ABERDEEN TO STONEHAVEN. 191 



sure to hear the smart canter of the grey cob in the 

 distance. 



He had no eye to planting for game ; but " That's 

 death !" was his keeper's infallible ejaculation, when 

 he heard the crack of his rifle among the roe-deer. 

 Plantations were an endless source of delight to 

 him. He marked every tree for thinning in his 

 farm rounds, and, when the humour took him, he 

 worked lustily in his shirt-sleeves with saw and axe. 

 Larches had only a troubled time of it, as, although 

 they were sound on the Dee side, they were all 

 piped on the east ; and the gravel-pan did not suit 

 them like the black peaty loam upon the yellow 

 clay. Silver firs were his delight, but the bug in- 

 jured them as well as the oak ; while the variegated 

 holly, with its rich, red Christmas berry, " always 

 stood my friend." 



Breeding of live stock was a very favourite pur- 

 suit with him, and he wrote the prize essay on it in 

 the Highland Society's Journal for 1829, under the 

 motto of 



"Te quoque, magna Pales, et te memorande canemus, 

 Pastor ab Amphryso." 



It was upon the comparative infl uence of the male 

 and female, and enforced the doctrine that to the 

 male we must look for improvement. He ranks 

 Stirling of Keir, Robertson of Ladykirk, and Rennie 

 of Phantassie as his leading Scottish authorities on the 

 point. His judgment on his countrymen was suffi- 

 ciently caustic, and certainlv the comparison be- 



