TAIN TO INVERNESS. 77 



polls are as rare as a black sheep in Sutherlandshire ; 

 and all cattle stock, whether bought or bred, is gene- 

 rally fed off at its third Christmas. The horses are 

 of every variety, but there is not a blood sire within 

 many rniles to our knowledge. An active cart-horse 

 called Balmoral left a strong grey foal mark, but 

 the Clydesdales are not great favourites, on account 

 of their "perfectly boundless appetites." Even a 

 Suffolk Punch took the lead for some seasons, and 

 furnished no confirmation of the assertion that this 

 breed is apt to go blind in a northern climate ; but 

 he eventually went mad instead, and was shot through 

 a hole in the shed roof. There are scarcely any black- 

 faced sheep in the arable parts of the county, as they 

 are troublesome and get entangled by their horns in 

 the turnip nets. Very few flockmasters keep them, 

 and the general mode of sheep-farming on the hills 

 is a Cheviot flock, from which the wedder hoggs are 

 brought down the first winter for Aberdeen green 

 tops. Many farmers also keep their own cast ewes on 

 the low ground, and cross them with Border Leices- 

 ters, for which they give good prices through their 

 agents at Kelso. 



The harvest was glowing like a furnace in the rich 

 plain skirted by the hill country, between Tain and 

 Diugwall. Now, we would pass a little tavern where 

 the landlady was scolding a fou customer in Gaelic, 

 and then relaxed for our benefit into the Scottish 

 tongue. A four-penny photographer, with his blue 

 sheet nailed against a cottage wall, the table, chair, 



