CORTACHY TO PERTH. 243 



Wales 5 1,080 gs/' There must be some virtue in 

 medical superintendence or Carnoustie air ! 



On our way to Dundee we passed the Links, on 

 which The Cure and Lambton took up the tale, 

 when King David, Bustler, Ledstone, Harlequin, 

 and the other sheeted tenants of the Panmure Stables 

 had run their course. The old " Cock of the Glen," 

 Major Douglas, once the Osbaldeston of Scotland 

 both with the trigger and in the saddle, gave us a 

 kindly greeting as we passed through Broughty Ferry. 

 Black tan is the Gordon setter colour,* to which 

 the Major still steadily holds, and a beautiful troop 

 of them were at his heels, with one or two fox ter- 

 riers, descended from Rage of the Rufford. With a 

 nervous horse, the ride from the Ferry to Dundee is 

 a peculiarly difficult one, as the railroad cheeks the 

 road all the way, and consequently our time seemed 

 to be occupied with perpetual bursts over clover in 

 the open. However, we were among the forest of 

 chimneys at last, and Mr. Speedie of Perth was ready 

 for us on the pier. 



Anything for a change after so much beef and 



* The Field gives the following account of the alloy in the Gordon Castle 

 setters : " Some time about the year 1826 there was a celebrated sheep-dog be- 

 longing to a shepherd who lived far up on the Findhorn. Among her other 

 accomplishments, the shepherd, being a bit of a poacher, had taught her to 

 find grouse, for which she had a wonderful gift ; she knew by a wave of the 

 hand and a word whether grouse or sheep were wanted. When she had found 

 grouse the shepherd would say a word or two to her in Gaelic, go down the 

 hill for his gun, and on his return find the bitch still watching the grouse : it 

 was more like watching than regular pointing ; you might have fancied there 

 were sheep in front of her to be looked after. Tlie Duke of Gordon (then Mar- 

 quis of Huntly) heard of this bitch, and begged her of the shepherd. The 

 shepherd unwillingly gave her to the 'Cock of the North.' The marquis put 

 her to one of his best setters, and some of her first litter were black-and-tan. 

 She herself was long, low, rather smooth for a colley, and black with very 

 light tan." 



R 2 



