234 FIELD AND FERN. 



often shown, and very seldom beaten as a cow ; and 

 her guardian, James Thompson, after forty -two 

 years of service, received one hundred francs as a 

 tribute from the " Societe Protectrice des Animaux" 



She is "the prima cow" of the polled herd-book, and 

 dates from 1824; while Colonel, the premier bull, is 

 six years her senior. This book, which was published 

 in April, 1862, contains entries from 126 owners, 31 

 of them Galloway men. Of the 336 numbered bulls, 

 45 are Galloway, and the cows of the sort muster 95 

 out of 846. 



Mr. Watson kept Leicesters on his low land, and 

 southdowns, to which he had always a strong leaning, 

 on the hill. In 1838, he could record that he had 

 bred the latter for five-and-twenty years, that he 

 thought them as hardy as the Cheviot, and that their 

 snug-woolled heads and necks dried sooner after a 

 storm . In another respect he found them very supe- 

 rior, as he could always fatten them much better off 

 grass the year their lamb was taken from them. His 

 experience of their hardihood was drawn from the fine 

 middle range of the Seidlaw Hills, where they browsed 

 upon the green sward, intermixed with whin and 

 heather, five hundred to twelve hundred feet above 

 the level of the sea, a spot " too high for Leicesters, 

 and under the level at which the native black-face 

 only thrives." 



Scotch miles are proverbially long, although no- 

 thing to Shetland ones ; and the day was far ad- 

 vanced before we reached Mains of Kelly. Mileage 



