SITTYTON TO ABERDEEN. 173 



held at Aberdeen. "The English agriculturists 

 always maintained," said the hero of the evening, 

 "that a Scot would never take a first place in a com- 

 petition with a Shorthorn, a Hereford, and Devon. I 

 have given them reasons for changing their opinion 

 (deafening cheers)." The old champion, Mr. Hugh 

 Watson, was present for the last time in public, and 

 in a few graceful words he tendered his congratula- 

 tions, and spoke to the glory of the Angus, whose 

 name no time will sever from his own. 



" Black and all black" is the password at Tillyfour, 

 and no roans, greys, or brindles, or beasts of any 

 other livery, are allowed within its lines. The fortress 

 lies on the top of a hill, and the steep ascent termi- 

 nates at last in a little grove of limes and ashes. 

 Behind is the great sky line of that bare and bleak 

 Forest, which once was Royal Goran nie, and away 

 to the right is the Glen of Tillyriach, and that ever- 

 green gorse, which knows no Hallywood challenge. 

 The black-cock often descends from his heather 

 heights, and shares, with about thirty Galloway and 

 Angus yearlings and two-year-olds, the outlying hun- 

 dred acres of the Nether Hill, to whose rich qualities 

 the perpetual burrow of the blind little f ; gentleman 

 in black," beloved of the Jacobites, furnishes the 

 highest clue. Don Fernando, of Lord Southesk's 

 breeding, was the field esquire of the milch cows, who 

 do the broom business. The good, solid homestead 

 occupies a square within a hundred yards of the 

 house, and the picked beasts for the great Christmas 



