161' FIELD AND FERN. 



His training was not unchequered. After Smith- 

 field, John escorted him, along with the Birmingham 

 cup heifer, to Mr. MaydwelPs farm in Surrey, and 

 lived with them there till the middle of April. It 

 was not a jovial time, as they brought a Christmas- 

 box along with them in the shape of " foot-and- 

 mouth^ ; and although the bullock bore up bravely, 

 and only bated an inch, the crack heifer " took off 

 six or seven inches as level as it went on/ 5 and had 

 not recovered her bulk when she went to Poissy. 

 Mr. M'Combie first saw her at the Dumfries show, 

 and his mind was not at rest till he had given her 

 breeder (the Duke of Buccleuch) a fifty pound cheque 

 for her, which she returned with interest. 



Of the great prize ox of J 63, which occupied 

 the box of honour, Mr. M'Combie might well observe, 

 prophetically, that " a little man would not be able 

 to see him without assistance" ; and in default of a 

 ladder, John adjured us then and there to mount the 

 manger, and survey (in Atheistaneford phrase) " the 

 vast plateau" of roast beef. " Have you ever looked 

 over more pounds ?" was his triumphant query, as 

 we descended. In that low-roofed tabernacle there 

 seemed but one reply. Still the Islington building 

 quite dwarfed him, and we should not have remarked 

 on him as a veritable Great Eastern among the bul- 

 locks there. In his leading points he was rather 

 rougher than some we have seen from Tillyfour ; but 

 if he lacked the bloodiness and levelness of the Angus, 

 he was, in Benzian phrase, " beef to the root of the 



