the latter changed the 

 venue in one respect for the better. The " cotton 

 plant" or mossy grasses in the lower range of Suther- 

 land lie very little above the sea level, and tide the 

 sheep through the winter and spring months, when 

 those on the Border hills are generally hid in snow- 

 wreaths on the summits. This plant is, in fact, as 

 much the making of Sutherland as its prototype is of 

 Manchester. On the west coast more especially, 

 deerhair follows the mosses most opportunely for six 

 weeks before May-day ; and the " flying bent, " 

 sometimes to the extent of hundreds of acres, is 

 won and built each August into piles on the muirs, 

 to feed the sheep with in winter. Wedders take the 

 stormier ranges ; and in a very severe time, the sharp 

 spirals on which they mainly subsist bring on pining, 



