162 FIELD AND FERN. 



noon, and an October day was not to be trifled with ; 

 and with a glance at the beautifully cross-gartered 

 oat-stacks, which stood in platoons four deep, with 

 William Turner, the bailiff, as chief- architect, we 

 once more sped on our way. 



There was nothing to take us to the Castle of 

 Craigie Var, whose strong black loam on the granite 

 has furnished Mr. M'Combie with some of his richest 

 pasturage, and we turned off to the " training" quar- 

 ters at Bridge End. Its 230 acres are rented by Mr. 

 M'Combie from his cousin at Easter Skene, and John 

 Benzies, with his blue blouse and Kilmarnock bon- 

 net, is captain of the depot. His military decoration 

 is the Dutrone medal presented to him at Poissy, as 

 the servant longest in command of polled cattle ; 

 and he has also the Smithfield diploma as the feeder 

 of the best Polled Scot. John is a perfect alma- 

 nack on the subject of fat shows, which seem to 

 act as milestones on his journey of life. Birmingham 

 and its foundry and factory people have long been 

 a great terror to him. " They are a dreadful lot/' 

 he observes, " with all their pinching and poking ; 

 the gentry are very civil, but this gas it punishes the 

 beasts worst of aught" 



After all his travels by sea and land, he maybe said 

 to have lived so much among the shunts and the 

 breakers (of which his master has given such a vivid 

 catalogue in a recent controversy) that it is only won- 

 derful to see him in the flesh at all. The neat-boned 

 Eifleman by Rob Koy Macgregor (267), from Pride of 



