188 FIELD AND FERN. 



hand in the open last winter with three couple of his 

 Orkney harriers, chose to appropriate four for their 

 share. 



Inside the house hang paintings or photographs 

 of Wallace, Banks of Dee, Fox Maule, and Matilda 

 Pox with Fox Maule at her teat. There, too, is 

 Rory O'More, a first-prize winner at the Highland 

 Society in 1847-48. At one time Mr. Walker had 

 sixteen rather small, short-legged, and active work- 

 horses on the farm, all by the gallant grey, and all 

 of them after his colour. It is only three years since 

 the old horse (lied, and he kept his beautiful shapes 

 when he was upwards of twenty. 



One was all for shorthorns and the other for hum- 

 mels ; but in their admiration of Rory and his greys 

 Mr. Walker and the late Mr. Boswell of Kingcausie 

 were one. The portrait of the latter hangs up at 

 Portlethen, " in remembrance," as the donor wrote 

 below it, "of many acts of friendship and good 

 neighbourhood received from an old fellow- agricul- 

 turist." Mr. Boswell was the highest example of an 

 improving proprietor. He did not rely on mere 

 length of purse, but he did every thing at the 

 cheapest and most substantial rate, and hence 

 tenant-farmers regarded him as a really safe pioneer. 

 As the youngest ensign in the Coldstream Guards, 

 he had carried the colours at Talavera, and he was 

 wont to tell how he bore quite a charmed life when 

 two colour-sergeants fell by his side, and the flag- 

 stick shook in his hand under the hail shower of 



