122 FIELD AND FERN. 



Cullen House, had been working up to '29 with horned 

 black polls, blacks and whites, briudles, and various 

 other local variations on the doddies, and crossing 

 them with a West Highland bull. The crosses, ac- 

 cording to the veteran Longmore of Rettie, were as 

 good as I ever saw go before their am tails' 3 ; but still 

 Mr. Wilson's nephew, the present occupant of Port- 

 soy, was quite shaken when he saw Mr. Thomson 

 of Fife's roan shorthorn bull " Comet" at the 

 Highland Society's show at Perth, and he determined 

 not to leave without him. It is a curious proof how 

 little was known of the breed, that the man who 

 brought him to Banffshire persuaded his new guar- 

 dian that he would eat nothing but oatmeal-porridge 

 and milk; and that a Highland judge gave him a 

 prize at Cornhill the next year " because I never saw 

 the like of him before." Mr. Longmore would not 

 fall into the new fashion at first, but he soon came 

 round, and sealed his allegiance by buying a white 

 bull descended from Jerry. 



The Bank of Boyne is called " The Egg of Banff- 

 shire/' and, as far as shorthorns go, Rettie is the 

 yoke of the egg. In '34, its tenant bought Charlotte, 

 a prize cow at the Aberdeen show from Mr. Deacon 

 Milne, and paid Mr. Grant Duff 80 gs. for Jacob 

 (6101) by Holkar (4041). He also got Dannec- 

 ker (7049) and some queys from the latter, and 

 strengthened his herd from Ladykirk as well. Rosa- 

 mond, a seventy-guinea purchase, came from Ury in 

 calf to Balmoral (9220) by The Pacha (7612), 



